We finally got out of Pisa after getting turned around a little and drove toward the Cinque Terre and a little town called Vernazza. Afyter driving for a little bit, we absolutely had no idea where we were. We were driving down this tiny road with no town in site. I was hoping we didn’t break down because with no cell phone and no house near by, we would have been in trouble! We eventually drove through this tiny town and stopped for directions. Susan is way better at understanding people and was able to decipher from the guy who only spoke italian where we needed to go. So we crossed our fingers and headed in that direction and finally saw signs again for Vernazza. The roads were still so small and windy and literally there was only room for one car at a time. We eventually found the final turn off and winded down the hill towards the town.

The towns are so small that there is no public parking in the town so we parked in the lot and wheeled our luggage down the hill.

And now to find our room. Again, no real visible street signs. Sue went off while I stayed with the luggage and was able to find the street but the street numbers made no sense. I happened to see a women pick up her new tenants at the train station and asked her if she could point us in the right direction. She confered with another woman in one of the local shops and then picked up the phone and called Elizabetta for us. What wonderful hospitality! We then made our way up the 76 stairs to our room. A painful experience but the pain was worth it when we saw the view from our room.

We threw our bags in our room and grabbed a beer and just sat on the patio and enjoyed the scenery for a while. We just needed to chill out after our journey here.

We thought we might as well go and enjoy the beach a little bit so grabbed some lunch and another beer and settled on the beach. So enjoyable. We dipped a few times to cool off and chatted about the plan for the afternoon.

A hike to Corneglia seemed like a great idea. The start of the path was right behind our room so it was easy to find. And what a view right from the start. In the picture below, the patio with the Italian flag, is ours. Pretty nice right?

It was super hot out (as per usual) so we called this our Bikrams hike. It reminded me a little of the grind. Lots and lots of stairs! But it eventually it evened out though which was a relief!

We were finally able to see Corneglia and even Manarola the town beyond it. Couldn’t wait to get there and have another beer to cool off.

What another beautiful little town. Small alley ways for streets. Bright colours. Simple but stunning. And what a beautiful view of the next town.

Instead of hiking back we took the train. A lot faster and literally drops you off right in town. Had we known that, we probably would have driven to La Spezia and just taken the train to Vernazza instead.

By this time, it was late afternoon and time to get ready for dinner and enjoy our patio for our Prosecco and cheese. I absolutely loved this patio. We shared it with another room but had yet to run into them.

 

We headed for dinner at a little place near the beach and out of all the meals we had in Italy, unfortunately, this one was the worst. I ordered the prawn pasta but the prawns came complete with legs, eye balls and all! As we tried to get the meat out, we realized there was just really no meat in them. So not so much of a prawn pasta after all. Behold my alien pasta!

We wanted to enjoy our patio some more so we were going to get into our PJ`s and just relax up there but I wanted to get a quick picture of the sunset before we did and that is when we ran into JP and Danny. They were also watching the sunset so we got to chatting.

Then shared a bottle of champagne that we had left over from the wedding, went for late night gelato and a walk to the pier. What a beautiful serene place to sit and chat. And a perfect way to end our night in Vernazza.

We were so happy to have been able to experience a little bit of the Cinque Terre and meet some new friends in the process.