Cinque Terre, Italy

Bonjorno Family and Friends,

Over the past week, we welcomed two sets of visitors. First, Joe's mom and dad arrived for a three-week stay. The kids immediately put grandpa to work chasing them around the house and playing other games. The following day, Joe's sister Ranee and her daughter Lilia came. The kids were very excited to play with their cousin who they haven't seen in almost a year.

Last Saturday after everyone had recovered from their jet lag, we took a short drive to see some of the local sites and showed Mom and Dad Onstott the flowers they missed on their last trip to France. We then packed up our things and headed towards the Cique Terre on the Italian coast for a four-day mini vacation.



Due to traffic problems near Genoa, our drive to the town of Corniglia took much longer than we planned and we had to navigate the narrow, winding mountain roads in the dark. Fortunately, the owner of the apartments we rented took time in the middle of the night to show us where to park our cars and how to get from place to place within the rustic village. Grandma, Grandpa, Ranee, and Lilia had a unique flat overlooking a main alley throgh town while Joe and Julie and the kids stayed in a two-level apartment facing the ocean and surrounding mountains.



The Cinque Terre, or "Five Lands" in Italian, consists of the towns of Monterossa, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. Each small village is sandwiched between the Mediterranean sea and terraced mountains that have been used to cultivate olives, grapes, and lemons for centuries. The typography, relative isolation, and lack of modern amenities helped make this a popular destination. It is also the area from which well-known Italian dishes like pesto and foccacia bread originate.



One of our main goals in taking this trip was to hike between the different villages using the national park trails. Julie outfitted each of the kids with a special day pack for hiking which she filled with water, rain gear, and other back packing essentials. With the exception of Nathaniel who hitched a ride on dad's shoulders from time to time, none of the kids had any problem with the stairs or changes in elevation that we encountered along the way. Of course, a little reward of gelato at the end of a hike helped keep complaints to a minimum.



On the second day, we wisely decided against taking the kids, especially Nathaniel, on the steeper and more difficult trails. Instead, mom, grandma, and the kids boarded a train from Corniglia to Vernazza to meet Ranee, Joe, and Grandpa.



Along the way, Joe, Ranee, and grandpa passed through extremely lush vegetation, walked through numerous hill-side farms and olive orchards, and made their way along the steep cliffs hundreds of feet above the ocean.



The most challenging aspect of the trail was the steps that led up from Corniglia, up into the mountains, and then back down to sea level.



All that hiking helped us to develop a good appetite. As soon as we reached a new town, we began searching for the perfect "ristorante". Grandpa was very happy with the combination pasta and seafood plates that were offered at each restaurant. In fact, he claims that one of the lunches he had was the best meal he had ever eaten. The rest of the group sampled various pasta dishes like pesto lasagne, fresh anchovy salad, seafood ravioli, and pizza made with pecorino (cheese made from sheep milk) and arugula.



On the morning we arrived in Vernazza, local contruction workers were busy doing erosion control on one of the hillsides near the village. Unlike most construction sites, however, all of the building materials had to be brought in by helicopter and lowered into the correction position. This, along with the ferries that would try unsuccessfully to tie up to the dock in the rough seas kept the kids entertained long enough for the adults to spend a few relaxing moments sitting on the dock.



The kids liked several aspects of the trip. They enjoyed the food and the gelato, especially the fruit flavors, cioccolato (chocolate) and stracciatella (chocolate chip). They got to spend an afternoon swimming in the ocean and playing on the beach in Monterossa. And they got to take a few train rides through the mountain to get from city to city.



On our way out of the Cinque Terre, we stopped for a picture at the top of the mountain overlooking Corniglia. We then followed the coast north to the resort town of Portofino.



Portofino, as we found out, is one of the most expensive and exclusive resort towns on the Italian Rivierra and is frequented by movie stars or those just needing a place to tie up their yacht for the night. Unfortunately, it was not the ideal place to find a family restaurant with enough space for nine people and we had to settle for a small sidewalk cafe that was somewhat of a letdown from the fantastic meals we had eaten previously. Nevertheless, the various buildings and pristine coastline made the short sidetrip worthwhile.

Ciao Ciao!

Joe, Julie, Nicolas, Elyse, and Nathaniel