Cinque Terre

Staying in Guest Houses are definitely the way to go in Italy! We stayed two nights in really little town called Framura at a guest house that is on a  working farm that had hilltop views of the water on one side and a valley one the other. Tyson really enjoyed feeding the goats blades of grass and watching the chickens run around. We discovered the chickens would shake their heads when we said 'Cockadoodledooo' which got boring to Tyson much earlier than it did for us, lol. Hey, it was our first full day of 'doing nothing' on our trip, so a little stir craziness was bound to come out. 

The farm also had four dogs and a cat that Tyson  spent most of the day looking for and chasing around the tables of the outdoor eating area. The dinner at this place was a very nice surprise and ended up being one of the best parts! It was an amazing 5 course meal (at least) that included baby goat ribs, seafood pasta, vegetable ravioli with meat sauce, and unlimited wine- all for only 20 Euros per person! For desert we had lemon gelato with strawberries and a tasty chocolate desert along with limoncello for 'digestion'. No chicken for Shelly but there was plenty of other delicious dishes to eat.  For lunch on the second day we were told to take a trail behind their property to the next village over called 'Costa' that had a nice old restaurant. It was nice to burn off our lunch walking back up the hillside on the trail back to the hotel. Tyson was ready for bed by the time we got back so we let him hit the hay while we hung out just next the bedroom window outside to enjoy the cool breeze and get some online time in.

When we checked out the following morning, we drove to a town with a train stop called Levanto which was about 30 minutes away. The roads were ridiculously windy and locals were blazing past us (with a nice little honk). Marshall didn't have much of a breakfast and felt 'just a little' car sick while driving. We stopped along the way to enjoy the view (a.k.a, so he could get a second wind) then parked a few minutes later. We actually drove down a steep hill that (turns out) had a sign not to drive down there. We were parked in a spot facing the wrong direction with almost no room to negotiate a turn to get the right way back up the hill. Luckily, a local (I think there are a total of 5 of them who live in the village) was walking past us and stopped to watch our awkward Austin Powers 15 point turn to go back up the hill. Definitely not the first time we've looked like tourists on this trip and won't be the last :)

Our room at this place ended up having the best view in the house! It was overlooking the eating area and you can see the entire town of Levanto, the water, and hillsides with other tiny little villages. The next morning we took a train into one of the Cinque Terre towns called Riomaggiore. We were starving when we got there so we went straight to a restaurant on the side of the cliff that over looked the water. We each ordered a cocktail and then saw the sign that they only took cash. We only had 30 Euros in cash on us which wasn't enough for drinks and food. So we drank our cocktail and then went to the nearest cash machine and then went to a different restaurant to get lunch. After lunch we wandered through the little streets, went up and down all the stairs and through random alleys carrying Tyson the entire time. There's no way we could bring a stroller because there are way too many stairs. We brought a baby bjorn but he hates being confined like that. We just took it slow and let him walk around while holding our hands. (On a side note, there's no changing tables that we've seen so far in Italy...guessing Italian babies are potty trained at birth... so we had to find random quiet alleys to change Tyson's diaper.) After a couple hours in town we were ready to head back to the hotel to put Tyson to sleep.

The next morning we went to two more towns in Cinque Terre: Vernaza and Monterosso. We arrived in Vernaza at lunch time so we went straight to a restaurant near the water. After lunch we walked to a castle and climbed all the way up a spiral staircase. At the top was amazing views of the water and the town. We strolled around the town and found a cave that lead to a little rocky beach. Tyson was having a blast playing with the rocks in the sand so we found a nice comfy rock to sit on and watched him play for a while. We stayed in that spot for a good 45 minutes because he was having so much fun getting as dirty as possible. By the time we left that spot he was covered in sand from head to toe. We brushed him off and headed back to the train to go the the next stop of Monterosso. 

The train station in Monterosso is right next to the beach so we walked straight over the the beach, bought some towels and more sunscreen to catch some rays and relax for a while. Tyson enjoyed running his fingers through the sand and throwing it around. We people watched, counted Italians in Speedos (it was literally everyone but Marshall), and watched skydivers land on the beach right next to where we were laying. Awesome memories already!

Next Stop: Tuscany, Italy