Hooning along the Emerald Coast

We woke up on Monday morning rested and happy, as we were in Italy, on an island, by the beach, and where Monday-itis does not exist. After a quick hotel breakfast, we packed up and left our hotel room (strangely decorated with animal print items), and following sending Ryan back after he returned the keys without collecting our passports, we were back on the road in the little Fiat Panda. Before hitting the autostrada, we turned down a dirt road down to beautiful Cala Sabina. Although it was overcast this morning, the water still looked a glorious emerald colour (oh, the Emerald Coast - I geddit!!) and being relatively early it was not overly busy.

Cala Sabina, Golfo Aranci

We both went for a swim - it was very shallow for at least 30 metres or so out, so I enjoyed doing my crocodile crawling around in the sand, through the aqua water, until we could finally swim around a bit. It was the perfect temperature, and not too many people. The clouds looked a little ominous coming in though, so after an hour or so we set back off on the road.

As we drove south, toward Cala Gonone, the clouds really set in. No blue skies were left, although we only suffered a few spots of rain. We were not concerned though - we just wanted to get to the next place and settle in, and I knew blue skies were on the horizon again. After only a 2 hour drive or so, following Ryan's Google GPS lady (who I will say right now that I do not trust more than I can throw her),we were within 15km of our destination. The signs were saying to go right, but the GPS lady said go left, so Ryan did. It was fine for the most part, some pretty narrow and unsealed roads, but the highlight was when we reached the top of a mountain and it was literally like being on the crest of a rollercoaster dip where we had to wind down an extremely deep and narrow climb, with sheer drops off either side. I would have taken a photo if I had a third hand, but mine were too busy hiding my eyes and holding on to the Panda's Jesus bar.

Lunch picnic on the hotel balcony

Since this blog is continuing, it is obvious that we made it safely to Cala Gonone, despite all odds. And what a lovely little town it was - one of my favourites! We checked in straight away to our hotel, which turned out to be a gem. It had everything that we needed, plus a lovely rooftop "solarium" with 180-degree sea views. There was a supermarket just behind us too, so we went and picked up some of our favourite fresh produce (ciabatta, tomatoes, buffalo mozarella, porchetta and prosciutto) and sat on our balcony to enjoy it with dashes of the amazing Tuscan olive oil I bought at the winery I visited during the conference.

Hotel rooftop

The weather decided to clear in the afternoon too, so the views only got better from the rooftop. Australia was due to play Spain at 6pm that night, and although we were already out of the World Cup (as was Spain), we were desperate to watch the game. Spain is one of our adopted teams, as they won the Euro Cup when we were there 2 years ago, and Ryan has their souvenir jersey, so we were really interested in seeing how the match played out. Since Italy wasn't playing, no one in town seemed to be promoting any match, but then we came across "Roadhouse Blues Pub" where we saw a big TV with nothing on. We walked in, they were all Italian, and we somehow asked in broken English/Italian - "World Cup? Australia?". They flicked through the paper to see who was playing - obviously knew Italy was not - and then when we pointed out it was Australia vs Spain they seemed to happy to play the match, probably to see if Spain could possibly lose again.... Anyway, we sat down with the best seats in the house!

View from hotel rooftop

So we watched the match, which for the first half was fine, but the second half not so much. Another Australian couple (from Melbourne, living in London) wandered in during that match (the only other Aussies we spoke to or heard from our entire time in Sardinia!) so we had a chat with them. While the score was disappointing, our mussel/clam and octopus pasta dishes at the "Roadhouse Blues Pub" were actually very good! The only surprising thing was why our Aussie friends were asking us why all the restaurants around the place seem to serve seafood....?!

Boating around Cala Gonone

The next morning we brushed off the Socceroo loss with a quick hotel breakfast and then headed down to the sea to rent our own speed boat! We both wanted to hoon along the coastline at our own leisure. Ryan was surprised that I suggested it, and that I was so keen. Sometimes I get a bit scared of boats, but hey this was the Mediterranean.....! I wanted to get out and about on that calm blue sea!

