We woke up to more rain, packed up, and headed back up the road to the Hotel Brittania, where we could get a cheap breakfast and wifi access. I spent a lot of time trying to get bearings on our place in Cinque Terre (mapquest, Google Earth) and Liz emailed the owner again for clarification. It looked like finding our way was going to be tougher than Tremezzo.
We left in a steady drizzle/rain, but this time had no difficulty finding our way back to the highway system that would lead us past Milan, down to Genova on the Mediterranean coast, and then across to Cinque Terre. In fact, the road system was great for 95% of the trip, the exception being a real traffic snarl trying to get around the ring around Milan, and the last few miles in. Gradually the weather went from rainy to overcast to not-too-shabby when we were approaching the coast. We found our exit off of E80 with no problem and the narrow, twisty roads to Cinque Terre (unlike those on Lake Como) were well-marked. We had no problem finding our way into the town of Monterosso Al Mare, the first of the 5 towns comprising Cinque Terre and our destination. Judy and Liz hopped out to find a bank (our B&B only takes class) and figure out where we a
re supposed to be. Our landlord had said to call him when we got there – unfortunately, we didn’t have a phone hooked up. I went back & forth looking for a place to park and stumbled upon the road that our house – B&B Ulivo – was listed at. Went up it and found the street number, but it was for what appeared to be an almost limitless number of apartments climbing the hillside. As I stood there perplexed, an older Italian woman approached me and (I assumed) asked if she could help. She didn’t have a word of English and I had no Italian. I just kept saying B&B Ulivo which really puzzled her. She figured out B&B, pushed a button to page one of the apartments, explained that there was someone downstairs who didn’t speak any Italian and whoever answered eventually put on a guy who spoke some English. As I thanked the helpful lady and she turned to leave, she brought me across the street and pointed to an olive tree. “Ulivo,” she said. Then she smiled and walked down the road.
re supposed to be. Our landlord had said to call him when we got there – unfortunately, we didn’t have a phone hooked up. I went back & forth looking for a place to park and stumbled upon the road that our house – B&B Ulivo – was listed at. Went up it and found the street number, but it was for what appeared to be an almost limitless number of apartments climbing the hillside. As I stood there perplexed, an older Italian woman approached me and (I assumed) asked if she could help. She didn’t have a word of English and I had no Italian. I just kept saying B&B Ulivo which really puzzled her. She figured out B&B, pushed a button to page one of the apartments, explained that there was someone downstairs who didn’t speak any Italian and whoever answered eventually put on a guy who spoke some English. As I thanked the helpful lady and she turned to leave, she brought me across the street and pointed to an olive tree. “Ulivo,” she said. Then she smiled and walked down the road.
Meanwhile, Judy and Liz had gotten the same guy via the tourist information center. Turns out he is Manuel, the son of the owner. He met us in a 3-wheel truck and had us follow him to our house.
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| The view from our porch, first night in Cinque Terre |
The place is amazing. We are in our own house on a hillside overlooking the old town of Monterosso. Our yard is full of orange, lemon, cumquat and olive trees. We don’t have internet and I haven’t yet figured out how to turn the gas on for the stove, but perhaps he can fix that. He is supposed to come back with an Italian cell phone that we can borrow while we’re here.
And on top of it all, the weather cleared into a beautiful day, with blue skies dotted with light fluffy clouds illuminating the green waters of the Mediterranean.
The trip back down to the village is a steep hike. We were told there was a laundry in town and carried a big bag of clothes down a stone-paved path that zig-zags down the mountainside into town. Actually, there are two paths: one branch goes into the “new” part of town (which still looks pretty old to me) and the other to “old” Monterosso. The two sections of town are separated by a tunnel through a part of the mountain that drops directly to the ocean.
Old Monterosso was the victim of some really bad flooding last fall, and they are still cleaning up. But it looks just like you would imagine: very narrow alleyways lined with homes, shops and restaurants, nestled against the shoreline. Judy commented that Busch Gardens apparently got it pretty close to right with their “old country” layout (at least if you don’t walk behind the façade). The laundry – which is “open 365 days/year until 7:30” – was closed before we got there at 5:00. So I took the clothes back up, met them back down at the town. We picked up some groceries and had a great dinner on the water before coming back to our villa to enjoy the evening view.
Words just don’t work here. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
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| The view from our apartment, Monterosso, Cinque Terre |
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