Cinque Terre in the Sunshine

The sun came out today and we were grateful.  We quickly hung out our laundry to dry and hoped for the best.  A little wind, a little sun.  It was a glorious day here today.  After a lazy morning, we took our cappuccino at Il Pirata delle 5 Terre, where the Sicilian twin pastry chefs entertain with their culinary skills and their jokes.

I blog from you this evening from the same Il Pirata.  From the little train station, we rode to Riomaggiore, (the first, or southermost town of the "five towns").  We hiked the town, heading toward its northern end to walk the easiest of the walks between the towns, the Via dell'amore.  Walk of Love.

It was closed.  But we are in love anyway, so we didn't mind.  The views from the trail head were spectacular. Vista dell'amore!

Great gelato in Riomaggiore...some of us continued back to Vernazza, and some hiked up above the town to get  back.  We all met up at the gallery of Suzy, the British artist we met to see her finished work.  We took our pizza and beer down to the tiny harbour and ate (yes, again) in the sunshine.

An evening Mass is held at 6 pm in the church, named for Santa Margherita, patroness of Vernazza.  We attended the weekday Mass, the old Italian ladies were delighted to see us, telling us our "bambini tutti belli"- our children are all beautiful...

They told me many other wonderful things.  about 25% of which I understood.  Such as:  The main part of the church is 400 years old, the pillars and the floor are many centuries older.  Vernazza is a beautiful town.  The sea is rough.  I am a good mama.  One of them lives near our apartment.  And some other stuff.

Tomorrow we leave the little fishing village for the wonders of the birthplace of the Renaissance.  We have tried to keep our "big city time" minimal, focusing on Rome in a week.  We will only have one night in Florence, and will keep our pace slow, rather than try to do it all.  So it will just be a glimpse of Florence, our goals are a city walk (the downtown is compact)  and a guided visit to the Accademia where David waits patiently for us.