Twenty-two days of one journey. Day twelve
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On this day, the morning began at home: water procedures, breakfast, water and a "brake" on the road. On the sly, violating the purity of the experiment, we entered the Ristorante Vallecchia.
Coffee could not be brewed on a gas stove and life lost its meaning. We were met by a smiling old man over seventy years old and his grandmother a little younger - we met, but I forgot their names. They are the owners of the restaurant, which, together with the terrace, can accommodate two hundred people, spouses, who have been running their business since the beginning of the 70s of the last century. We ordered two espressos and a couple of sweet tubes - all bombed, gave 4 euros and poured a couple of euros in little things to even out prices with Kyiv ones with such quality. Grandfather sat down with us and became interested in our origin, where we were in Italy, where else we would go.
I did my best to show off my Italian, but quickly turned sour and turned on the translator, the conversation dragged on for about twenty minutes.
We found out that only in this restaurant there are unique ravioli and sgabei "sgabei" (they were present in the festival menu), and we must try it all. When asked what kind of wine is needed for tiramisu, the hostess answered - she brought a corked bottle of Marsala DE VITA CREMOVO 0.75 l. I took it, I have never seen such a brand again, and the taste is unique, it resembles liquor in sweetness, and the taste is similar to the Black Doctor, but both are very approximate. 15 euros to my grandfather and the bottle dived into my backpack. Ravioli made from two types of meat - lamb and beef - are very reminiscent of Tatar sorcerers - this is how the Tatars and Karaites in Lithuania call them. My mother-in-law, a Karaite, makes them better, much better. Morning coffee was all days in the restaurant - 0.8 euros per serving, i. e. 21 UAH.
Let's go to the five lands - Cinque Terre (Cinque Terre,
or as the restaurant owner wrote on the napkin - Sinque Tere).
Valecchia - Manarola
If you are brought to these parts, unfasten for at least five days, otherwise you will regret it until the end of time or you will have to return. There are not five lands, I counted ten for myself: Lerici (Lerici), San Terenzo (San Terenzo), La Spezia (La Spezia), Portovenere (Portovenere), the five villages of the National Park and the road SP38, from a few observation decks which offer views that hundreds of thousands come here for" thirsty" and "suffering" homo-turistico.
Strada Provinziale 38, including the descents to the villages, outdoes all the roads that I have traveled before - both in beauty and in complexity, turning into danger, but it's worth it. Normal people come there by train from La Spezia or Levanto, some by sea. The most normal in the car, and it is they who get all the panoramas,
beauty and extreme of these places.
There is a Via dell'Amore- the Path of Love, she is the Azure Path, she is the Path of Lovers, I called it the Dangerous Path, seeing how a stone the size of a fist flew from above it, fortunately, the passage is closed.
From La Spezia, the road rapidly goes up, making seven bends per verst, and here it is important not to miss the moment when the Gulf of La Spezia and Portovenere open in all its glory, we missed it, and on the way back we managed to shoot this:
It was getting dark, there was no photo, I had to steal this photo from the Internet:
Gulf of Spice
From above, you can appreciate and imagine the path of Lord Byron, who swam over the distance from Portovenere to Lerici - almost six kilometers.
We were not going to visit all the towns of the park,
therefore, they let Riomaggiore pass, but turned towards Manarola and, not finding parking spaces, stood on the side of the road under a stone wall, there were many of the same.
Fishing village, many restaurants with a fish menu.
We stopped by the church for five minutes. . .
. . . from which we saw houses and terraces. . .
. . . created and equipped for vegetable gardens, vineyards.
The paths along these terraces go around the whole mountain and go towards the neighboring town, we went towards Corniglia.
Beautiful - and the houses themselves, stuck to the rock and to each other...
. . . the sea with barely visible boats, the height and the cliff one meter from you, all this creates the uniqueness and attractiveness of these places. There is an observation deck, but we did not go, because from the road we saw a better panorama. We began to descend along the main street. . .
. . . to the sea, here's the tunnel. . .
. . . leading to the Path of Love.
There is also a beach. . .
. . . which is visited mainly by tourists who settled in the town, we have outlined a beach in Monterosso, where you can drive by car. Corniglia is close, but it is impossible to reach it - it is closed, stones are falling, and we were not going to.
This is how the issue with those who left our world is resolved - a crematorium and a cemetery with urns. . .
Tourists are also interested in this.
And this is how the owner came up with the entrance to the garden, without reducing its size, without interfering with passers-by on the way.
A travel agency is present. . .
. . . where you can take a sea tour along the five lands - it's probably great.
Grape press:
They make wine and olive oil, but everything is grown on the same tiny terraces with sand and stone soil,
the fruit of this prickly pear. . .
. . . also come into play - juice is very useful for everything. People work, squeezing everything out of themselves, land, sea and tourists.
Next we need to go to Corniglia, the smallest town of the five. When they crawled out onto the road, he noted that the car had eaten a lot more fuel than it was supposed to - the height, the steepness, and there might not be enough for the way back. The navigator showed the nearest gas station in Levanto, which is 25 km and almost an hour away. Levanto is ideal for hosting tourist bodies who want to see the Ligurian coast as much as possible - Bonasolla, Sestri Levante, Rapallo, Portofino, Genoa to the north and south is what I'm trying to tell.
In Levanto, we drove around the city, drove to the embankment with a huge parking lot and a beach. We decided to swim here without wasting time, Monterosso would not be offended, and clouds were approaching from Corsica.
Back, with a couple of stops (very few observation platforms), we went straight to Corniglia, looking at Monterosso from above. . .
. . . together with you, of course, it's impossible to hide it. In this place. . .
. . . caught up with the "Prado" with Chernihiv numbers, blinked at him with a high beam, and he drowned and disappeared from sight.
Going down by car to Corniglia is very interesting and exciting - I couldn’t pass twice on the rise, and I had to give in, going down about thirty meters (no other way), folding the side mirrors - they catch me. There is no curb, the wheels are ten centimeters from the cliff. But there are plenty of places in the parking lot, few fools drive on such roads, but, as you know, they are lucky.
Well, a very small Corniglia, well, very atmospheric, homely, all in sight.
On a small square. . .
. . . sat in a cafe, then climbed to the highest point, looked at Manarola, at the clouds from which it began to rain.
Six hours have passed since the start of our tour,
we went home, where the panoramas are not worse.
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