Cinque Terre I - arrival and a lemon festival

As hard as it is to pick a favorite from all the places we went- because I honestly loved all of them- I now have a slight preference towards the Cinque Terre. The elation I felt as our train burst forth from the dark tunnel and the sunlight and blue water of the Mediterranean Sea met my eyes was pretty much indescribable.   Even though I really enjoyed Florence, I was hankering for some water. And with the Cinque Terre, I got it.  As far as our eyes could see was gorgeous water. And as far as our peripheral vision could see was coastal hills and adorable villages (though you have to get closer to see how colorful they really are because peripheral vision cannot see color...just a little science for you ;)


Cinque Terre also scored some points based on the place we stayed. It may sound superficial, but the place you stay absolutely changes your view of the city.
My expert trip planner and travel buddy had discovered this sort-of hostel, more like hotel, in the city of Manarola. Oh, a little orientation,"Cinque Terre" means five cities. And, surprise, it's made up of 5 cities, which are all buried in the hillside of the Italian riviera. It's a major tourist hot spot, meaning we heard more English than Italian and Michael even saw someone he knew from Grinnell. The cities are (in south to north order): Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso.

Ok, so the place we stayed was right across from the train station in Manarola, meaning we only had to walk about 10 steps up the hill, which was great with our backpacks. Everything in Manarola is on a hill. The town begins down at the harbor and then climbs steeply up. Our fancy hostel was run by Simone, a super helpful guy who clued us in on an iPhone app he created that had restaurants, beaches, train schedules, ect for the area. He also supplied us with a corkscrew on one occasion during our stay :)

Our room was large and simply decorated- looked as though it came right out of Ikea. Which I loved!

Wen we checked in, Simone told us that Monterosso was having its annual lemon festival and it was only that day so we must check it out.  After tossing our stuff on the bed, we hopped on the train and went to Monterosso. It was adorable! Lemons, lemon juice, lemon pastries, and lemon souvenirs were everywhere! The whether was perfect and we just walked around admiring everything until we decided we were hungry enough that we must try some lemon specialities. We also saw a great local "band"....well, it was a group of people in traditional-type clothing, walking through the streets, singing, clapping, playing some instruments and engaging all the passers-by in their songs. We followed them through town until I got distracted by a store (which happened fairly often on this trip). Michael also had found a cute art store that had paintings he really enjoyed so we looked around there. Turned out it was also a custom jewelry store so I'm now the proud owner of a wonderful "made in Italy" necklace. And we had a nice chat with the American-born, now Italian citizen, owner of the shop.
Before long we headed back to Manarola for dinner at one of the four restaurants in the town. It was actually very nice having just 4 places to choose from. And having them all be basically next door to our hostel.  I enjoyed unpeeled scampi for the 2nd time (Michael is now a champ at peeling them for me) and then tried pannacotta, a popular Italian dessert. Popular for good reason, I'd say.

We then tried to watch the sunset from a hill on the edge of town that juts out into the water but it was a little cloudy so we vowed to come back another night, which we did. We also climbed up the main town hill to a church that we were planning to go see the next day and to a good nighttime overlook of the town. Even though the towns bustle with tourists during the day, at night they are quiet and peaceful.  And with that view...pretty good way to end a day