Cala Gonone coastline

So we set off! The lady had told us that the day prior had been very poor conditions (with the overcast skies and what-not), but that today was a lot better, although there were still some "long" waves. She said long, which actually sounded quite nice to me, but in hindsight I think the translation is actually "big". So all we needed to do was show a passport, pay some money, and then nod to the instructions of how to operate the boat, and we were off! Just us, a boat and the Sardinian Coast!

Stopping ashore

Lucky I popped a sea-sickness pill beforehand - it was pretty choppy!! But it was amazing just cruising along the coastline being able to do whatever we wanted to do.... so Ryan being the salty seadog that he is, just cruised the boat around.... and we eventually reached a place which look ideal to pull up. We pulled right in and managed to get close enough so that myself and what we needed could be hurled onto shore! I jumped off, with our picnic bag and towels etc. while Ryan then took the boat back out. Little did we know this gorgeous little beach was made of pebbles and had such a steep incline that it was near impossible to climb by yourself. So once Ryan took the boat back out, I threw our stuff back up onto the top the beach, then with the help of a kind lady (German I think?) she helped me to hurl myself up too. Not the most elegant of beach entrances I must admit. Then Ryan had to go anchor the boat near the buoys, then swim back to me! It was quite the production for some beach relaxation...

Ryan dropping anchor before swimming ashore

But what a glorious beach it was - not for it's comfort, because it was made of pebbles, but because of it's remoteness and beauty.... We were so remote in fact that the German lady next to us and her male companion shed their togs, but they were 20 metres away from us and they are European so hey no worries. It was funny though when about an hour later, when we couldn't have been more relaxed, that suddenly a big touristico boat appeared right in front of us, and somehow dropped off about 60 people into this remote area. I did take note that the German guy was quick to put his togs back on. So half an hour after that, we all left in our speed boats to leave the hoards of tourists to do their own thing....

Riding the waves of the Mediterranean while anchored for lunch

So Ryan swam back to the boat, I gathered our belongings and waited on the pebbles in a spot where I thought was at least possible to throw them and myself back into the boat. He puled in, and quickly I threw our stuff in and hauled myself in as well, before we quickly reversed and headed back out to sea.A bit more smooth-sailing that time....  We wanted to find somewhere semi-private to stop for a bit to eat... The waves were not exactly calm, so we pulled up near another beach area.

Time to sail us home to safety!

So we pulled up, in a seemingly calm area, where we anchored again and and enjoyed some bread, porchetta etc. It was stunning surroundings, although there was the occassional large and unexpected wave. Just before we were about to leave, we were sitting around, and then we saw another large wave come - and it grew, and grew, and it was just about to break on us! We were so lucky to be anchored where we were - if we had been a metre closer to shore, we would have been under water, like the poor boat just behind us! Phewweeee! So after that we quickly packed up, pulled up the anchor, and I took charge of the wheel and drove us home!

Raw fish - my favourite

Home to my favourite meal of raw fish in fact!! The hotel restaurant across the road was actually excellent with a great view, so we went there 2 of the nights for some delicious food. We also watched Italy play their final match against Uruguay - complete with me wearing an newly purchased Italian jersey - but the result was again disappointing. The next morning I went for a long walk along the coast while Ryan went for a dive.... check out more photos can be found here: Cala Gonone pics

Morning walk from Cala Gonone

Dove sono le sarde?

We woke up and left the hotel to walk to the Milano Cadorna Station to get the Malpenza Express out to the Airport. After a bit of consfusion we realised you had to bus it to Terminal 2 from the stop at Terminal 1. Anyway we arrived in the Easyjet checkin to a massive line, lucky we had decided to get the earlier train. Anyway after all of that I was finally able to get an espresso and panini before boarding the short flight to Sardegna. The flight scenery was pretty amazing, we were flying above the clouds but we could see snow capped mountains above the clouds and also we flew directly over Corsica.

Once in Sardegna we found the rental car place for Thrifty rental cars. The queue was about 50 deep and not moving. They had bundled about 5 different rental car brands into the one service desk. Meanwhile all the other rental car places had no lines. Heidi held the line while I went to check prices in the other places as we were keen to get the holidays started but the other rental companies I checked with were charging about twice what we were quoted. Anyway about 90 minutes later we finaly got our mighty steed, a Fiat Panda.

