Italy - A Birthday in Cinque Terre

The day we arrived in Cinque Terre Ellie turned 10.  We were met at the train station by a man named Sergio.  He owned the guest cottage we were renting for the next four nights and didn’t mind taking time out of his day to pick us up at the station, bring us to the grocery store and help us select what we needed to eat for the next few days, and then drive us the 25 minutes it would take to get to the guest cottage on some pretty crazy hilly and windy roads that offered some spectacular views of the Mediterranean.  But before we jumped into his car, he said he had something for Ellie – a birthday cake!  A huge smile spread across her face as he reached into the back seat of his car and pulled out a round package wrapped in green paper and tied with ribbons.  She smiled from ear to ear all the way to the cottage with the birthday cake on her lap. 

Along the drive, Sergio stopped the car now and then and we would all pile out to take photos of the views.  This was our first glimpse of Vernazza, the little village we would be staying near.  It looked as if it was spilling out of the lush green valley into the crystal blue waters of the Mediterranean.

And about the drive – you’ve heard of expression “white knuckled” before, right?  Well this was a classic white knuckled drive – hilly, curvy, made you dizzy when you looked out the right window because of the precarious drop off type of drive.  The Mediterranean was below us to our right the entire way.  On the curves (and there were many), the valley wall would rise straight up on one side, and drop straight down on the other side of the road, leaving no room for error.  The road was so narrow in places that Sergio would beep the car horn as he neared a curve just in case another vehicle was coming from the other direction.  I hoped they were listening.  

After what seemed like much longer than 25 minutes, Sergio turned off the main road by a wine barrel and headed up a driveway lined with these beautiful discarded green jugs.   

For olive oil maybe?  Or wine?  I never found out but I sure wanted to take one home with me.  

Sergio brought us right up to the front of the cottage and parked the car before showing us around.  He didn’t have far to go to get home because he lives in the house on the terrace directly below this lovely little cottage.  In fact, he built the cottage himself, board by board and stone by stone.   

What an amazing job he did.  Besides being cozy 

and ridiculous adorable,  

it had everything we needed for our four night stay,

including a lovely olive tree right out front that was the perfect size for two little girls to play under and climb in.

It was perfect!  And out in front was a patio area with a grill, outdoor sink, a huge table, and a spectacular view.  

Which brings me back to Ellie’s birthday.  We arrived at the guest cottage midafternoon.  We put all our luggage away and were itching to make the 40 minute walk down the valley to the village of Vernazza, but first we had to see Ellie’s birthday cake… and maybe try some too.  It had come from a local bakery and the flaky crust held creamy layers of custard and chocolate.  And on top – “Happy Birthday Ellie!”

We sat in front of our wonderful little cottage looking down at the sparkling blue Mediterranean and savored every bite of that delicious cake, or tart, or whatever it was called.  

  
After a late lunch, the cake and a couple of glasses of wine, it was hard to pull ourselves away from that table and the view, but we wanted to venture down the steep hill to visit the little village of Vernazza before the sun set.  

Cute, colorful with the Mediterranean Sea lapping at it's feet - I think that is a fair description of this little town.  The walkway that juts out into the water forms a quiet little bay right next to the village where the girls spent time scrambling on the rocks and peering into the crystal clear water searching for sea creatures.   

We could have sat there for hours peering out at the sparkling waters of the Sea.  Even the camera man was lulled by the charm and beauty of this place.  

This wasn’t exactly the typical birthday celebration for Ellie, in fact this really wasn’t anything like any birthday she’s had before.  She was celebrating her tenth birthday in Italy.  She got a surprise birthday cake.  She played in the Sea.  There were lots of smiles.  I hope she remembers it well.

  

Italy - Welcome to Cinque Terre: A Little Slice of Heaven

Day 10 of our two week trip to Italy:  We boarded a train in the morning and headed towards the coast and more specifically, an area called Cinque Terre.   

 

While I honestly cannot say there is one thing I liked the most in Italy because it was all so very good, I can say that this part of the trip to Cinque Terre was the part I was the most excited about.  You see, the Mediterranean and I had met many, many years ago when I was in high school and I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Spain with a group from school.  It was love at first sight.  Well, to be honest, I fall in love with every large body of water I meet, but at that point in my young life, the Mediterranean was the first large body of salt water that I ever saw and I was instantly head over heels in love.  On the last day, I remember standing on the beach as a seventeen year old, my pockets full of shells and rocks I couldn’t resist but to take home, just watching the waves crashing into the beach as the sun sank in the sky and thinking, “I wonder if I’ll ever see the Mediterranean again?”  Honestly, I thought there was a good chance I wouldn’t.  But now here I was (let’s just skip the however many years later part ;) on Day 10 of our trip to Italy on a train with my husband and two daughters heading towards the Mediterranean Sea once again. 

