Cinq Terre- day one



After taking a good look at the historic district of Genoa ( Genova) it is clear we should have allowed a couple of days to get a better look at the place, as opposed to just an overnight stay.
 We spent much of Tuesday night and Wednesday morning exploring the area around the bay. There was no shortage of seafood and it seemed like almost every third shop was selling some type of food , panini, pizza, gelato etc.
  Our train left at 12:45pm and stopped at almost every town on the coast, arriving in Riomaggiorre about 10 minutes late, at 2:15pm
 The walk to town was about half a km and once we reached the Main Street the road seemed to be a steady uphill climb. The office for our accommodations was fairly easy to find, but from there to our actual room was a somewhat confusing trick up stairs that were better suited to mountain goats rather than people.
 Our home for the next 3 days is a decent size apartment with a fridge and a 4 burner cooktop but no oven or microwave.
  After emptying our suitcases etc. We set off for a quick exploratory tour of the village. All roads seem to go uphill at a fairly steep grade.Needless to say the views are quite spectacular but the sea looks a little rough for swimming. The main drag Via Colombo is barely wide enough to accommodate a mini bus and seems to be jammed with hundreds if not thousands of tourists. Every building is either a bar, a restaurant, a shop or an office advertising rooms for rent. Following the road almost to the top  we reached a large square where the town's main church is located. Dedicated to St. John the Baptist (San Giovanni Battista the building dates back to 1340 AD. Unlike the elaborate churches of Genoa and Venice, this was rather plain in appearance with most of the interior of a stone design that looked like the older style seen in much of Turkey and in some parts of Spain i.e a somewhat "Moorish" design. Continuing along the upper road we eventually reached a walkway overlooking the sea with some spectacular view of the harbour area and the very rocky "beach".
 The steps down to water level were extremely steep but luckily hand rails afforded some degree of security.
 After returning to our room for a quick rest we had a rather late lunch /early supper consisting of steamed mussels followed by pizza for me while Susanna had her usual seafood and pasta.
 It seems like every meal in Italy so far has cost us 50 euro ( roughly $75 Canadian)
 A cheaper option here seems to be "take away" which is mostly fried seafood, burgers or pizza. Maybe we will try that tomorrow.
With 2 full days here our plan is to buy an all day rail pass which allows travel to all 5 of the villages.
 Suffice to say, I cant see us putting on too much weight as we easily logged 6 km today, inspire of my planned max. Of no more than 5km per day.

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