While en route to our first destination we saw a lady chatting to this girl on a vespa in the middle of an offramp. I first thought "typical Italians having a chat in the middle of the road", but on closer inspection we found they had broken down. Anyway the girl spoke English and told us that the older lady needed to make it to the big boat that was off in the distance. We agreed we'd take her back to the Porto at Olbia. We guessed that she had been having lunch with some friends and needed to get back to the ship or she would litterally miss the boat. We followed signs back to the Porto and she wanted to give us a 5 euro tip but we were like it is nessun problema.

With our good deed for the day done we drove through the Sardinian country side, which reminded me a bit of Mallorca and soon arrived at our destination Hotel Tabby in Golfo Aranci. Heidi told me she first thought it was "Goflo Arancini" as in the rice balls and then I couldn't get that pronunciation out of my mind whenever I saw a sign. It also made me hungry for breaded rice balls. It was a pity they weren't tipici of this regione.

Hotel view was alright

After checking in we went to pretty much the only place that we could see that was open on the beach and tried to get a late lunch. The only thing they were serving was frozen pizza or caprese salad. It was not a hard choice. After a swim and a laze on the the beach we went for a walk around town. It was a pretty sleepy village and there wasn't much going on. There was this weird fun park where it was Christmas every day of the year. I am not sure what they do with it for the rest of the time but I completely agree with them that it is dumb putting up and taking down xmas decorations every year. These guys have just decided to leave them up.

Couldn't capture it all but it was a pretty big space to be used for just once a year.

We had dinner in the same place we had the late lunch. I had some tipici vongole with linguine and Heidi had the same clams but with a local rice shaped pasta. I was disappointed to find there was no Sardines in the tipici di Sardi section of the menu.

The next day we went to the beach for a swim after breakfast. I wanted some good tipici Sardi food so we asked reception where to go and the girl there said to go to this place at the next town north called Locanda Rudalza in Porto Rotondo. It was not really in town but we noticed in Sardigna there were a lot of places a bit out of the way doing "Agriturismo" which is where they grow the stuff or it's sourced from the immediate area. Anyway we sat down and they showed us the menu which was just actually a list of what you're having with a fixed price of 35 Euros. We hadn't really been hungry since the ridiculous amount of food from our exhorbidant Milano lunch but we persevered anyway.

Out come some starters, there was this amazing dish Mazza Frissa, I cannot imagine how much cream they used to make semolina flour taste so awesome but it must have been alot. Also the zuchini and pork meatballs were fantastic. Next came ravioli with potato inside which we saw a bit in Sardigna, gnocchi with tomato and pork sauce and some weird thing they called "dry soup" it was kind of like a cheese cassorolle. Next came the dish we had been waiting for all day the Porchetto(decribed as small pig cooked for several hours) it was awesome. Afterwards when we thought we were going to explode they brought out a panacotta with Sardinian honey and a bottle of this Sardinian liqueur called Mirto. I had to be pretty restrained as we drove, but the bottle was about 350mL and they leave it for you. Also we got through a half litre of their wine and they just brought out another half litre. The local Sardinian red wine is called "cannonau" but it is the same as grenache. After rolling out of there we were so full we just had a picnic on the beach with wine for dinner.

A couple of days into Sardinia and we have not even seen Sardines on the menu. I am pretty sure this is why the Italians call Sardinia Sardegna, it is because they know there's no sardines here. Luckily the place is amazingly beautiful otherwise it would be a complete disappointment.

Parting with Euros in Milano

So after our last breakfast at Casa Nini in Como, accompanied by Daniele's anecdotes and mild complaining about various issues, I asked Ryan "How fast can you have your bags packed for Milan?". In no time at all we hit the road in our little Twingo, and less than a couple of hours later we reached Malpensa Airport to return the car. We were meant to return the car full, but the last petrol station we saw was self service and wouldn't take our cards. It was 3/4 full though, and when we returned it, they didn't care - as the Italians say "It's no problem".

