Rainy Days on the Italian Riviera: Our First Trip to Italy Part 2

Friday evening we took a 3 hour train ride to Monterosso, the largest village of Cinque Terre.  It was a packed train and we sat in a full train cabin.  Tyler enjoyed making friends with an Italian young lady and she entertained him for quite some time.  When we arrived in Monterosso it was raining and we didn't know how to get to our B&B, Pietre di Mare.  Monterosso is a tiny village and most of it is not accessible by car so the roads weren't really on GPS.  We decided to call the owner of the B&B, Moreno, to get directions.  He met us in one of the little squares and helped us get to the B&B.  He had brought a friend who speaks better English with him to explain the situation.  She explained that they had been having heavy rains and it was the 1 year anniversary of a devastating flood/mudslide that they had last year.  To be cautious, the police shut down all businesses in the village at around 7pm.  So she explained that Moreno had picked up some dinner for us (yummy pizza and fococcia sandwich) aand milk for the baby so that we could eat because everything was now closed.  We graciously thanked them because we were starving.  We put Tyler to bed and found a wine shop that was just about to close.  They let us buy a bottle of local Cinque Terre wine and we stood on the street under an umbrella and the open windows of our room so that we could hear Tyler if he woke up.  That gave us some space to talk and have a nice dinner.

We were hoping that the weather would break on Saturday but when we woke up we found out that all the shops and restaurants were still closed and it was still raining.  So we had some energy bars that we had brought and I thankfully had brought some baby food too for Tyler.  There was nothing to do so we all took a nap with Tyler.  When he woke up we decided to venture on the train to another little village to see if anything was open there.  The 5 villages are all accessible by hiking trails, train, or boat.  All the hiking trails were closed to the the weather so we hopped on the local train and got to Corniglia.  There was a bus there that took you to the top of the cliff where the village is perched.  Corniglia was beautiful and had such a cool little downtown where everything was open.  We had a wonderful lunch outside under a tent while it poured off and on.  We took some pictures and headed back on the train to Monterosso to catch Tyler's afternoon nap.  By the time he woke up things were opening again but the weather was still pretty bad.  We walked a bit when it cleared up and found our dinner spot.  We had a lovely dinner and headed back to the B&B, hoping Sunday may clear up.

Sunday brought more rain, even heavier rain than the previous two days.  We asked Moreno if we could have a late check out and tried to pay him for our dinner Friday.  He did not want to take the money but finally took 10 Euro and then gave us a voucher for a free breakfast, so I think we still ended up ahead!  We met his wife, Sabrina, and she told us that the building had been in their family for generations but they just opened the B&B 3 years ago.  The stone in the building was the original stone of the building dating back to 1500!  They were the nicest people and showed us pictures of their 3 year old daughter, Lynda.  She joked that in 20 years Tyler can come back to the B&B and rent a room from Lynda.

Even though the weather was dreadful, there was something so sleepy and romantic about it.  And even in the rain, the views were incredible.  We had a wonderful time and left feeling well rested, well fed (pizza, pasta, gelato and wine every day!), and thankful to have met some of the nicest people in the world.  We definitely look forward to the next trip to Italy!

Beautiful shoreline of Monterosso

Eating breakfast (Nana notice the t-shirt!)

More Monterosso

Loving the train ride to Corniglia!

Narrow village streets of Corniglia

Somebody had too much fun in Corniglia and took an early snooze waiting for the train

The wine bar that stayed open to let us buy a bottle!

Loving the Ergo carrier instead of the stroller!

Church in Monterosso

The sun peaked through for a couple minutes!

We had the whole train cabin to ourselves on the way back.  Plenty of space to play!