The Cinque Terre
Days 5 & 6
The Cinque Terre is composed of five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. Visitors can travel among the towns by train, boat, or hiking. It was a short walk from the train to our hotel in Monterosso, Hotel Palme where we were assigned room 305. As in Milan and Venice, we got a room key, and were required to turn it in at the reception desk when leaving the hotel each time. From our balcony at night, we could see the full moon. If it wasn't for a few buildings in front of us, we would have had a view of the Mediterranean!
Hotel Lobby
Hotel Palme & Courtyard
Our room was two flights up, which was usually quicker to get to by stairs than taking the slow, two-person elevator. We had a small balcony, with a view of the courtyard.
Hotel Palme put out a great breakfast buffet, and there was plenty of seating inside and out. They offered laundry service for just 15 Euros. We filled two of their bags, which were about the size of a kitchen garbage can. Everything was all clean, folded, and waiting in our room when we returned at the end of the day. What a deal!!
Monterosso is divided into Old Town and Fegina, the new town. Hotel Palme is located in Fegina, which has the main beach, a promenade, and train station. In addition to the brick-and-mortar shops, there were also many temporary tables or "booths" with people selling their wares.
The beach was a bit rocky, but that did not stop the tourists from putting down a towel, and enjoying the sun. And the water was cold, but very inviting, even for Linda. Lee said he needed to stay on the beach with our belongings - towels & shoes.
Monterrosa is divided into Old Town and Fegina, the new town. We stayed at Hotel Parma in Fegina, which has the main beach, a promenade, and train station. The beach wa
Hugo Spritz - popular here, but we prefer Aperol Spritz.
We had an option of paying an additional 35 Euro fee for a special dinner at Ristorante Belvedere on our second night. The menu option we chose included caprese salade, ligurian pasta with pesto sauce (out of this world!), amphora of seafood, sorbet, wine, wine, and more wine! It was a beautiful evening with a full moon. Nearly all of our group attended, and we had an amazing evening!
The cats were sleeping, but not where we could see them.