Now that I was home in Verona, it was Kate's turn to try her luck with European airports and get to Verona. Well, she made it! Almost perfectly. A slight delay from Paris into Verona and she was here! I showed her all around Verona, we got Spritzes in Erbe, and ate a great meal outside next to the Old Roman Gateway into the city. We had planned to visit the Cinque Terre and leave early Friday morning, but because we had missed class earlier in the week, we needed to have a makeup class Friday. So, Mom and I headed out after class let out to the Cinque Terre! We had an extremely easy trip and when we arrived in Monterosso, it felt like no one was in town. We think it was because of the rain, though. We checked into our fabulous hotel and found a great family-run restaurant for dinner. We had the best bruschetta we've both ever tasted. The tomatoes were unlike any others we've ever had.
Saturday was hiking day. We ate breakfast out on the patio of our hotel overlooking the ocean (yes, we realized here how spoiled we were) and then headed to the trail. It turned slightly overcast so it was nice and cool for the toughest part of the hike. We saw a bunch of older people and wondered how they were possibly doing the hike. Oh. And we also saw a cat on a leash...
The first town we came to was Vernazza. The path wound us down through town and was beautiful. It was starting to drizzle so we took a break and had lunch. The Cinque is known for their fresh pesto, so we tried that out. It was also delicious. We almost headed home because of the rain, but it eased up and we ventured on. It didn't rain the rest of the day!
Another tough hike to town #3, Corniglia. Now the sun was shinning bright! Corniglia was our orange soda town as we sat and took in the scenery. Manarola was an easy trek and that was our Gelato town (see the pattern yet?). We wandered around a lot before finding the next trail. It was the easiest and most crowded. It was on this trail that we saw the same cat that was on a leash, now being carried (like a baby) in a cat carrier...
We had to walk quickly through the last town, Riomaggiore, to make the last boat of the day. We decided to boat it back instead of train it for the scenery. After we got back to Monterosso, it was time for a well deserved beer.
We went back to our wonderful hotel to get ready for dinner and check train schedules for the next day. Friday night we had found local cuisine and Saturday night we found our fine dinning! Mom had a steak, I had sea bass ravioli, and we may or may not have split french fries. We also tried the Cinque Terre wine and dessert. I had chocolate mouse that rivals my favorite dessert ever, warm chocolate cake. Sunday morning we took our time eating breakfast, once again on the patio, did some last souvenir shopping, and headed to the train station.
I have really enjoyed the time I've been able to share with my Mom. We are good explorers together and when we checked out of our hotel we said, "We'll be back!" I am so happy she decided to come over and see my home away from home, Verona, and that we were able to go someplace neither one of us had ever been. I will the miss the fine dining...
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