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We depart Beaulieu-sur-Mer today early in the morning, bound for Cinque Terre, on the Italian Riviera coast. Cinque Terre is a literal translation to: "5 villages", which are villages where farmers have, over many generations, cultivated crops - fruit, veg and vineyards, on steep cliffsides on fertile soil. Each of the towns are easily within reach by train (about 5 mins between each). We are staying in the 3rd town of the 5, called Corniglia, but before that, we had to drop off the car at Nice railway station by 9:30; catch the train from Nice to Ventimiglia (the Italy border), transfer trains to Monterosso (the first Cinque Terre village), then another train to Corniglia.
As we got off the intercity train at Monterosso, we were swarmed with tourists! I think most of them were day-trippers in tour groups that visited each of the villages, but we had to squish our way (with all our baggage) onto the train, in +30 degree heat. The next part of our struggle was getting from the Corniglia train station, which is at the BOTTOM of the cliff, catch a mini shuttle bus (more squishing ourselves and our luggage onto the tiny bus), up to the Corniglia city centre. It would have been impossible for us to take te 365 steps up from the station to the town centre. Even without our luggage, it would'e been a struggle!
Oh man. When we finally met Agnes at the village centre at 4pm and got to our apartment...all our struggle was worth it! The sea and cliff views from the Affitacamere Abrasia de Mar were SPECTACULAR!!!! The unobstructed seaview on one side, and the veggie, fruits and vineyard plantations growing on the cliffside on the other side.... We were in another world. Cinque Terre is absolutely, crazily AMAZING!!!
I was excited already, and we hadn't even been around the area yet!
We unloaded all our crap, then strolled around Corniglia. There were a few lookouts, restaurants, deli, gelateria, shops, a church, on narrow pebbled alleys. It's so beautiful!!
Agnes was extremely friendly and kind -- she offered to do our laundry for us!...even dividing between darks and whites.
We'd covered all of Corniglia by dinnertime at 7pm. We chose a pasta place called "il Pirun" just on the same street as our apartment. Pasta was homemade, the pesto and pomodoro (tomato) sauce was sooooooo fresh and tasty. Even had a pomodoro bruschetta, the size of which was larger than my face, super juicy and delicious tomatoes!! Omg so yummy.
We finished off the night with cheese, prosciutto and red wine with a cool sea breeze blowing. Perfecto!!!
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