September 22-25, 2022

The food in Vernazza has been amazing! Scenery, people and hiking also!

Gianni Franzi provided our first dinner here. We shared plates of pesto pasta, spaghetti bolognese, radicchio salad and caprese salad. Not a bite left on any plate – it was that delicious! We of course had to share a dessert or two. A chocolate mousse and a Carmel flan type dessert (I don’t remember the actual name of the dish). Clean plate club again!

Blue Marlin had excellent scrambled eggs, pastries and of course coffee drinks. We were fueled there before our Vernazza to Monterosso hike yesterday. And I will just say… that was quite the hike. Close to 3 miles with at least a mile of incline, primarily steps, as uneven and challenging as you might find anywhere!

Dinner our second night was at LaTorre which is high above Vernazza on a path to another town. .2 of a mile of uphill steps… we weren’t sure we should have wine because we were walking home Linda D and I had some anyway…

The view was magnificent, the service outstanding, the prices high average and the food – amazing! The pesto pasta was the best I’ve ever had, just swimming in all that delicious olive oil.

Our third day began with a breakfast at Il Pirata, where I have had many meals over the past years. Owned by “the twins”, I walked past the one who handles the customers, smiled and said Buongiorno, he said the same and then came in to wait on us. His first comment was “You’ve been here before”. Yes I have and we had a quick conversation about when, who came etc. and we are buddies once again.

Anyway their pastries are to die for. I had an apple pastry with a light Carmel sauce that almost had to be scooped up with a spoon. I’ll have to think about that one for a repeat performance tomorrow as there were so many to choose from. And tomorrow came and I had a peach version. Yum!

Gelato – we managed to find gelato every day but finally ordered our first and second taste in Monterosso and Corniglia. Flavors within the group were chocolate, mango, pistachio, Nutella, marscapone with caramel and hazelnut. Too many to choose from.

We have had perfect weather, around 75 degrees, sunny with a light occasional breeze. Today the weather forecast said 100% chance of rain, and they were correct. It did rain. Thankfully the rain held off until our hike to Corniglia.

With the perfect weather comes outdoor seating – everywhere. After the rain arrived, umbrellas that once kept the sun away were now dripping water on tables and people. The restaurant we wanted to try had no dry tables.

We wandered around the piazza checking menus and seating and finally came to the last one with one possibility. It was a hilarious process as Linda D and Tracie manhandled the table and chairs. We now had a dry table, small but no water dripping on us.

The waiter, a handsome young Italian, took our order, looked at the table and said two pizzas would not fit and we would need another table. We did have a spare table behind Tracie as no one could sit there because of the weather. It worked out.

It was a bit chilly and after we ordered our food I jokingly asked if he had a blanket for us. He also jokingly returned with a gesture of unzipping his jacket and offered it in consolation. A funny guy.

Our pizzas were excellent. A pizza margjerita but with buffalo mozzarella, and a white sauce pizza with potatoes, rosemary and sausage. They were both delish but the favorite was the potato pizza.

Our last stop was going to be back at Il Pirata for a cannoli and coffee but we misunderstood the hours and we’re too late. Oh well. This means I need another trip in the future! Rick… pack your bags!

#Italian adventure #ViaFrancigena2022 #lifereset