 

 

Ah, Cinque Terre - I think I can sum it up by simply saying that it is utterly impossible to not love this place. 

The views – my gosh!  And we didn't even have to leave our cozy little guest cottage to enjoy the views.  We could simply sit out front enjoying a glass of wine with this as our backdrop.

And the five colorful little villages, some hugging the steep hillsides and others snuggled deep down in the valley right on the waters edge – just look at the pictures!  

Cinque Terre means “the five lands” and represents the five villages that sit along the rugged coast in this small section of the Italian Riviera.  The villages, coastline and surrounding hills are part of Cinque Terre National Park and is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

It was springtime, citrus season.  There were huge bright yellow lemons hanging heavy on the branches of the little trees.  They were everywhere – in groves on the hillsides, tucked behind cute little houses where the owners could enjoy them as part of their landscape, and as we hiked we would even stumble upon an occasional lone lemon tree high up on a hill or holding on tightly to a steep slope.  We stayed just outside of the little village of Vernazza and at the tiny little grocery store in town, we spied a basket full of these beautiful, juicy lemons with a sign saying they were in fact from this very village.  How could we resist?  Into our shopping basket went several.  Later on that day, I cooked up some simple syrup on the stove, Eric squeezed as much juice out of the lemons as he could, we mixed them together, added water and voila – fresh squeezed lemonade!  What a delicious treat after our long days of hiking the steep hills between the villages.

Oh, and about those hikes - BREATHTAKING!  That is the best word I can think of that even comes close to describe them.  

The sunlight glittering on the deep blue water mixed with the fact that one misstep on the trail at the wrong time would have been a serious problem.  It literally could take your breath away.   

These trails were narrow, rocky, steep and often one side plunging hundreds of feet straight down to the water below.    

Ellie and Leah – they are great hikers.  Some of the climbs up those trails were hard, very hard, but they carried on like troopers, only complaining about being hungry or thirsty now and again but my gosh, they deserved a snack and drink after some of those precarious yet stunning hikes. 

 

They were cute to watch and listen to as we trekked along because the two of them were making up some story for much of the time we spent hiking in Cinque Terre.  Some fantasy story with dragons and fairies and centaurs among other creatures.  We would hike and hike and hike with those two deep in conversation adding detail after detail to their little fantasy world, rarely an argument or disagreement occurring.   

They hiked side by side the entire time.  Eric and I had to keep reminding them to pay attention to the terrain.  We didn’t need anyone tripping over a tree root or slipping on a loose rock on those steep trails.   

But they just carried on, day after day, adding to their story.  We would make it to the top of one steep hill, 

and after a short break we would start down again on the other side - and their story just kept flowing and growing.  

It was lovely to watch this sisterly bonding.  They're close friends as well as sisters but they don't always get along as well as they did in Cinque Terre.  The magic of that beautiful place seemed to bring out the best in them.   

 

More tomorrow.  We have so many beautiful pictures and memories from Cinque Terre that I don’t want to rush it, but savor it instead, like a glass of good Italian wine – it should be drunk slowly and enjoyed.  

Italy - Florence Part Three: Michelangelo's David and the Rest of Our Visit

David by Michelangelo.  Simply stunning.  To be honest, when we arrived in Florence smack dab in the middle of our two week trip to Italy, I wasn’t all that excited to go to another museum and see another sculpture.  We were all a bit tired from traveling.  Our brains were seriously over stimulated by all the sights, sounds, smells and everything else new we had been exposed to over the past seven days.  And Florence was very crowded with tourists, just like us, and just as Rome was.  I loved Rome and would go back in a heartbeat, but after three days there we were ready to abandon the crowds.  In Florence, we ran into crowds again, and sorry for being so blunt, but I was to the point where if one more person stuck a selfie stick in my face, I was going to cram it down their throat.

And then we met David!  To be honest and I know I’m not alone in this, I don’t always get pieces of artwork.  But David I got.  From the moment you enter the corridor in the Galleria dell’Accedemia and see him standing high above the heads of the other admirers in the Museum, his power and beauty draws you in.   

He looks like perfection and maybe that’s his magic.  It’s hard to believe Michelangelo could chisel something so perfect, so magnificent out of a cold, hard slab of marble.  The muscular ripples in his arms are the perfect image of a true man.  The bulging veins in his neck look so real.   

And his fingers and toes.  I don’t know about you, but I have tried to draw many a good finger or toe over my 40 some years and failed miserably every time.  They are hard to draw, so I can’t image trying to chisel the perfect toe or finger out of rock.  But somehow, Michelangelo managed to perfectly form each and every one of David’s appendages.  Even my 7 and 9 year old girls couldn’t take their eyes off him.  Yes, there were a couple of questions about the male anatomy, but that wasn’t what they were focused on.  They circled David gazing at him from all sides and then asked me if they could use my camera phone to take pictures of him.  And the crowd was quiet, very contemplative in the presence of this magnificent piece of work.  There were no signs or guards requesting silence.  It just happened.  Because that is the power of Michelangelo’s David.

