We dropped off our laundry 1st thing this morning and headed to catch our train to the last of the 5 towns in the Cinque Terra, Riomaggiore. We had to run a little to catch the train because the lady at the motel wanted to talk to us about checking out and what time were we leaving. She wanted to make sure it was after 8am because that's the time she starts. Then we talked about the laundry and that we were having it sent to the motel. She explained to just put the name of motel and room and she would put it in our room when it arrived. Laundry washed, dried, folded, and delivered to our motel while we go off and play. This is the life. All for $12e a basket. We are doing two baskets.
I finally find a hand made item to buy; a piece of local Slate with a hand painted seahorse and Riomaggiore painted on it; awesome and only $25e.
We get an apple and stroll the streets before heading off on the Via del Amore (the road of Love) to hike around to Manarola.
The Via del Amore follows the trail the teenagers used when they went off to meet up with boyfriends/girlfriends from the other town. It's a very nice hike, especially after yesterday's thigh burner. It was flat and all along the sea. Beautiful views back to Riomaggiore and later forward to Manarola.
We finished the trail about 1 pm and found a take out place with lasagna and took it down to the waterfront for lunch.
Our lunch spot.
Back on the train station at 3:15p and off we go to Corniglia. Corniglia is the only town not on the water. It sits on top of the hill. We get on the bus at the train station, it fills very quickly, and off we go to the top of the hill. It is included on our Cinque Terre Card we bought this morning for $5e each. You have to buy one to hike the trail. The two trails we hiked, Montorosso to Vernazza and Riomaggiore to Manarola are the only trails open right now because of really bad land slides that happened back in October 2011 and November 2011. We were very glad we took the bus. It would have been a long steep walk. We went in a couple shops. All the shops here sell the same cheap souvenirs. Really hard to find anything decent except this one man.
In Corniglia we found a guy who was selling actual photos he took of the area. They were awesome aerial photos of all the five Cinque Terre towns. He moved to Manrola 8 years ago from Milan. He said no one was taking pictures so he started his business. He kept telling us about the different technics he used, how many pixels, how clear the photos are when you blow them up. His English was much better than our Italian but he would apologize when he didn't know the English word for a photography concept he was trying to communicate to us, but since we know photography we understood what he was saying. We bought his CD of over 1000 images for $15e.
We had dinner with a sea view in Corniglia. Pat had sea food spaghetti and Karen had her best pizza so far. It was like at home; thick crust and actual sauce on it. Pat really liked his spaghetti and he said it was the best so far. I tasted it. It was too fishy for me.
We walked around to a view point on the right of town facing the water and then headed back to Montorosso on the 6:23pm train from Corniglia. The guy who helps manage the motel, Enrigui, rushed upstairs when he saw us and got our laundry for us. I thought she said she would put it in our room. Two packages wrapped in plastic. Great. But when we open them and I start pulling things out some things are still damp. Damp clothes wrapped in plastic getting other clothes damp - darn. So we crank up the heat, open the window, and start hanging out anything too wet to pack. Sure glad we bought this close line thing. It is our second use already. We pack and journal and look at pictures. Great pictures. Of course, with the places we are going I might just say that every day. Train day tomorrow. I need to do a little planning so we are ready.
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