Duomo by day

We then got the Malpensa Express train straight into the city of Milan, which was surprisingly quick and easy considering the distance, and then hopped a quick cab ride from the station to the doorstep (quite literally) of our hotel. We dumped our bags and hit the streets straight away, stopping first for a quick panini and birra for lunch nearby. Then we set off for the famous Duomo, which is quite grandiose I must say. A few chunks of it was under construction as well, which seems to often happen with these large old buildings in Europe. The piazza around the Duomo was swarming with tourists and dodgy guys trying to rip off said tourists, so we shared a hazelnut and pistachio gelati and people-watched for a bit. After a circuit of the area, we discovered a place called Signorvino around the back of the piazza. So according to my near-fluent Italian, Signorvino means Mr Wine, which is coincidentally a term of endearment I use for Ryan. So Ryan/Mr Wine looked very much at home at Signorvino indeed.

Mr Wine enjoying a drink at Signorvino

We meandered around the streets of Milan, which is quite a metropolitan city peppered with some amazing buildings, but to be honest it is the towns of Italy which I adore, not the cities (Rome excluded, and Florence - if you are indeed considered a city). My point being that Milan was a bit like Sydney but without the harbour and 1000 times more history. We eventually reached Vertical wine bar which we had picked out for dinner, courtesy of Tripadvisor. What a little find! A small wine bar run by one lovely young guy who apologised for his lack of fluent English - we responded with our normal "Hey your English is better than our Italian" - yawn, I hereby VOW to do a language course before I return to Europe. At Vertical, for 8 Euros you get a glass of wine and 2 courses of accompanying appetisers which this guys puts together himself. It was delicious and such good value, plus we tried some new and interesting wines that were tipico della regione. We then meandered back home, past the Duomo at night, and back to the hotel to catch the match where Uruguay beat England. That result didnt bother me at the time. In hindsight I would have been backing England.

Duomo by night

The next morning we woke to lovely blue Milano skies and headed out for breakfast around the corner at a place which Ryan had spied on his run that morning (!). His first run of the holiday I should add..... So we ordered our normal espresso/macchiato combination and some "toast with butter and jam". The coffee was good but the toast was like those pre-packaged hard mini French toast things but in maxi form. Wat?! That is not toast. And I think it was like 5 euros each. Hands down the worst meal of all time. We didn't worry too much though, as we knew we had a good lunch lined up ahead of us. Now I'll just let you all know that Ryan makes a pretty mean risotto Milanese and osso bucco, so Ryan thought it suitable to google where the best of these dishes were in Milan so that he could perfect his craft. He found one which was apparently the best, and even Michelin starred, so decided on a whim to book it. After our disappointing breakfast, we wandered around the nearby streets, through some amazingly historical areas with cathedrals like Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio which was built a lazy 1600 years ago, and on to the area near the Duomo where we would be having lunch.

Wandering around Milano's cathedrals

Ryan soon brought to my attention that in fact this restaurant was 2 Michelin starred.... I hesitated and asked what kind of price tag we were looking at but he assured me it would be around 100 Euros total (*note - I just reconfirmed this, and he said he had no idea, he just wanted to go). No problem I guess - we were on holidays, I had actually just finally finished doing the work that I needed to get done (while on holidays!) so I thought it was well earned. We were slightly early (very unfashionable, especially in Milano) so we went to Peck, just around the corner, which is like David Jones Food Hall but on steroids. There were jars of truffles, caviar, whatever your hearts desire available for purchase. And not cheap - over 200 Euros for each jar of the white truffles they had a bountiful supply of! The visit to Peck at least set the scene for our lunch - at Cracco, named after the chef.

Cracco - the dark low key entrance behind the Fiat

Thank God I was decently dressed, as I had not prepared to be thrown into what turned out to be one of the best (and definitely most expensive) meals of our lives. This is what you call, surprise 5 star dining! So we opened the door, were greeted by a man pretty much wearing a tux who escorted us to the elevator, and I suddenly knew this was pretty high end.

