SUNDAY, MAY 15^th,

This past weekend, we went on a weekend trip to Cinque Terre. It was very easy getting there, since there was a train that took us from Rome pretty much directly to the Cinque Terre region. The weekend was so much fun! I have found my future home. Seriously, I am going to start studying Italian now so that I can speak it when I get the money to retire here or something. It was the most beautiful place that I have ever been to.

 Cinque Terre is a group of 5 fishing villages that are connected by walking paths, hiking trails, and trains. Unfortunately, most of the walking trails and hiking paths were closed because the weather was so bad that day, but the trains between the towns worked out perfectly for us. Each village had its own unique persona even though they were so closely grouped together. Due to the timing, we only had a chance to really see 3 of the towns in full, but I guess that means I’ll have to go back in the future!

We left very early in the morning on Saturday to get the train station in Rome. We all slept on the 4 hour train ride. We got to our hotel in La Spezia around noon, and from there, hopped on a quick 10 minute train into the Cinque Terre region. We got off the train in the first town, Riomaggiore. We didn’t stay too long in this town because we were anxious to get on the only walking path that was open that connected Riomaggiore with the second town, Manarola. The path winded around the cliffs against the ocean, and offered beautiful views of both towns and the Mediterranean Ocean. Here’s pictures of the path and the views from it:

We took the train from Manarola to the third town, Corniglia. After getting off the train, however, we learned that we needed to walk up 364 steps in order to actually get to the town. We braved it out, and we all made it up the cliff. It was definitely worth the effort because the views from this town were definitely the best in the three towns that we got to see. This town was pretty awesome, and the houses and apartments here seemed to be a little nicer and the views out all the windows were worth $1 million each. Anyway, it will probably be best to just show the pictures of the views instead of trying to describe them:

After we spent some time in Corniglia, we got back on the train to the fourth town, Vernazza. This was a beautiful place also, but it seemed to be the most touristy. HOWEVER, I had the best meal of my life in this town. After walking around all of these towns, we finally got to Vernazza around 5:30 and we were STARVING. Since this was kind of like our vacation from all the schoolwork and stuff that we have all week, we were really looking for a relaxing, authentic Italian meal. Since we’ve come to Rome, we haven’t really gotten the “authentic” Italian cuisine since we’ve either been eating at a bunch of restaurants in the center of Rome that have been tourist-ized, or we’ve just cooked our own meals. We decided that since we were on the path less traveled (Robert Frost, anyone?), the restaurants in Cinque Terre would be much more authentic and awesome.

We were right. All of the restaurants didn’t open until 7 because Italians eat dinner later than Americans do, so we had to wait. We looked around Vernazza for about an hour, while in the mean time we asked all of the local shop owners where the best restaurant in the area was. There was a unanimous decision on this one restaurant in Vernazza called Belforte Ristorante. We decided to try it out. Since it was the best restaurant, it was completely booked, but they didn’t book the outside deck because it was raining and kind of cold outside. It was covered, however, so we were fine with sitting outside. Besides, we weren’t going to pass up the opportunity to eat at the best restaurant in the area. So, we ended up getting our own private outdoor seating deck!

Now let me tell you about my meal. The restaurant owner spoke very good English, and he waited on us the entire time (which was 2 � hours). We asked him to bring out some good local wine, and we all had a glass or two of wine from an area slightly north of Tuscany. My first course was spaghetti “Bruno” style which was spaghetti and mussels in a homemade marinara sauce. The spaghetti was homemade of course and the mussels seemed like they were caught that morning. My second course was a plate of straight up mussels. Again, they were definitely caught that morning. My main course was shrimp scampi, which was FOR SURE the best part of the meal. The menu said that the scampi was their specialty, so I figured I would go for that since the specialty of the best restaurant of the area would have to be pretty damn good. And it was. I was in heaven for about 20 minutes. Then, for dessert, I had caramelized strauberries (that’s how the menu spelled strawberries), in vanilla gelato. SUCCESS. So, 4 courses – 70 Euro. But, totally worth it. I would have paid quadruple that to tell you the truth.

After that, we just got on the train back to the hotel, and we were all so satisfied with food that we just all passed out in our beds immediately after a hot shower for each of us. It was the most amazing day. I swear that I will be back to Cinque Terre sometime in my life, and I will definitely go back to that exact restaurant too.

Location: Vernazza, Italy