As the title suggests, our next day in Vernazza (September 18th) was a rainy, windy day. The storm started late in the night (lightning and thunder and rain oh my!) and then mellowed out by morning. It was misty most of the day, but otherwise a fairly manageable storm. We had planned to hike this day, but with the rain, just didn't think it would be so fun to tromp through the mud. So we settled in for another lazy day of reading and relaxing.
For breakfast, we went up to the Sicilian bakery at the top of the village, Il Pirata delle Cinque Terre. What a kick it was! We walked up to the bar and checked out the pastries and sandwiches. We started to order a pastry when one of the brothers immediately joined in and said "no, no, no!" and proceeded to instruct us on which pastries to choose, what to drink, where to sit. The two brothers were exceptionally nice and their pastries were DELICIOUS!
For lunch, we had pizza at the place next to/across from Gelatria di Stalin (right near the little mini-harbor). With the rain, we couldn't really sit outside, but there was a little covered terrace in the back where we could sit (mostly out of the rain). The place was super simple, but the pizza was awesome! Salty, super thin crust, simple ingredients, delicious!
Pizza was, of course, followed by our daily Gelato. Pete had berries & cream and lemon. I had nutella swirl and hazelnut (my new all time favorite!).
We wandered around the village a bit, bought some wine, limoncello, and olive oil to be sent home. Weather continued to be gloomy but was honestly rather beautiful in its own right. It was kind of cool to see the city from another perspective.
With the rain, there was also a train strike so the village was significantly less touristed than previous days. It made for a much quieter and sleepier Vernazza (something we both enjoyed!). The crowds usually come in with each train although mellow out during the evening. With no trains coming through, the town was delightfully empty.
In the early evening, we decided to stop in at a local bar for a drink to kill some time before dinner. We had a cocktail alla Vernazza. Let's just say, not our cup of tea. It was extremely bitter and just challenging to drink. I oh-so-subtly dumped most of mine over the ledge into the harbor. Peter was a trouper and managed to drink most of his without choking. All the delights of new things!
For dinner this night, we ventured out from the harbor to a little place tucked up mid-village behind the Farmacia (pharmacy). We shared a big bowl of seafood risotto! It was amazing!
After dinner, we had a small drink at a little place by the harbor. We had a local sweet wine called Schaccitra. It's basically a wine made from dried (on the vine) grapes. If you are lucky, you can see the grapes drying around the village (usually in a dark room). It's lovely syrupy sweet.
No comments:
Post a Comment