Welcome appetiser from the chef #1

We were actually the first ones in the restaurant, so set ourselves down. It was hilarious - they even gave my crappy little handbag its own stool. There were 2 waiters who were very eager to please us, and I realised the price of the meal would be fairly high. When they brought out the menu (which looked amazing), there were no prices listed, and I realised we must have entered into a world where money does not matter.

Slow cooked pork cheeks with scampi

I was just going along with it all, because hey I do like a good fine dining experience, and there was not much I could do at that point. Even when the waiters brought out the welcome appetizer #3 I didn't freak out too much. Although I was actually full by now, I knew I probably could or should not cancel our order :P

Raw meat! My favourite.

So we had an amazing 7 or so courses. It really was top notch. I thought it was amazing that there were no prices on the menu, and when I mentioned to Ryan that we really had no idea how much it would cost, he was confused. It took about 5 minutes or so before that we realised that my menu had no prices, and Ryan's did. Sometimes I love sexism. Lunch is on you Ryan! Although I do find things so hilarious like when I asked for the bathroom and I was taken to the elevator for the 1/2 a level journey up, while the waiter then races up the stairs to greet me when I the doors open 7 seconds later.

Risotto with scallops

The whole meal was amazing - top notch modern Italian. Normally we would plan such an extravagance several months in advance, but this certainly was a gem of a surprise! After such an amazing lunch, we then wandered the streets again for at least an hour or so to work off at least one course, swung by Signorvino again, and then moved on to a bar to watch Italy play the World Cup which was lots of excitement but a sad result :(

Pan-fried veal Milanese style

Operation Suisse boarders

So we left our flowery seat in the south to head north, well north Italy anyway. Driving through the To the Lake Como region. Along the way we stopped at an Autogrill to fill up with petrol and get some lunch. Autogrill is awesome, imagine like a BP service station that has amazing coffee and buffalo mozzarella and proscuttio paninis, brilliant. The only problem is there's no English at these places so the first time you have to work out that you pay for everything at the register, then go to another counter and someone rips your receipt a bit depending on what you're picking up. When I say "the only problem is there's no English", it reminds me of a joke I read in this book on the flight over, 1000 Years of Annoying the French. What do you call someone who speaks 3 languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks 2 languages? Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks 1 language? English...anyway makes me feel pretty slack. Surely the next overseas trip we have I will make more of an effort to learn some more local vocabulary.

We arrived in Lierna, drove up the street our BnB was on with about 3-4cm of clearance on either car door window and checked into our BnB and met our host Daniele. He was an older version of our BnB host from Sorrento. Runs a good BnB, worried about trip advisor reviews, sometimes alluding to be slightly jaded with the wife, but a funny guy over all. He kinda looked like Frank Pentangeli from The Godfather.

After getting some tourist maps and a quick walk around the small town of Lierna where we were staying, we got the hourly train to the next town called Varenna. We went for a walk around the township there and along the boardwalk which was called the lovers walk. I assume because the fence is painted red and it's pretty scenic. The town is really pretty and the houses are similarly colour schemed to the ones in Cinque Terre. The main difference though, is that there's actually grass and really well maintained gardens around the place.

Eager to try some tippici della region cuisine we did some research and settled on this place called Borgovino. It was a small cave like place nestled into one of the tiny alleyways and just had 2 tables on the pedestrian street. We had some missoltino (salted fish from the lake) with polenta, fish with sage rissotto and bistecca tagliata with porchini. It was one of the best Italian meals I've had. Everything was really delicious. I may have to start salt drying my own fish at home.

Heidi in the laneway.

The lake fish risotto and steak and porchini

Salted fish

The lovers walk

Aussie flag! and some ducks

The following day we had breakfast and a nice chat with Daniele and worked out that to get to Bellagio we could catch the twice daily ferry there. The ferry ride was nice the Lake Como district is extremely picturesque and I always love being on the water so it was a great start to the day. We sailed into the port with all of the grandiose hotels and went for a walk. There were some seriously well maintained residences and hotels and the whole place looked like it would cost a pretty penny to stay there. Heidi had to do a bit of work so we found a place with the wifis and a had some pizza.

