Italy Day 7: Cinque Terre

Our last day in the Cinque Terre, and I was ready to do some hiking. I convinced Stephanie to wake up early and do the hike from our town, Vernazza, to the town of Monterroso. The hike between these two towns is the toughest, but the most scenic. We both loved the hike. Stephanie wasn't loving it about 2o minutes in, as the first stretch seems to go up forever. But we were having a great time once it leveled off and had some amazing views. We got some great pictures.

We were in need of a rest once reaching Monterroso, so we rented chairs and an umbrella on the beach and laid out in the sun. I did a little cooling off in the Mediterranean as well. Very refreshing. We grabbed some lunch and checked out the town a bit before taking a ferry back to Vernazza.

In the evening we decided to spend our last night in Vernazza, and had dinner Il Pirata delle Cinque Terre. The place is run by two twins from Sicily, and they were very charming and entertaining. The food was absolutely fantastic as well. This made for probably our most enjoyable dining experience thus far. Massimo chatted with us tons on each visit to our table, and he had some great lines that we will remember. On of my favorites was when he was explaining why they don't have a view from their restaurant. He said they prefer "the view on the plate". Another memorable one was the forms of payment they accepted. They said "cash or wash dishes" when we asked if they took Visa. They said they preferred wash dishes. They have some incredible desserts as well. Stephanie was in love with their fresh fruit slushies. They had made a fig shushie that day. We ended up having two (we had one in the afternoon, and had one again after we came back for dinner there). We also had a Cannoli with riccota and chocolate at their insistance that was great as well.

All in all, I think this was my favorite day in the Cinque Terre.