A Hike and Then 400 Steps to Corniglia - August 2, 2010

Monday August 2, 2010

Senne's Summary: Hiked the path to Corniglia and back. Had a refreshing swim in the Ligurian Sea.

Steve wants me to make a note here that he has been the champion of the card game for days now… I keep "forgetting" to document that fact… oopsie.

This morning we had another lovely breakfast on the terrace, of nectarines and “milk product” (AKA Ding Dong type food product).

We head down to the main street and pick up a couple of cheap beach towels. We couldn’t really tell how big they were or what was on them because they had them rolled up and tied with a ribbon. Steve picked the one that said, “Love” on the edge, and I picked the bright orange one. (Steve tried to convince me to get the “Hello Kitty” towel, but I said no!)

We head out on the path to Corniglia. First, we go through the same path as yesterday on the way to Manarola. We were much faster today as we didn’t stop and take a zillion pictures. 

Then we continue along the next portion of the path to Corniglia. This path is a little more rugged and considerably more up and down hill. The scenery is beautiful, and we stop to take quite a few pictures. 

When we get near the end of the path and see Corniglia we realize that it is UP… way UP! There are about 400 steps to get up to the top.

Steve makes me feel inadequate by running in circles while I huff and puff up the stairs…

Looking down the stair back towards the path

We do finally get to the top, and check out the village. This village is similar to the other two villages, the difference being that this one seems more polished. The buildings seem to be better taken care of… the plaster has been refinished, the doors are nicer, etc. I’m not sure why, but it seems like these people might have more money for keeping up their houses.

We tour the streets and the viewpoints and stop for a little sandwich lunch at one of the viewpoints. Steve and I split three very yummy sandwiches for the bargain price of 11 Euros. 

We also peek inside what looked to be a church. It was weird though… there were no seats and there were things that could have been fish carvings (but that’s a fairly imaginative guess) hanging from the ceiling. We are not really sure what was going on in there…

Next we head back towards Riomaggiore. We stop at the Corniglia beach for a swim. It is quite rocky, but mostly flat, so sort of easy to get into the water. 

Steve brings Carlos out of the backpack for a swim… and then we unfold the towels. Cheap towels = lots of fabric fluff… but the funniest part was Steve’s towel… the edge says love, but the middle has a big picture of a scooter. Apparently, Steve feels strongly about scooters… who knew?

After our swim we finish our walk back to Riomaggiore, and I am thankful to get inside, out of the sun. We watch our final episode of 'Breaking Bad’ (when does Season Four start????) and then sit out on the terrace and enjoy a glass of Chianti.

As the “biggest” grocery store is closed on Monday (biggest = approximately 10 by 10 feet), we decided to try one of the restaurants for dinner.

Since all the menus look basically the same we pick the one with the nicest view… the terrace overlooking the marina. We have pretty low expectations as the staff are particularly uninterested and one even looks like she’s ready to woof her cookies at any second. We both order a drink, me a glass of wine, and Steve a kiwi apple juice. The waitress comes back and says they are “finished” the wine I asked for and recommends another. I say sure.

Another waitress comes over to take our food order. I asked to start with the bruschetta. She says, “Today, no bruschetta, no foccacio, no this, no that… basically half the menu was NO”. Okay, we need a minute I say.

Then the other waitress comes back. We decide to start with the Caprese Salad. Can’t go wrong with that one… then we get adventurous. Steve gets the tuna steak and I get the stuffed mussels.

The salad was just okay… we had WAY better ones in France. Isn’t Caprese Salad an Italian salad? They totally redeemed themselves with the main course. Steve really enjoyed his tuna steak, and the stuffed mussels were AMAZING! It was moderately expensive for a dinner out, so Steve and I are going to try the “big grocery store” again. (Of course there’s always pizza :))

After dinner we walked up the main street for Gelato. I had “Nutella” and Steve had a ciachollata and blanco ciachollata. It was pretty good, but I personally think that the Ice Cream store in Paris was still the best out of all the ice cream and gelato I’ve had so far.

Tomorrow is going to be a relaxing day (AKA no hiking), maybe we’ll go hang out at the beach.