Nine Lovely Days in Cinque Terre

“Cinque Terre” translates as “five lands.” The term refers to a stretch of the Ligurian coast of Italy (i.e., high up on the  shin coast, north of Pisa and south of Genoa).  Here along the steep and rugged coast are scattered five villages, each in a mountain cleft opening to the sea.  We spent a week up the hill from the northernmost and largest of these towns, Monterosso.  With our dear friends Don and Gayle Read, Kim Shapiro, Jane Raymond, and Bonnie Leadbeater, we rented a character-rich home for a week.  My only regret is that we didn’t get a photo of Kim’s stupendous mushroom risotto (and it’s only a mild regret because delicious as it was risotto just isn’t that photogenic).  Here are a few other highlights (as always, double click to view larger images).

The first floor, one up from the ground floor.

This is the spiral staircase going down to the ground floor and the basement. We imagined a murder mystery in which the body was found at the bottom step.

Don and the girls (Jane was painting).

 Above is a view of the sea from partway down the steep walk from the house to the village.

 

Above Moira in the residential part of the old part of Monterosso.

Jane Raymond, renowned vizcog scientist and a damned fine painter.

Best tomatoes ever, by a very, very wide margin.

They look like they are still swimming!

True, not tasty without brining, but pretty!

Bonnie Leadbeater's brilliant fricassied chicken.

Moira's gorgeous pear salad.

Kimron and Bonnie became Italian.

 OK, enough for a chapter.