Venice

We arrived to beautiful Venice in the late afternoon Thursday, checked into the hotel and hit the ‘streets’ – a labyrinth of walkways, canals, and bridges over canals. Cars are boats here – ambulances, taxis, buses, even constructions cranes were all boats.  We headed over to St. Mark’s square taking a $0.50 gondola across the grand canal. No point to following a map – you just have to get lost in the maze of tall building and church plazas - and hope you are going in the right direction at least. Every place we turned was unique and charming. (The least enjoyable part of Venice was the tourist trap between Realto bridge and St. Mark’s Square. Off that beaten path, though, was the ‘real’ Venice).

  

St. Mark’s Square at sunset was a site. Thousands of pigeons, competing orchestras, dozens of plaza bars and restaurants, the extraordinary basilica – right off the grand canal with gobs of boat traffic. We went to the 'bus' stop and hopped on a packed boat bus and took the entire grand canal tour with post-sunset colors reflecting off the water and buildings.

Yesterday (Friday) we walked from the southwest side to the northeast side of the fish – Venice is shaped like a fish – taking a while to mosey to the boat dock and then on to Marano and Burano islands.  The boats were on strike that morning (the second we experienced); a high school Italian language teacher from Long Island said explained to us the situation and then said - ‘we’ll see – it’ll either come or it won’t.' But, it came right on time.   We made it over to colorful Burano islands for a nice lunch and sightseeing before heading back to Venice city.  

Our tour of St. Mark’s Basilica was in the afternoon so after a couple of cold beers, we were ready. Afterward, we spent more than anyone ever should to drink a couple wine spritzers on the plaza listening to a lovely orchestra with a view of St. Mark’s. (see the video of this lovely scene below).  Very memorable and beautiful. More walking, another boat bus, and then a dinner alongside the canal – Venice was simply beautiful.

We are now on a speed train back to Milan and then north to Zermatt Switzerland – having spent our last evenings in Italy enjoying beautiful Venice.  So sad to be leaving Italy...we’ve had a lovely time here.

This afternoon we’ll be in Zermatt for a few nights, then Nimes (French Riveria) for 3 nights and then Barcelona and Madrid…

The canal near our hotel 

St. Mark's square 

Grand Canal from the bus 

Gondola 

View from Rialto Bridge (boat bus in the front/center) 

 Grand Canal

Grand Canal with view of Rialto Bridge 

Sunset Gondolas 

Gondolas near St. Mark's 

Lunch trip to Burano Island - very colorful buildings 

Colorful Burano island 

Tight walls (in Venice) 

Woman making lace product. Burano Island is the lace hub - lace everywhere. 

Jane bought me a lace bookmark.

St. Mark's front mosiac 

St. Mark's at sunset 

Mosiac inside St. Mark's Basilica

The charming St. Mark's square

Evening view of beautiful Venice

Speed train from Milan to Brig, Switzerland.

Cinque Terre

“Cinque Terre” means “Five Lands” and is a rocky coastline with 5 villages connected by trails and rails. The canyon walls have a million terraces with rows and rows of vineyards and gardens. It’s a national park – but gladly not too overrun with tourists. The hiking trails (some upper, some lower) follow the coastline and so does the rail line. So, the idea is that you can hike to a village or 2 and catch the train back. It’s so beautiful, convenient, quaint – it’s the perfect place to visit. People are out enjoying the beauty, the villagers are tending their stores, gardens and vineyards – it’s a very cool vibe.

We’re staying in village #2: Manarola. Wow, what a view!! We had a lovely coffee on our balcony overlooking the sea before heading to breakfast this morning. Note: croissant with nutella spread = good. We loved our heart cappuccinos too (see photos below).

Because the lower path between Manarola and Corniglia was closed due to last year’s flood, we hiked the upper trail around and over to Corniglia. The views straight down on the cliff trails overlooking vineyards and the rocky cliff coast - amazing! We caught a train from Corniglia (#3) to Monterosso (#5 - the most north of the 5 villages) to have lunch, swim in the sea and hang out on the beach.

