Monday, October 26

Hit the road this morning, drove the 2 hours 45 minutes to La Spezia to catch the train to Vernazza in the Cinque Terre Region. In the day time, not so bad, I wasn’t white knuckled during the drive and I actually communicated.

We made it to La Spezia, parked about a 15 minute walk from the train station, dragged our luggage there and waited for Justin to inquire about tickets for the train, there was a train waiting there and apparently it was the next one to Vernazza leaving in 7 minutes. So Justin booted to the ticket booth and the kids and I went down the stairs and then around to Track 4 and then up the stairs. We waited by the door till we saw Justin pop up the stairs and then we jumped on the train for the 20 minutes to Vernazza.

We arrived and walked down from the train terminal to the main street. Vernazza has no car traffic, and remains one of the truest “fishing villages” on the Italian riviera. First records recognizing Vernazza as a fortified town date back to the year 1080.

Walking from the train station down the main street in Vernazza, Italy.

Our apartment is to the right of the lower left clock tower. The red building behind the one with the laundry hanging outside.

We found our apartment and dropped off our suitcases, changed and then went to find a snack and a drink. We ordered a prosciutto pizza to share and some drinks. Afterwards we headed off to explore some of the paths and stairways meandering around the village. We found our way to a lookout where some locks were chained to a railing, similar to the Lover’s Bridge in Paris then we found ourselves at the Doria Castle – built in the 15th century as a lookout tower to protect the village from pirates.

Justin in Vernazza, Italy in the Cinque Terre region.

On break in our apartment now with our feet up with plans to head to the main square for dinner. Max approached me about 20 minutes ago and asked for some food, I stalled him with some gum. About a minute ago he returned and said “can we have some food?” I said, you had some gum we’re going for dinner soon, he says to me “no! something I can swallow!” haha, gum does not hit the belly obviously, therefor my time is up on the computer. Off to dinner.