June 23, 24 Good News: Cinque Terre still the same

another delayed blog:

took train into 5 terre to avoid the evil mountains. someone wouldve died. train had a specific bike rack for us and it was only 10 euro for a 3 hour ride. we messed up though. after being so train savvy in France, we forgot to stamp our tickets on the train platform. the conductor tried to fine us €25 each, but we talked him down to €5 each.

decided to stay in the last of the 5 towns, called Riomaggiore. no real beach here, just rocks, but it is a less touristy alternative to Monterosso where I staed in 99. we've been relying on the Routard door stickers to determine if a place is ok, and the hotel we found was certified by the Routards in 07, so it was a go. note: we have no idea who Routard is, but we'd like to meet him someday. Ben had a sweet bunk bed. he even made a tent like Pete Blanton did in college. not sure why...

got some wine to go you can do that everywhere in Italia, according to the lady at the restaurant) and walked up to the next town. all 5 towns are connected by footpath as well as train. we walked btwn the 5th & 3rd towns before settling in for dinner. ben was brave and ordered something heäd never heard of. it was fantastic. he won the dinner prize that night. later found out it had pig's ear in the sauce.

next day, G and I took a train to Monterosso to rent an umbrella & chairs and enjoy the Med. Ben went all tough and chose to do the remaining hike btwn towns 3 & 1. It took him 4 hours, but he got great photos and seemed to enjoy it. on the flip side, I enjoyed killing off some of this wicked farmer tan and reading my book.

on the way home, we stopped at opur favorite gelato place in Riomaggiore and G had grapefruit gelato. it was incredible, so he went back for seconds. good thing we bike for 4 hours a day because we eat and drink about 4000 calories.

we tried to eat cheap, but just couldnt bring ourselves to eat with the backpacker crowd. instead, the pizereria/tratorria/bruchetteria in town had the stragest pasta pancake thing that G had them cover in cream pesto sauce. he won the dinner prize that night.

while eating, the catholics had some sort of eerie procession with half the town marching uphill and the priest chanting over wireless loudspeakers. the candles everwhere made it even odder.