The second day began with a visit to the church we had walked to the night before. It had a stained glass window on the front that was carved out of marble, but was so intricate that it looked more like lace. This style actually appeared in at least 3 of the churches that we visited in the 5 cities.
Our goal was to visit all 5 cities in our 2 days so we had to get started. We hit up Monterosso first, since we had seen it the day. It was every bit as adorable even without the lemon festival- we walked by the water, saw the town church, ate at a little cafe.
We also observed a wedding photo shoot in progress, as well as the couple walking down the tunnel from the train and a lovely tunnel performer who accompanied the couple with a wedding march. We also ran into them in the next town, where they were taking photos on the beach. Standing on the rocks. In the wind. Adorable.
Cnque Terre is a great area for hiking. The towns are so close together that you could hike trails from one end to the other in a day. A long day, but a day. But you can easily hike from one town to the next in part of a day. So we took the 2 hour hike from monterosso to vernazza. It was along the coast the whole way, with amazing views, and lots of stairs! There were multiple "dangerous pathways" along the hike but it was really fun. And supposedly it's one of the most 'rewarding' because at the end of it you get to be in vernazza. Equally adorable, with a lovely little church and one of the best gelato places we'd been to. Gelato de amor...the gelato of love. And love it we did.
The waves were intense that day and we sat and watched them, and almost got swept away at one point! We walked to a different place on the rocks and I played in the waves in a shallow area. Michael was camera-ready in they've that I got smoked by the wave. Unfortunately for him, I did not :)
The wedding couple was on these rocks taking pictures as well.
That evening we went to the very top of the Manarola hill for dinner, where we had more scampi and some of the best pasta I'd had all throughout Italy. And also a hilarious waiter. I took forever to eat my food, as always so I was about half done and Michael was almost finished when the waiter came by and said "don't say you give up...I can kill you." Of course, said with irony and the nice Italian accent, we didn't take him too seriously. But we absolutely finished that food. And we were glad we did :)
He also did some magic tricks and we bet him our dinner bill that he couldn't guess the card . And then we owed him ten dollars because of course he guessed our card. We happily tipped him.
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