The Grand Hotel Miramar (our hove for 2 nights) in Santa Margherita was beautiful and VERY nice. Here are a couple of pictures of the hotel.
Left: on the terrace in the morning. Right: the front of the the hotel. Kudos to Classic Journeys and Luciano for choosing this hotel.
Our day on the 11th was a visit to Cinque Terre, 5 fishing villages on the rugged Riveria coast. Our trip started with a brisk walk to the train station and then a train to the southern most of the cities. Then we used boats to go the other villages. We visited 4 of the 5 villages. They were all quite charming, and were crowded with tourists and beach goers.
We took a private boat from Vernazza to Monterosso. Our boat driver was from Vernazza. He told us Vernazza has 400 full time residents and 2.4 million visitors a year. He was also a commercial fisherman who worked on a swordfish boat. I asked him how they caught swordfish. They put out 12 miles of line anchored with buoy on each end. On the line they bait 400 hooks. They set the depth for the line and the hooks. After laying the line the hooks are baited one at a time. Then after a couple of hours the hooks are checked to see if there is a swordfish. On a good day, 20 swordfish are caught, some of them small and some as large as 100 pounds. It is a full day of fishing.
The best way to talk about Cinque Terre is in pictures.
A typical street leading down to the sea. The fisherman go out early in the morning and then bring their boats back to their apartments. This was about 9:00 AM so the tourist are just beginning to arrive.
We did a short loop hike that took us to the top of the city. This is from that trail looking back on the city.
We ate lunch in the round building on the edge of the cliff.
Our table was under the awning at the top of the building.
Kudos to Luciano for suggesting this as a place for lunch.
On the trail above the city.
On the trail, high above the village, we saw this crucifix. What you can’t really see is how steep the terrain is.
A water wheel in one of the towns.
Italians love the beach.
Our boat driver.
The coast is mostly like this. Forest on the top and steep rocky cliffs into the sea.
Seeing it from a small boat up close was special.
The trains go through many tunnels along the coast.
These opening are for draining water from the tunnels (the lower one) and for ventilation (the upper one).
This is the remains of a German bunker from WWII.
There are so many interesting places in the Cinque Terre. Not enough time to describe them all. It was a wonderful, albeit tiring, day. We took the train back to Santa Margherita, rested a bit, and then found a restaurant that Luciano recommended. We enjoyed proscuito with melon and a pizza for supper.