Italian Holiday

Monday, June 2


It's an Italian holiday today, and we're celebrating it by sleeping in and 
taking it easy. We figure everywhere we'd like to go will be crowded, so why not 
take advantage of the situation and just slow down and smell the ocean. 

After smelling the ocean and enjoying our fabulous view for a bit, we notice a 
miracle has happened!!  Manarola is returning to the quaint village we loved.  
Most of the tourist groups have left. The ferries aren't standing room only. 
Maybe we'll chance a train ride. 

We take the train to the northernmost Cinque Terre town, Monterosso.  We're 
trying to get to Cantina di Miki, a restaurant, and...of course...we realize 
we're headed the wrong way. We do one of our famous u-turns to get to the 
restaurant. 

This restaurant is managed by a beautiful young lady who writes a blog that I 
follow, "Life in Liguria". She is originally from New Jersey. We met her the 
last time we were here and she is most gracious to us. She serves us limoncello 
on the house and chats for a bit. 

chatting with Christina

We talk with Christina, the blogger, about the crowds. She says it has been 
terrible with the three day weekend. She explains that if a holiday lands on 
Tuesday, they just get Tuesday off (the government hasn't changed their holidays 
to three day weekends like in the States), so when a three day weekend hits it's 
a big deal. She also manages some rooms for rent and one of her customers asked
where they could go to get "off the beaten path". Her response is, "You're in 
Monterosso...there is only one path!"

Jacque and I test the waters at

Monterosso

  

In the evening we go to Billy's for dinner (have you noticed a pattern...we're 
always eating or drinking!) and it is up a steep climb (of course!). And then we 
take very steep steps down to our outside table. The tables are on three levels: 
downstairs--outside, main floor--inside, and upstairs across the street. We are 
panting and carefully and slowly stepping down the very steep stairs to our 
table. Then we watch the waiters. They are running up and down these stairs, 
with trays of food or glasses, faster than we'd walk across a room. What I would 
do for a set of their calves!

After dinner the restaurant offers complimentary digestivos of 2 kinds of 
grappa, sambucca, and limoncino. Jacque tells me that she's never met a grappa 
she liked. Jacque and I try a taste of limoncino. The guys have some grappa and 
say it warms you all the way down. Then John announces, "How I love this 
country!  I can go to sleep late, wake up in the middle of the night and read, 
then sleep again and wake up late.  What a country!"  I know he's proud of his 
heritage so I don't want to disillusion him by telling him...that's not this
country; that's what's called a vacation!!

the view from our bedroom window...

not bad...not bad at all!!!