The day after our late night swim we had a bit of a late start because of the fun
we had the night before. After showering and checking out of the hotel, we had
to get back to the car. What I didn’t mention in the last post is that we had
to hike downhill about one kilometer from the car to the hotel in Vernazza...
This meant that we were going uphill on the way back to the car… with all of
our luggage… It was quite a workout! There’s nothing like sweating right after
you take a shower! It was so humid!
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| we found some wild berries while taking pictures- this was us trying them... |
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| the view after the hurricane... |
After reaching the car (thank God!), we were in air
conditioning and loving it! The day was pretty hazy due to the humidity, but we
thought it would be fun to drive to Monterosso before heading back to Milano.
So, we made our way to the northern most city in the Cinque Terre. As we were
arriving, it started to rain, so we were ready to grab our rain gear and hit
the town. Josh dropped off Chris and I, and he went to park. As Chris and I entered
the city, everyone was bringing tables/chairs inside their restaurants because of the rain and
there was one man trying to take down one of those monster patio umbrellas. As he did this, a HUGE wind gust came through and almost took him and
the umbrella with it! At the same time, the skies unleashed and there was a
torrential downpour at this point. We might have been better to be standing under a waterfall! Gotz and I were entirely soaked from the
waist down at this point, so we weren’t really worried about the rain anymore.
At the same time, Josh had just left the car and became completely soaked- head
to toe! Extremely upset with the elements, Josh decided that we were going to
find a restaurant and wait out the rain. Gotz was pretty happy about that
because he was able to eat more pesto pasta (he would eat that with every meal
if he could), and I was happy because I could finally have a coffeeJ At that point it was
about 12:30 and we hadn’t had breakfast or coffee. It was due! Again… hunger
monsters were starting to come out!
Once we were finished with lunch, the rain stopped and there
was a blue sky waiting for us. We went back into town and found beautiful views
where previously all we could see was rain. The rain cleared the haziness and
we could see what we thought was Corsica in the distance. The views at that
point were breathtaking!
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| the hikers drying their clothes |
We found Monterosso to be divided into two sides, the old
town and the newer part of town. The beaches were not all public, most of the
beaches were owned by hotels and were for guests only. This is still strange to me,
but it’s the norm here in Italy. As we walked along the beach, we saw a group
of hikers that were caught out in the hurricane (well... it seems like one) and they had all of their gear sprawled on the tiny piece of
beach that is the “public” beach. Most of them were in their underwear because
that’s all they had that was dry. It’s very strange; here in Italy I’m
realizing that “Anything Goes” should be the motto. Women were so hot that
weekend they were just walking around in bras (on the streets, hiking trails
and the beach). Apparently it was too hot for a tank top? We really enjoyed the
people watching on this beach! There was an older woman that was in a swimsuit
that looked like it was about five sizes too small… and she had some major
plumber’s crack!! There was also a woman changing and didn’t think twice about
showing all the goods! Her towel dropped and we got the full frontal… Only on
the Riviera!
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| time for a bigger swim suit!! |
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an interesting church we saw with a skull and
crossbones on the outside |
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| skull and crossbones inside the church too... |
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| outside the church, apparently peaches and a cigarette are a good combo? |
After enjoying our walk down the coast, and some gelato, we
headed back to the car for the drive back to Milano. It was a fun day and a
half in Cinque Terre and we didn’t want to go back to the city. But, all good
things must come to an end. Although, we did bring Gotz to Pizzeria Spontini
and he got to experience the Pizza Nazi! The Pizza Nazi knows us now and he was
actually really nice to us this time, but… no sooner had I finished my beer and
he was at our table saying “Bye! Bye!” He showed us out of there just like
everyone else! I asked if we could purchase one of the beer mugs with the
Pizzeria Spontini logo, and he just gave us one. I think we’re turning him
around! After that experience Gotz said
he hadn’t eaten pizza that fast before in his life! He definitely felt the
pressure of the Pizza Nazi J
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this cat crawled out from a crack under the door,
he was pretty sleepy |
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| Spontini pizza!! |
