Two of Five

Today we explored Vernazza and Manarola. Both are beautiful in their own ways.

Here are some more pictures of Vernazza.

I wanted to touch the water. It got in my shoe

Tommy was more graceful

Looking south from Vernazza

Panorama of Vernazza from the top of the ruined castle

We walked both Vernazza and Manarola today. The Vernazza loop took us from above the train station, down to the square on the beach, and up to the castle tower. That's where the above picture is taken from.

Manarola is two towns south of where we are staying. We decided to visit Manarola today because it sounded more picturesque than Riomaggiore. In Manarola we refueled with gelato and got to walking. It was a beautiful day and we were very thankful for every little breeze--we were sweating! We followed Rick Steves' 'Manarola Walk' from the Italy guidebook that we've been using, and we were rewarded with amazing views.

Manarola from the north

See the little lizard?

View from the vineyards above Manarola

When we got back to Vernazza we rested a little bit in our apartment before heading to the square for an aperitivo (pre dinner drink and small snack) and we looked through our guidebook to decide where we wanted to eat for dinner. We decided on Gianni Franzi because the prices looked decent and we've been wanting to try fresh anchovies which is a specialty of this region. Well, we can say we at least tried something new... and I don't think we'll be trying them again :) The dish we got was baked anchovies with potatoes, tomatoes and herbs. It was really fishy. We also got pesto pasta (Trofie--a Ligurian pasta) again because we knew that would be delicious.

Tomorrow we are going hiking! We are going to hike one town north, to Monterosso al Mare. Once we are done exploring Monterosso, we will take the train one town south of Vernazza, to Corniglia, and hike back to Vernazza from Corniglia. Each hike is about 2.5 miles with lots of ups and downs. I think tomorrow is supposed to be a little cooler than today, so it should be perfect for hiking!