We decided to do a bit of Riviera sightseeing for the next few days. Going north, our first stop was Cinque Terra, a commune of five villages on the coastline. They are a bit remote, and difficult to get to. The first long leg of the drive was from Tuscany to La Spezia. however, from La Spezia, most of the road takes us into the hills and is very windy. This reminded me of why I don't like windy mountain roads. I felt my face become pale, and I became scared that the filling breakfast I ate earlier that morning might come up (They, being Italian, do not partake in breakfast beyond a cup of cappuccino).
It so happened that we were staying at the second of the third of the five villages, Corniglia.
I was happy to finally arrive, and took advantage of the restaurant that was part of the apartments we were staying in. I quickly excused myself from the rest of the group and walked down to the outdoor seating and asked for a large water. The view from this spot was the open sea, which seemed endless beyond the light haze that covered the sky.
When the rest of the group felt more settled in the apartment and joined me, I had a light caprese salad with lettuce, tomato and mozzarella. After regaining some energy, we decided to explore a bit.
Because it was ridiculously hot, instead of taking the five hour walking trail that connects all of the five towns, we walked down a zigzag series of steps that took us to the train station. Since the rail line traveled along the coast, I decided to take a short detour to the beach in order to feel the sea on my skin.
However, there wasn't much of a beach here, only a collection of large rocks that were stopped by a large stone wall that kept the rail line a several meters above the actual coastline. Some people found lying on the rocks to be refreshing, but I didn't, so after soaking in the sight, I climbed the steep steps back up to the train that took us to the first of the Cinque Terra, Rio Maggiore.
After disembarking from the train, along with everyone else, we had to walk down a long tunnel cut through the mountain that led us to the town centre. I imagined that my more claustrophobic friends may have felt terribly trapped in this narrow passageway where everyone was dripping sweat, and rubbing shoulders as we walked. When we finally arrived at the town centre, we learned that the village is arranged in such a way that there are more narrow paths (this time open with the sky above us) with buildings keeping us going in either of two directions: up or down.
Wanting to see more of the sea, we (along with everyone else) had to take a narrow series of stairways up and around the hills until we arrived at a small dock with many small rowboats, and where scorched tourists transformed into an improvised swimming spot. In order to get the obligatory photo of the key sight (after all, without a photo, I haven't really been at the place, right?) we had to hike one last series of narrow stairways and wait our turn to click the camera. Then we walked back.
There didn't seem to be anything of particular significance to see back in the town center, unless one might have become enchanted by the buildings with colorful plaster accented by certain spots where the plaster began to crumble away.
In any case, such enchantment (if I had it at all) wore off quickly, and so I sat and drank something to cool me off while waiting for the train back to Corneglia.
The weather had cooled off a bit by then, and so after hiking back up the winding steps I originally descended (there was the option of a bus, but I felt like the short hike would be just as quick), I took a nap with the window open, looking upon the rolling sea.
It so happens that Corniglia is the only of the Cinque Terra that is not right on the sea, but rather elevated and sitting on top of a cliff. I don't know if that is the reason, but it is also the least popular and least inundated with tourists of the Cinque Terra. This made walking around Corniglia before dinner much more pleasant and calm.
It did not feel so much like a tourist trap that Rio Maggiore did. The wonderful place where we had dinner was called Cantina De Mananan.
They specialized in seafood, with an interesting twist. They did not serve a lot of the typical expensive seafood that one might expect at a high-end restaurant, but instead decided to focus on working class seafood that people seem to have forgotten about (except the poor and the working class). We had anchovies, clams, scabbard fish, squid and shrimp, all locally caught, of course. The way that this was perfectly executed reminded me that it is not the tools that the artist uses that make her a great artist, but the way she uses the tools to make her art.
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