Arrivederci! Addio! Italia

June 4th and the time has come to depart Lerici and start our Journey back to the USA.

We are in luck!  The ferry is running!  After Breakfast and good-byes to our wonderful hosts at Hotel Florida, we take off down the Boardwalk to catch the 10:30 ferry.  We were excited because we knew this would be a far more scenic way to get back to Genoa than via train.  Ladies and gentlemen, if you are in the position to take the ferry from Lerici to Monterosso, Do It!  If you are staying in Monterosso, purchase a round trip ticket and take the first ferry of the day to Lerici, get off the ferry, explore, take the last ferry back to Monterosso.  Very easy and a cheap way to have a lovely day.  Just make sure you check the ferry schedule and then confirm it when you board.

 Reluctantly, we board the ferry and say good bye to lovely Lerici.
Not too many people on the ferry when we board, but next stop is Portovernere.  

Good bye Lerici!

Now, just as a reminder, looking at the map to the left - we are going to be traveling along the Ligurian Coast line from Portovernere to Montoerosso.  We will catch a train in Monterosso to Genoa.   The weather was beautiful and at each stop more & more people would get on.  2 different tour groups got on and their guides were allowed to use the speaker system on the ferry to continue the narration.  How fabulous!  We were getting a free mini tour as we traveled the coast line, the guides would take turns talking about each of the Five Lands.  First Riomaggiore, then Mannarola, then Cornigilia (the one land they can not stop at because it has no port) then Vernazza and finally landing at Monterosso.  It was the perfect way to say Addio to this lovely part of Italy.  CJS was taking pictures all along the way. The pictures that are taken from the sea looking back at each town were taken by CJS as we went along the coast line.  I've tried to include as many of those pictures as possible in this blog.  This region of Italy is so beautiful and colorful, and yes it really does look like the pictures in person!

We got off the ferry in Monterosso around lunch time.  We found a nice spot on the main square of old town to have a panni & gelato before catching the train to Genoa.  It was nice to sit and soak up one last moment in Cinque Terre, for tomorrow we were flying back home.

The ride to Genoa was very easy -- about 90 minutes.  We had reservations at the NH Marina hotel.  We cabbed it to the hotel, but probably could have walked it as it was pretty close to the train station as it turns out.  Landing back in Genoa, you feel like you have landed in a very big, crowded city after the small town lifestyle of the Ligurian Coast.  Maybe this influenced our assessment of our hotel for the evening, but we felt it was a large, businessmen's hotel, impersonal and bland.  Don't get me wrong - we had exactly what we reserved.  A room with double beds, clean, comfortable, larger room with all the amenities you expect.  It was fine, but a let down after everywhere else we had stayed including the Best Western at the beginning.  Anyway, as we often say 'just need a place to catch a few Z's, won't be in the room that much'.  Which was proved to be true as we dropped our luggage and headed right out the door.

All 5 made it home safe

The Old Port of Genoa (Porto Antico) was the area our hotel was located in.  There are quiet a few places to explore around the port.  Piazza Caricamento is a large waterfront square that is located adjacent to the Port and across the street for us.  Lots of shopping, wandering through looking for last minute items to take home - mainly we were on the look out for a good wine shop!  Which we found and the owner was fantastic, he spoke good english and was able to help me pick out 5 wines to bring home that represented the areas we had traveled through.  

I wish I would have written down the name of the wine shop, because the owner was a true gentlemen.  When we were done with our purchases we asked him for a suggestion for where to go for one last great meal -- and of course we wanted it to be close by-- not to picky were we?  He pointed us around the corner to a good sized restaurant that was completely empty!  We looked around for a clock as neither of us had a watch.  It was barely 7 pm.  That is really, really early for dinner in Italy!   But they were open and seated us, and the server was very pleasant and spoke good english. She was kind enough to translate anything on the Menu for us, since they did not have any english menus. (many places do) 

I had seen on many menus Stuffed Ravioli with cream of walnut sauce in our travel.  I had been curious, and was told that this was a delicacy and a very traditional dish of this region.  It was on the menu so I ordered it.   I am trying to think of a world to describe this dish because delicious does not really cover it. WOW it was so good!  

I looked up a couple of descriptive words on http://thesaurus.com and decided that delectable conveys the sensation of eating this pasta from heaven.  

CJS ordered Spaghetti with clams, and it was more like clams with spaghetti.  Needless to say she was very happy with her dinner as well.

And just as we finished up our wonderful but solitary dinner, a few diners  began to arrive.  We paid our check and departed for hotel, knowing that there was packing to be completed and the long trip home come tomorrow.

Thank you for joining me on this journey.  Come back tomorrow for my wrap up with 'Must see's" and final travel tips for the Ligurian coast

Buona Notte,

Susan