Cinque Terre is proof that God exists.

Written Mar 6, 2010

I know for a fact that it is not possible to describe my day to you, or to make its sheer perfection make sense using words.  This kind of feeling, bone-deep contentment that just gets ahold of your soul and makes your whole body radiate, can’t be captured in words.  Here goes my paltry attempt.

FIRST, a huge shout-out and thank you to Peter Balestracci for being the catalyst behind this Tuscan paradise of a break.  Not only does he speak very good Italian, but he drives like he was born behind a steering wheel, even in the scariest and narrowest of Tuscan roads.  He knows his Italian food and wine better than I know my alphabet.  He got us our Lucca home for the weekend.  Best of all, he comes up with adventures I would never have dreamed up…case in point: today.

We left La Casa Di Iva by about 10:45 and drove through hands-down THE most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen.  Peter’s ancestors came from La Spezia, Italy, which is now the naval center of the country and sits on the coast of the Mediterranean.  We wound our way up switchbacks and through the mountains to reach Cinque Terre, the most beautiful place in the world.  Cinque Terre literally means “five lands,” a reference to the five cities that dot the coastline like pastel jewels.  For us, our day started in Rio Maggiore where we left the car (which we named Figaro) for the day.  We purchased our trail-and-rail passes and started off on La Via Dell’Amore, or “Lover’s Walk.”…

The boys had purchased some foccacia bread, coppa salami and pecorino cheese so we had a picnic…after climbing down the cliff via some rickety wooden stairs and setting up on a massive boulder in the Mediterranean Sea…shoes and socks came off right away and we climbed down the side of the boulder to dip our feet in….

Then it was back up the trail and walking to the second city, Manarola, my favorite.  We spent very little time there because the view of the town from outside it was just so much prettier…

After Manarola we walked a more challenging trail to the third city, Corniglia.  After the actual trail ended we climbed a series of switchbacks through vineyards and lemon groves to reach the summit of Corniglia, where we drank a bottle of red wine bottled at a vineyard owned by the restaurant we were visiting, admiring the phenomenal view…

From Corniglia we had to take the train to the fourth town, Vernazza, as the trails weren’t open this early in the season.  We got gelato at a specialty shop and had the gelaterro’s two specialty flavors in a homemade cone: crema de Cinque Terre, which was pistachio with hazelnut and chocolate, and crema di Vernazza, lemon gelato with strawberry.  While we ate we walked along the jetty, saw some jellyfish, or “di meduzzi,” and climbed the enormous boulders lining the breaker…

All too soon it was time for us to leave beautiful Cinque Terre, and I know that I left an enormous piece of my heart there…I can’t wait to go back and reclaim it someday.  Amo, amo, amo Italia!  This country has gotten into me and wrapped itself around my heart.  It makes me happy to be Italian, even a little bit…just so I can claim a little bit of this beautiful, beautiful place for my own. 

si bella. <3