What We Ate in Cinque Terre

It is no secret that I love ice cream. The days leading up to our trip to Cinque Terre, I told the fiance that we had to have gelato every single day (not that many since we were only there for 3 days really). Since we got to Vernazza in the evening on Friday, we had no gelato. That meant that we had to eat two on Saturday and of course we ate one on Sunday as well. We tried a gelato place in Monterosso, in Vernazza, and in Corniglia. They were all good, but the best gelato we had came from Gelateria da Stalin. Not the best name for a shop but their pistachio gelato was amazing. So creamy and so nutty. Delicious! We also had the richest chocolate gelato at Un Mare di Yogurt in Corniglia and they had a cute little back patio where you could sit and rest for a bit after hiking to get there!

But even better than the gelato we had in Cinque Terre was the seafood. Oh. My. Goodness. Mussels galore! I had seafood pasta twice, I had calamari twice, and they were all delicious (which is why I had to eat the same things again and again) but the best thing I ate by far were the stuffed mussels. We had dinner at Trattoria de Sandro in Vernazza on Saturday evening. It is a cozy little restaurant on the main street really close to the train station. Like I said, I had stuffed mussels and they were amazing. The boyfriend also had a really nice fish dish but you will have to ask him about that! The mussels were stuffed with a breadcrumb filling and the mussels were baked in a delicious and simple tomato sauce. We asked one of the servers how they made the mussels and she said that they open up the mussels while they are alive, put the breadcrumb filling in and close them back up. Amazing! I mean, how do you even pry open a live mussel? That was my most memorable, and the most delicious dish I had while we were in Cinque Terre. The seafood pasta that I just had to eat twice was from Antica Osteria il Baretto, also in Vernazza. The mussels, clams and shrimps were fresh and it was cooked simply so that the seafood and the salty sea flavor really shone in the pasta. I loved it. Antica Osteria il Baretto is not a fancy place, instead it felt like a really homey restaurant where the chefs were cooking in the same way they would at home. Simple, fresh, and delicious.

Eating in Cinque Terre was a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed everything that we had. Italy is just full of so much good food that I can't wait to visit another part of the country! Maybe Tuscany next time?

Hiking through Cinque Terre

When I go on holidays, I don't think of going hiking. I always think of myself as a city person who wants to check out the local shops, visit different cafes, and visit some art museums or watch a play or something. But then we went to Cinque Terre. And we went hiking for two days. And you know what, I really liked it and would love to go on more active holidays!

We arrived in Vernazza on Friday evening and we got up bright and early on Saturday to start our day. Cinque Terre is a national park and there are many different trails and paths that connect the five towns. You can find all the different routes and paths that you can take here and they differentiate the paths based on hiking experience. Some of the main trails in Cinque Terre are closed though because of recent landslides so we did not get to hike between Corniglia and Manarola and between Manarola and Riomaggiore on the famous Via dell Amore. 

On Saturday morning we started on the path from Vernazza to Monterosso. It took the fiance and I almost 2 hours to complete the hike. I am glad we started from the Vernazza side because as we got closer to Monterosso there were hundreds and hundreds of stairs to walk down. If we had started the hike from Monterosso, I might have given up! After having lunch and walking around Monterosso, we took the train back to Vernazza for a little break before tackling our second hike for the day. This time we took the route from Vernazza to Corniglia. The trails are absolutely beautiful. You are constantly surrounded by the amazing landscape of this part of Italy. Olive trees line the trails as well as huge interesting looking cacti. The ocean is a stunning blue. And it is so fun seeing the towns from afar. It blows my mind how people built these villages by the ocean hundreds of years ago and what amazes me even more is that people still live there! 

On our way back to Vernazza from Corniglia we saw a poster advertising some free guided walks through different parts of Cinque Terre. So the fiance and I got up on Sunday morning and took the train to Manarola where the guided walk would begin. The hike was led by a friendly Italian woman who works at the national park and has lived her whole life there. Along with 15 other people, mostly Italians, we started this three hour hike. We walked through olive groves and vineyards through the hills of Cinque Terre between Manarola and Corniglia. All of the land there is still owned by local families and they harvest their own olives to produce olive oil. Because they do not have huge olive groves, they mainly produce oil for their own families and friends. It was a really lovely hike and we got to see some of the back trails which the fiance and I might not have taken if we weren't with the group. We did see some hikers along the way, but only a handful compared to the line ups we encountered on the main paths between the towns. 

Honestly, the towns are really charming in Cinque Terre but there is really not much to do in them. Part of experiencing Cinque Terre is going on some of the hikes and soaking in its landscape and scenery through walking the trails. Plus hiking helped us burn off the two gelatos we ate on Saturday! 

Staying in Picturesque Vernazza

The fiance and I stayed in Vernazza during our time in Cinque Terre. I may be biased because that was our base last weekend, but it is the coziest, charming and the most picturesque town in Cinque Terre. Vernazza may be the smallest town in Cinque Terre and although there were still many tourists walking around during the day, it felt less touristy than the other villages. Vernazza is located right on the water and like all of the other towns, the apartments and buildings are built on the incline of the hills and cliffs in that part of the Italian riviera.

I was so happy to find out that the fiance had booked a place for us to stay in Vernazza after reading that it was the prettiest town in Cinque Terre. The fiance told me he had booked a place on Airbnb so I thought we would be staying in someone's apartment. We have used Airbnb several times so I was expecting to stay in someone's apartment or a place people rented out to tourists. But then we got to Vernazza and we found out that our Airbnb was actually a hotel room (they advertise/list their rooms on Airbnb)! We stayed in a room at Hotel Gianni Franzi and it was wonderful for the price that we paid. Hotel Gianni Franzi is located just off the main square in the village and we stayed on the top floor of one of their three buildings. From our window we had a great view of the other side of Vernazza (see the first photo in this post). 

Hotel Gianna Franzi had some perks. There was free wifi in one of the lounge areas so it was nice to be able to plug in for a few minutes a day. It was actually really nice not having constant access to the internet plus we didn't really have much time to use the web in between our hiking and gelato eating! Best of all was that the hotel offers a breakfast buffet on their rooftop terrace overlooking the riviera. The view from this terrace was so beautiful. I loved listening to the sound of the waves crashing below us while we enjoyed mini croissants, yogurt, and cappuccinos. I wish I could have breakfast there every day! 

Next up, the hikes that we went on in Cinque Terre! 

Dreams Do Come True

Sorry for the lack of posts this last week. But I do have some exciting things to share with you! The boyfriend planned a trip to Cinque Terre, Italy for us this past weekend. I had been wanting to go there after hearing about it a few years ago from a friend and the boyfriend made it happen! He gave me little hints for two weeks and towards the end I just knew we were going to Cinque Terre. Oh and the boyfriend is no longer. He's the fiance now! Not only did I get to go visit the most beautiful place in the world, I'm also engaged to the most wonderful guy I've ever met. It has been the most amazing weekend ever.

I'll be writing a few more posts on where we stayed, where we ate, and what we did while we were in Cinque Terre over the next few days. If you ever get the opportunity, you have to go there! That part of the Italian riviera is absolutely stunning.