Casa Duomo - Manarola, Cinque Terre, IT (Day 4 of 6)

 

Morning rain, so a few loads of laundry, to start the day.  By noon, we are ready to roll. Today, we visit town #4, Vernazza.  It was heavily flooded in 2011, up to the second floor with a huge flash flood.  Today it is a bustling tourist town with more restaurants than inhabitants.  The trains are crowded, as usual, but we are able to get a seat.  Our mission is to get pranzo (lunch) at some outdoor cafe.  We find a place in the square by the marina.  The wind is a little gusty which occasionally blows wine glasses right off the tables, but the sun is out.  Most of the food served here is local, so it’s vegetables and seafood, with ubiquitous pasta.  Deb, not a seafood lover, has been searching for Bolognese (tomato and meat sauce) but is not

Pranzo 

finding it on most menus; however, today she is in luck.  Spaghetti and Bolognese.  I go for the pasta and mussels (it turns out the mussels make pretty good little sails when the wind is up).  After lunch, we amble around town, climb the tower on the edge of town (built in 1276), as required of every tourist, and then return to the train station, smug in the knowledge that the train actually stops inside the tunnel, not at the train terminal where all the tour-groups have congregated.  We will get seats, they won’t!

Back to Manarola for a short siesta before heading out for dinner.  Deb snags some lasagna bolognese, and I have sea bream, the whole thing…head, tail, fins and all!

Tomorrow we plan to walk to town #1, Riomaggiore.