Some background on David:  The statue was unveiled to the public in 1504.  He is a representation of the Biblical hero David who is a common subject of art in Florence.  Michelangelo was only 26 years old when he began work on David in 1501.  The statue is thought to depict David after making the decision to fight Goliath but before the fight actually takes place.  

After viewing David, we wandered through the rest of the Galleria dell’Accedemia which didn't take long.  The museum is small compared to other museums here in Europe, which surprised us considering the most famous statue in the world is located here.  There are more pieces of work by Michelangelo, as well as other statues and paintings by a variety of Italian artists.  The most recent section added is the Museum of Musical Instruments where we saw some very unique instruments along with this one-of-a-kind viola made by Stradivari in 1690.

And the rest of our visit to Florence - well, we ate a lot.

This is the best pizza we had in Italy - and it was made by yours truly - and it was sort of a mistake.  We found pizza dough in the deli section at the grocery store and couldn't resist.  We picked up some fresh pesto, some fresh mozzarella and some proscuitto for the top.  But we forgot one important detail - we didn't have an oven in the apartment we rented.  

We had a dishwasher, washing machine and a tiny fridge in the kitchen, but no oven.  We did however have a stove top and some pans so we got creative and the result was the best pizza I think I've ever had.  I'm not kidding.  You should try making pizza on the stove top sometime and you'll see.

We also had LOTS of delicious Italian cookies that were also sort of a mistake.  Well, not really a mistake, but more a misunderstanding.  The man at the grocery store where these beautiful cookies were on display didn't speak much English.  Eric asking him if the cookies were sold by the kilo.  At first he looked very confused by this, but then it was as if a light bulb went on above his head and he started rummaging around under the counters looking for something.  Now we were confused not understanding what it was he was looking for.  Suddenly it dawned me - he thought Eric had said we wanted a KILO of cookies.  No, no, no sir - we don't want an entire kilo of cookies.  That's 2.2 pounds!  We just want a few.  He didn't understand.  He grabbed the biggest container he had and started throwing cookies into it.  He had surpassed a dozen by the time we got him to understand that was plenty, more than enough really but we just bought all the cookies anyway.  No need for any more confusion.  They got eaten, but we didn't have any gelato while in Florence.  

Speaking of gelato, the gelato shops in Florence and in all of Italy really are beautiful, especially first thing in the morning when they have just opened up for the day and the case is filled with mounds of fresh vibrantly colorful frozen milk and cream.  They are hard to pass by even when it is cold outside, which is was while we were in Florence, and even when you have a pile of cookies back at the apartment to eat. 

All the little food shops in Italy are beautiful, like a piece of art work themselves.  Does this just happen naturally here or do the shop owners purposely try to find the cutest little location to display their wonderful collection of fresh fruits and veggies and bottles of olive oil and sauces, and chunks of cheese and proscuitto?  

One of the shops lured us in to get some cannoli.  We had to try some cannoli while in Italy.  I'm going to be honest with you - while this makes a pretty picture, none of us liked it very much.  I'm not sure why, we just weren't crazy about it.  Maybe we just got bad cannoli.  I will try it again.  

We visited the Museo Galileo which houses one of the world's largest collections of scientific instruments.  Eric enjoyed it a lot.  We all did but he had the advantage of actually understanding the purpose behind many of these gadgets while the girls and I did not.  

They were pretty though, and as an added bonus, we got to see one of Galileo's middle fingers!

We went inside the great duomo, the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower, which we had stood outside of to view the Easter celebration.  

And we viewed the amazing bronze doors on the Florence Baptistry that stands before the great duomo.

We spent some time in our apartment wondering at how it was possible to fit this gorgeous behemoth of a hutch made of solid wood through that teeny tiny door on the right.  Even in two pieces it was hard to image how this could be done as the hallway leading up to the apartment on the second floor was only slightly wider than the door and had a 90 degree turn in it.  Very puzzling. 

We made our best attempt to enjoy some wine on the balcony of our apartment but the weather gods were not coorperating.  It was cold and windy during our time in Florence and we lasted about two minutes out there.

And the last thing we did in Florence before heading to the Medittereanan coast was to celebrate Ellie's birthday with a breakfast of her favorite pastries.  

She turned 10 years old. Ten years ago that day Eric has been in England when I found myself going into labor five weeks early and it feels like it was just yesterday.  Now here we were spending her 10th birthday in Italy, together!   We are blessed.