Warning: This post is going to be a long one. If you really don’t want to carry on, just know that we had a wonderful vacation and are very happy about it. You may even want to scroll down and glance at a pic or two. For those of you who can’t get enough (or simply have nothing better to do or are in work avoidance mode), read on and then follow up with the
photo link.
Cinque Terre translates to “five lands” and is comprised of five small villages on the coast of Italy—Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso—where the mountains plunge headlong into the sea. Each of the villages seems to have its own distinct personality. Vernazza, where we stayed and where the wedding took place, only has one main street. The rest of the town is up up up stairs (to get into houses, hotel rooms, anything…there will be stairs and plenty of them). There is no real car traffic in the villages, because cars just don’t fit. Everyone is on foot, and there are beautiful hiking trails in the mountains and along the sea that connect the villages (they are also connected by train). Most of the tourists visit for the walks, though we were unprepared for the sheer amount of American tourists in this relatively isolated place. We hadn’t heard of Cinque Terre before Andrea and Fiammetta disclosed the wedding location, but we also don’t read Rick Steves’ guidebooks. Apparently, he has written a highly favorable segment about Cinque Terre in his Italy guide, which brought just about every American we spotted to that location. It was insane. I’ve seen more nationalities represented in Colonial Williamsburg on the 4th of July, but I digress.
The closest airport to Cinque Terre is Pisa. Since I hadn’t been there before, we decided to fly in Friday and stay two nights before heading to the coast. The ordeal that air travel has become was bad enough on our trip out that we were almost ready to abort the whole holiday and go home. As we finally boarded the plane from Amsterdam to Pisa, I smiled weakly at Markus and said, “Maybe we’re just getting all of the potentially negative mess out of the way now so we will have a fantastic trip.” He looked skeptical (rightfully so), but thank goodness it turned out to be TRUE.
We arrived in Pisa on a warm sunny afternoon. As we waited for our shuttle, Markus wondered aloud what I would make of the famous tower. In every picture I’d seen of it in recent years, it has been propped with steel cables and retention wires, so I wasn’t expecting much. Given that, I was unprepared for the beauty and the marvel of it. In most Italian cities I’ve seen, the glorious cathedrals have become enclosed by traffic and other buildings, everything being built close together in the race for space; this is not so in Pisa. The cathedral complex (the tower, the cathedral, and the baptistery) is surrounded by a huge, lovely grassy area (upon which are many sprawled and sleepy tourists).
Pisa itself is a fairly small, peaceful university town, so we had the cathedral area mostly to ourselves during off-peak times. No longer supported by cables and actually open to the public, the tower is really amazing. It’s hard to capture the lean in a photo because of perspective, but you can really see it at the base. I was surprised to learn that it already had subsided significantly after only three tiers were built. They stopped construction for many years, and then they added more layers to an already leaning structure. The top was added many years after that, using special construction techniques to try to correct the angle so the bells could be hung.
During our second day, we took a day trip by train to Florence. It is so incredible to walk around that city with its great history of art and culture. We strolled past the Duomo, the Palazzo Uffici with the numerous famous sculptures in the piazza outside, over the Ponte Vecchio, and then on to Boboli Gardens so Ellie could run around and have a play before lunch (which, by the way, was not nearly as fabulous as what we had in Pisa).
On Sunday, we took the train to Vernazza. Getting our luggage up to the hotel room was quite an ordeal (I am not joking about the stairs, people), but once we were settled, we were happy! The hotel Andrea and Fiammetta had directed us to (La Mala) was gorgeous! We’re convinced it must be the nicest in all of Cinque Terre (all white interior, Carrera marble in the bathrooms, flat screen satellite TV, included mini-bar and in-room coffee and tea). It is a beautifully renovated house, so it only has four rooms. Ours was actually a two-room combo, so Ellie had her own room for sleeping—ideal for us to actually have a vacation too! They also provided a crib for her, so she was all set. Breakfast each morning consisted of fresh pastry, juice and delicious Italian coffee in the bar down at street level. We’re not big coffee drinkers, but we drank huge mugs of café latte each morning and enjoyed it!
The wedding was on Thursday, so we had the whole week to explore. We took the train to the other villages (we made sure to visit all five) and hiked some of the gorgeous trails. The 4km mainly uphill walk from Vernazza to Corniglia was particularly gratifying, but we missed the Monterosso trail which several of our friends claimed was the best. Cinque Terre is a place we’d like to visit again in the fall or winter. Although the locals assured us that it was actually calmer than usual, it was way too touristy for us in the summertime and a bit too hot for hiking as well.
Although Monterosso is the beach town, Vernazza does have a small beach at the harbor that was perfect for Ellie. She loves getting in the water and playing in the sand. Two of our six days had rough seas, but we played hard the other afternoons (you can see Ellie and Markus below taking a stroll along the shoreline; she's clad in pink from head to toe).
Vernazza also has a small playground near the train station with a slide, one swing, and a climbing frame (there’s a bigger playground in Monterosso, for those of you using this blog as a travel guide), but this was more than enough for Ellie. Since the village is so small, we could walk from the harbor (close to our hotel) to the train station (the other end of town) in about three minutes. Italy itself is a great destination for holidays with kids, because every place is so family-oriented! Ellie was saying “Ciao!” and “Grazie!” by the time left Pisa, and this won her so many hearts! There was one old Italian nonna every morning at the bar who wanted so badly to pet and squeeze Ellie that she seemed ready to burst; she even gave her a 2 Euro coin and insisted we buy her a gelato with it. We felt welcome everywhere, and I love how gracious, patient and enthusiastic Italians are with my pathetic grasp of the language (if I try, they are wonderful to me, no matter how badly I butcher things).
Thursday was the wedding day, and we were excited from the start. I paparazzi-ed the bride at the hair salon and the groom at breakfast before we all got dressed. Andrea and Fiammetta had a civil ceremony in a non-religious church at the top of the village. Fiammetta looked absolutely beautiful in a gown she’d designed herself, and her father was the happiest, proudest Father of the Bride I’ve ever seen. After the wedding, Andrea and Fiammetta made their way to a prepared balcony in the center of town for the “blessing”, a wedding tradition particular to Vernazza. It’s customary for the bride and groom to toss chocolates and sweets to the villagers (and tourists) after the ceremony. They were advised to purchase hefty amounts of sweets for this event, and it drew quite a crowd! One of the locals who takes it upon himself to rate weddings gave Andrea and Fiammetta 4.5 stars based on guests’ appearance, formality of the ceremony, restaurant choice and set up, and the blessing (which actually caused the missing half star because some of the sweets apparently weren’t up to snuff).
If you’ve ever been to an Italian wedding, you know it is all about the food. The wedding lunch lasted for five hours, after which many of the guests ended up at the beach trying to remember their own names and imagine how they might ever eat again. This experience was repeated the next day with a five-hour “brunch”. Unfortunately, Ellie woke up with a cold the morning of the wedding, so we missed out on quite a bit of the festivities, taking turns being in the room with her so she could nap and trying to give her space away from the other guests with small children. This also prevented us from having a good family photo of us all dressed up, because she was having none of it. At least the cold was relatively minor and short-lived. We’re sure the gorgeous climate and the fresh sea air did her good. Regardless, we were happy to see whatever we could of the wedding. Andrea and Fiammetta put a tremendous amount of effort into planning it (even arranged accommodations for all guests since little is online), and they looked so happy on their big day!
Saturday morning, we took the train back to Pisa and began the trip home again. Due to delays and the waiting game that is plane travel, the total journey lasted around 12 hours. Ellie was a trooper as usual and didn't complain, but we could tell how happy she was to be home!