Bellagio

Bellaheidi

Once Heidi wrapped her work up we had a couple of hours to kill so we found a vino cave. This place had on the menu a wine degustation of Lombardy wines. Since we are all about the tippici della regione and we love vini we decided that this would be a great place to wait out the ferry home. After we got the ferry home we tried to go to a bar to watch the Australia vs Netherlands game, but the sleepy little town we were staying in the bars were only showing the later games. Goddamit.

After another breakfast chatting to Daniele I wanted to go for a drive to Campione. This is a small territory owned by Italy but was in Switzerland on a lake the the Swiss and Italians share. Heidi asked what is there and why do I want to go to it for? I said because it is hilarious that we can go into Switzerland and then be in a little Italy again. Heidi sighed at me again and we were soon on our way. When we got to the Suisse boarder we found that there was a boarder controll force with Suisse police. I at that point realised that we had left our passports back in big Italy. Luckily we were waved through by a guard that eyeballed me all the way. I rolled through the boarder with the car's gear in neutral as is the local custom I believe.

In this part of Switzerland everything is pretty much like not leaving Italy. They are still growing grape vines, all the signs are in Italian for the shops. The town names are all Italian sounding too. Soon we we  in Campione. We discovered at the local carpark that they like surrounding their cars with waterbottles. We weren't sure if this was a tipici della regione but I have never seen anything like it before. After a wander around the small village we just had a snack and tried to get into the massive Casino. Apparently what Campione is known for is a tax haven and a mega casino. Anyway turns out the casino operators were tougher than boarder countrol as they wouldn't let us in without passports. Our dear leader Tone Abbott would be so proud of them.

Waterbottles to protect the car

Our local MP Albo apparently moonlights in Campione

We drove back from Italy through Switzerland then back to Italy without any real checkpoints, same building on opposite side of the road but with one Italian guard and no one being searched. I guess a country with no ports in the open seas you want some additional checks for people coming in. We went for dinner in Lierne at one of the local restaurants. This had a really nice view was pretty good but I think we were a bit spoiled from the amazing food at Borgovino the previous night.

Tipici vista

Tipici pasta e risotto

Tre delle Cinque Terre

After a very fun but late night on the disco dance floor with the scientists, I woke up to another breakfast on the gorgeous balcony of the Il Ciocco resort before packing up, checking out and catching the hotel bus back to Pisa Airport. While a lot of the other conference-goers had only long flights home to look forward to, my holiday was only just about to begin, and all going well, Ryan would be waiting at Pisa Airport to meet me!

After some slight kerfuffle, I spotted Ryan which was a happy sight indeed! Big smiles and hugs all round! Ryan had already picked up our little rental car so we popped my bag into it (lucky we didn’t have anyone else with us – our bags took up the boot and the back seat!) and we set off!! Just to cap off the excitement, we were headed to my most favourite place in the world, Cinque Terre.

Our favourite balcony

So we wound our way down the roads to Riomaggiore – I know it was only 2 years since we had been here but it felt surprisingly very familiar. And so straight to the place where we had stayed before, we were greeted by Cristina with kisses and her saying welcome back and how we hadn’t changed (thank God?), and up to our glorious room – this time with a bonus little bottle of wine which her husband had made. They don’t sell wine, but Alessandro just makes a small amount from their few vines for their family. Bellissimo!!

So not only was I finally on holiday, in my favourite place in the world, and now with Ryan, but to cap things off it turned out my dear friend Imogen happened to be nearby and would meet us too. Sometimes life is so good I can barely handle it. But hey I can try…  And try we did. We had arranged to meet Imogen “by the water at around 6pm”, which may seem vague but it worked. As I sat in the spot near the boats where I clearly remember sitting on my first night in Riomaggiore two years ago, I looked up and I saw Imo walking down towards us. Hooray! So we immediately found a bar with a great view and celebrated with some Prosecco!