Although it was a hot and longer-than-expected afternoon hike back to Vernazza (#4), the views were stunning. This whole place is stunning.  Caught a train back to Manarola, showered, drank some Prosecco in the room and waiting for a 9 p.m. reservation at Billy’s Trattoria – the best food and ambience there is.  We were seated on an outdoor a terrace with 5 other tables (there were several other terraces of tables too) with high/vertical steps between. Everything here – even the trails – have high vertical steps. So we asked the server for a local Cinque Terre white; she suggested ‘this white – it’s made right over there’ and then pointed across the canyon to this one family’s vineyard (see photo). Awesome!

Every morning at our B&B Da Baranin  :)

The high trail between Manarola and Corniglia (and you can see train tracks on the coast way 

below leading into the cliff-side town of Corniglia)

Cinque Terre coast somewhere on the trail overlooking Vernazza

At Billy's restaurant - Kristi pointing to the vineyard where this wine was made (in Manarola village)

Coast to the left, vineyards to the right

Descending to Corniglia

Tuesday:  and after a slower more chill morning, we set out on the Corniglia to Vernazza trail. Again, beautiful and stunning. We stopped at the first trailside restaurant in Vernazza for a great pesto lasagna, bruschetta and beer and moseyed our way through the village and harbor and then back to the train station to our B&B for an afternoon siesta. 

Later, we’ll walk the 20 minute trail from here to Riomaggiore (#1) called the Via dell’ Amore – an easy/short hike to the first village.  That will be the final leg of the coastal trails connecting all 5 villages. Although some trails were harder (particularly the Monterosso to Vernazza part) – all of these hikes are fun and totally worth it!

Good morning Manarola!

Coastline between Vernazza and Monterosso

View from trail-side restaurant overlooking Vernazza

Trail-side restaurant overlooking Vernazza

This morning we went out on a boat, The Billy.  Andrea, our hotel host, invited us to go out on a boat with his friend, Massimo (the skipper), his brother and brother’s wife and daughter, and another couple from Australia.  We rode down the coast, getting a sea perspective of Cinque Terre, down to Porto Venere (see fort pics below), before heading back up the coast and dropping anchor for some lunch and snorkeling.  So amazing.  (anchovy sandwiches….actually pretty good…).

After returning from that boat trip, we took to train up to Montorosso for an afternoon sitting under a big umbrella at the beach, watching people, reading and napping.

We finished the evening with a train ride all the way south to Riomaggiore, a quick dinner and a perfectly timed sunset walk down the Via Dell’Amore, the famous 20 minute walk along coastal cliffs between Manarola and Riomaggiore, where couples “lock” their love by adding a lock (combination, key, or other) to the thousands of other locks already affixed to whatever can hold them.   We got some great sunset pictures of that walk, and then celebrated with a gelato before heading back up the hill to our hotel.  

A stellar last day in the Cinque Terre!

Tomorrow we are to catch a morning train over to Venezia!        

Jane and Capitan Massimo

Our snorkel/swim stop

"Cheese"

Porto Venere fort

Cliff jumping at Manarola

Manarola harbor

Monterosso beach

The Billy

Manarola harbor/swim spot

Sunset on the Via dell' Amore

Sunset on the rocks

Cliff trail (can you see the extension of the trail?  Look for the small building a little up hill...

Lovely lovely Cinque Terre

Cooking class - with Chef Pualo

We borrowed a couple beach cruisers from Claudio (in Lucca) and biked along the river path to Chef Paulo Monti’s cooking class. Beautiful breezy ride through the beautiful countryside. Chef Pualo spent half a day teaching us (and a young British couple) the finer points of Tuscan cooking. We can now make: almond biscotti, two kinds of crostini/bruscetta – antipasta (one eggplant and the other liver pate-like), vegetable ravioli (we made the flour/pasta, veg/cheese filling and the ‘ragu’ meat sauce from scratch!), an herb-rubbed pork loin with gravy, rosemary roasted potatoes, bread salad (Tuscan-style couscous salad with tomatoes, basil, onion, etc.) – there was not one thing that we made – and ate afterwards with the Chef (and lots of wine) – that we didn’t totally love. THIS was one of the coolest experiences ever. So…expect dinner parties in your near future!

Chef Paulo

Bike riding from Lucca to the Chef's class

Biking through Lucca - not as easy as it looks!

Proof that Kristi was actually in this class!

Jane's bread salad!

Chopping, chopping

Chef Paulo showing how to cut pasta (we just made)

Second dish - pork loin infused with rosemary spices, roasted potatoes, etc - lovely!

Making the Ragu (meat sauce)