Vernazza

We set out this morning -Tuesday I think, I'm losing track- for the Cinque Terre and were greeted at the train station by a long line of tourists at the information booth. Luckily the women working there were both friendly and efficient so the line moved quickly! We bought each a two day national park and unlimited use train pass for total 46 euros. Not sure of individual tickets would have been cheaper but the pass simplified things immensely.
We met a nice Australian couple on the train who recommended a hiking route which we will try tomorrow. Today we trained to Monterosso al Mare, the north end of the five lands, and quickly found some street food. We had these wonderful focaccia/quesadilla type things with tomatoes, green olives and cheese. Simply delicious. Good fuel too for the strenuous part of our hike toward Vernazza.
The hike was pretty difficult at first, but leveled out. We walked on narrow hillside pathways along the Mediterranean coast with grape vines in our foreground and crystal clear turquoise water with little villages carved out of the cliffs in the background. Sound nice? It was fabulous. :)
I wish I had better pictures but for now the iPhone will have to suffice. At one of the lookouts I made use of my joby again and took another set of photos for HDR processing. I'm excited to see what comes out of that. Just google Vernazza and you'll see what I'm talking about.
When we reached the town we had a rest and a gelato, then an Italian beer at a half hidden cafe spot. We sat on the steps outside and waited for the next train. We waffled over what to do for dinner, but I decided we would go to the most highly rated pizzeria in La Spezia. Rated 7 out of 130+ restaurants, it must be good, I thought. Besides, almost all of the reviews were in Italian!
On the map it did not look too far, but as we started walking we knew we were not in a good/safe/touristy part of town. We kept walking, but with trepidation. We finally reached the location and found the pizzeria filled with locals. We must have clearly looked lost, because one of the brick oven chefs asked if we spoke English or French. I said either worked, and he found one of their staff, as it turns out a French mademoiselle, who at first spoke French to us, and then English. All was good! We ordered wine, a local specialty appetizer (will find name) and two pizzas. So far so good, and not too much need to know Italian, although I had written down and practiced how to order dinner just for good measure.
A note about Italians and pizza - everyone orders a single pizza for themselves and eats the whole thing! I have no idea where they put it, but we saw not a single to-go box and not a single plate that wasn't cleaned. Crazy! We took a long break at one point and Kevin managed to finish his, but I was really hoping for a way out. I didn't want to he rude! The pizza was great and overall we had an extremely authentic dining experience. We were probably the once per month token foreigners because everyone in that joint spoke nothing but Italian! It was so fun. At first I could sense the hesitation in Kevin, but in the end I know he enjoyed eating local (and way cheaper too!).