Proseccos with Imo

So our first night was spent catching up over sunset with a ridiculous view, and then  a delicious dinner (pesto pasta and squid - very tipici della regione). In our excitement it was already midnight which meant Australia were about to play their first World Cup game, so hey! We stayed up and watched it! But we lost :(

Sunset in Riomaggiore

 The next morning we met Imo after breakfast, and unfortunately the walking trails were closed, but we could still visit the other villages by boat or train. So we hopped on a train to one of my favourites, Vernazza!

Vernazza

And now for something special: a guest blog from our travelling companion, Imogen. She has even accompanied her words with some of her sketches. Apologies in advance that you have to turn your heads, laptops and/or monitors on their sides to fully appreciate them. I do not currently have the mental or physical capacity to rotate them electronically right now.

Shutters are fun. The day is a surprise; almost always a good one, in Italy (pretty cobblestone streets, rows of pastel flats). Reidi and I had planned to meet at 11 and after some tooing and froing (which included a dip in the calm blue Mediterranean) I was running a tad late... 

Hustle! We achieved our rendezvous and then made our way though the pedestrian tunnel to the train station, where we waited with the masses to visit a new Terre. It was something of a drag that the walking paths were closed; less of a drag that we weren't maimed in an avalanche though I guess...

As it happens, the train ride was something special, with sparkling blue sea to see out the window. In Vernazza we meandered down to the seaside, admired the hearty vessels (ar!), then celebrated our achievements with some local vino!

How lovely! Now back to me. So after a long and beautiful lunch in Vernazza (Caprese salad, and various pastas - squid ink one for me!) on a terrace with 180+ degree views of Vernazza, we then beat the rain which was approaching and hopped on the boat back to Riomaggiore. For our long time fans, this time Ryan did indeed get off the boat.

Welcoming Imogen to our balcony

So we headed back through Riomaggiore and made the climb back up to our place to show Imo what a ridiculous balcony we have. We celebrated with some Champagne which Ryan brought from Paris and some olives from the region. We chatted, admired the view, and Imo whipped up the sketches shown above. What a talented girl she is. Then Imo went back to her place for a shower and siesta, and I did a little bit of work (don't ask) while listening to London Grammar on my favourite balcony. Bliss (minus the work bit).

Shortly before the storm hit

We had booked dinner at A Pie' de Ma which is perched above the water with another ridiculous view, and so met Imo there at 7:30pm. There was a wine degustation option, of 2, 4 or 6 different wines. We were very restrained and went for 4, which was probably wise as if we had chosen 6 we might have needed to place some glasses on the ground which is not a good look. We each had a primi of delicious pasta, but Ryan had ordered a secondi as well. After we had finished our primis, a sudden gust of wind came through and nearly blew all our vini degustazione glasses away! And it just kept coming! We picked up everything we could carry and ran downstairs underneath into the cavern where we managed to share a sheltered table. It was such an amazing storm - about 20 minutes of strong updraft winds, followed by torrential rain. Coincidentally, the last time we had seen with Imogen we had ridden out a wild storm on Cockatoo Island with a bottle of wine!

Manarola

So we hung out watching the storm, and Ryan got his secondi of pesce, and finally the rain eased, so we paid il conto and ran through the cobbled stone streets to watch another midnight World Cup match - Italy vs England!! And the Italianos beat the English, wahoo!!

Manarola

The next day we met up again with Imo - the storm was well gone but it was still overcast, but hey, Cinque Terre is still heaven to me even with grey skies. So after breakfast we hopped the train to my other favourite village, Manarola. We managed to spend about an hour wandering around, up and down the town, around the cliffs an what-not, followed by lunch. I opted for grilled octopus, and we shared a caprese salad again - aw yeah. Such a beautiful town....

Manarola

And then we hopped on the boat back home and stopped by the nearby very pebbly beach for a dip in the Mediterranean. After chilling out for rest of the afternoon, we met up again for our final dinner. It was delicious!! Imo and I had the best pesto pastas - very tipico della regione - and Ryan had an anchovie pasta as well as some fish which they had somehow managed to plait! After dinner we bid a fond ciao to Imo, and hiked the hill back home after what was another magical visit (at least to 3 of the 5 villages). See you next time, Cinque Terre.