Last days in Corniglia

Dinner on the second night was at the restaurant we had tried to eat at the night before. There was only one sitting at 8 pm and there was only space for 24 people. There were no printed menus, just items written on blackboards in what appeared to be a haphazard manner. We sat next to a couple from Helsinki who had eaten there the night before. They were very helpful in explaining the menu and telling us about the host. He had very strict rules about how you ordered your meal. Wine came last because he was very particular about what wine went with what food. Luckily we ordered meals that went with white wine (Claire had the fish and Peter the rabbit). I think we would have had trouble if we had chosen the wrong meals! Everyone hushed while someone else was ordering, it was very entertaining, almost like theatre. It was a fun night and the food was delicious.

From Peter. I had ducked out for a smoke in the nearby square as we were waiting to pay the bill. As I entered the square someone totally unexpectedly called out Peter (here I am half way around the world and someone’s calling my name). It was Kay who we met last night and I recommended the restaurant for their meal the next day and joined up with them again.

Next morning we left Corniglia early to walk to Vernazza. Again we were out before too many people and the walk was very pleasant. There were a few steep parts, but not as bad as coming the other way. We got some great shots of Corniglia from the hills above. Every time we took a photo it was like a picture postcard.

Our apartment was in the yellow building in the middle.

Corniglia and Manarola

All the towns are quite different from each other, they all seem to have there own character.

Vernazza

There were a lot of tourists in Vernazza by the time we got there so we decided to catch the shuttle bus up to San Bernadino, a small village we could see from our apartment. Taken from our window.

The bus ride was certainly exciting. There was passenger who spent the whole time talking to the driver, who in turn was talking back, looking around and waving one hand about. We were terrified he was going to take both hands off the wheel if he got really animated.

San Bernadino was very small, so after a very good lunch we decide to walk back down to Vernazza. We had trouble finding the start of the walking track so we set off down the road. That was fun! Trying to remember which side of the very narrow road the cars were coming on kept us on our toes. It was also very steep, our calves haven’t forgiven us yet.

Vernazza