 8/22/2022 - Monterosso al Mare, Italy - The journey to Monterosso al Mare, in Italy's beautiful Cinque Terre, began over three years ago with us returning from Italy and deciding to go back to see Cinque Terre. We had it booked twice in 20 and 21 but got cancelled both times due to covid stuff, but the third times appears to be the charm and timely also allowing us to celebrate our 30th Wedding Anniversary, today that journey began. Dom dropped us at Rochester International Aiport to catch a mid afternoon flight starting the day prior to Newark Airport (EWR). A couple hour layover there then from Newark, we caught a direct United flight to Milano Malpensa Airport in Milan which took about 8.5 hours. A smooth flight that allowed me to catch up on some new release movies. We landed mid morning in Milan and then slid easily thru customs with a rubber stamp on the passports, then off to catch the hour long train ride on the Malpensa Express to Milano Centrale. After a short wait at Milano Centrale, we caught our 3 hour train ride first class to Monterosso al Mare. It was a gorgeous day and we made it to Monterosso late afternoon and pushed our luggage to the lovely Hotel Pasquale. We had a nice but small room with a gorgeous view of the beach and town, we were given complimentary champagne to start our stay and sipped it enjoying our fabulous view of Monterosso from our balcony. We explored Monterosso a bit then crashed after a long day of travel. We were up early and started our day with a delicious breakfast prepared by the wonderful staff at Hotel Pasquale, this would be the way we would start each day on this Italy trip. We then explored Monterosso more and decided to take a train to the neighboring village of Vernazza. It was a short five minute train ride that marked Deb to get pick pocketed right on the train platform. Unfortunately Deb was careless with her purse on her back and was easy prey, we cancelled all her cards and had her license reissued, she lost some cash but it could have been far worse. We definitely know better than this, lesson learned. We did not let this deter us from enjoying our trip and we quickly put it behind us and we exlplored Vernazza. We headed back via train to Monterossa and had a good dinner at Emy's Way Pizzeria and met a nice California couple on their honeymoon. We walked the trail from Monterossa to Vernazza part of the way and got some nice shots of Monterossa and the gorgeous Cinque Terre countryside. This adventure is just beginning.Slideshow |
