The actual Cinque Terre tour begins 03/30/09

03/30/09 – afternoon

The rain had completely stopped falling. Our host at the Villa Margherita was gracious enough to give us a lift across town and up the winding coastal road to the breathtaking location of La Giada.

We were early and quickly checked into our room and relaxed for a bit before the first meeting.

Our room was one of five, each named after one of the Cinque Terre villages. All five rooms were on the seaward side of the La Giada. The view of the coastline from our window and the patio was unbelievable.

The time had come to meet the group. We knew we were traveling with an essay contest winner from the magazine Cooking Light, but we were not sure of the particulars. As we entered the lounge of the La Giada we were met by the smiling face of Doug. Doug we learned was a photographer on assignment for Cooking Light magazine, he was to capture the week’s activities. A short time later, Doug introduced us to Alison, a immediately personable journalist from Lonely Planet, also on assignment for Cooking Light magazine. Alison would craft the article. Soon Pamela Sheldon Johns entered the room; Pamela is the quick-witted author of many successful cookbooks and a very interesting woman. She is passionate about her craft and about the success of her tours. We knew we were in for a treat. Next we met the actual tour participants, Wendy and Karen, two very fun sisters from Berkley California and then, Tim and Jennifer from Kentucky, Jennifer being the essay writer who had won this trip from Cooking Light. So it would be intimate, six people on the tour, two professionals recording the tour, with Pamela directing the tour.

No hiking this afternoon, we will take a quick five minute drive to Monterosso where we meet Kate Little who will guide us on the hiking and naturalist portions or our trip. As we head into the village, Kate tells us a little about her life in the Cinque Terre.

I found this lemon stand interesting.

Ann found the bicycle in front of this shop interesting.

Kate, a tall blonde from Texas, could easily have been one of us, "a tourist". That notion quickly vanished as she made her way through the narrow village streets, the locals greet her warmly, she has made this region her home for the past twenty years. She meets Piero, who invites our small group into his family cellar. The room, entered from street level, is the bottom floor of a multi-story building. This building, like many others, is attached to one of the sheer canyon walls that border the center of town, sharing the near vertical rock as a rear wall. The room is lined with wine-making paraphernalia. The wine created in this humble atmosphere is made from grapes grown and picked on his families plot, near by from one of the ancient terraces that define the region. We sit on an eclectic collection of stools and chairs surrounding Piero as he shares his story and his wine with our group. The wine, the hospitality, and the reverence of sitting in this man's five- generation cellar left me with an overwhelming feeling of welcome and privilege. We thanked Piero for his hospitality and headed back into the cool evening light. Kate answers many questions as we make our way to the next rendezvous point with Pamela in the northern part of town. We soon find Pamela, she tells us we are in for a treat. We are going to be the guests of Daniella and Piero Guagliardi. Originally a Chicago girl, Daniella we would find had also been captured by the magic of the region and also no doubt by the charm of Piero Guagliardi.

Shuttled in Pamela's van to a small street just minutes from the village center we arrived at our destination. We were lead up over 100 steps to the Guagliardi villa. Daniella and Piero chose a unit at the top of the building, with each villa totally consuming a level, they had traded interior space for exterior space in the form of an open terrace. The sea and hill side views from the terrace were well worth the sacrifice. We are invited onto the terrace for an aperitivo and to taste the local wines. Kate, a sommelier, introduced us to both the Ligurian and Cinque Terre wines as we took in the view fron the Guaglairdi terrace. The cinque Terre wine are small productions of less then 4000 bottles annually.

Later we moved inside, seated intimately around the family table, Daniella and Piero put on a fantastic feast, local fare with stories of origin and preparation. We enjoyed tuna mousse and pesto rosso with pinzimonio, Lasagna al pesto, fresh fish al forno ligurian style, grilled radicchio and roasted asparagus, and walnut orange olive oil cake. Daniella demonstrated the making of limoncino; Piero shared his personal Italian liqueurs. The evening was perfect.

Jennifer and Tim take in the festivities from the terrace. We were especially careful negotiating the 100 steps leading down from Daniella’s back to the road for journey back to Levanto.

A little Cinque Terre hiking on our own

3/29/09 - morning

Sunday morning we donned our poncho’s and walked to the train station where we hopped the train south to the fourth town of the Cinque Terre, Vernazza , from here we had planned a day hike north, back to Levanto, but found the trail between Vernazza and Monterosso closed due to landslides. We decided to take time to explore Vernazza before taking the train north to to begin the half day hike back to the B&B in Levanto.

Vernazza was wonderful, perched on rocks at the mouth of a creek it is typical Cinque Terre. Endless narrow passages winding between the houses where you could touch the adjacent walls with outstretched arms. More stairs then I care to remember and many private wine cellars at the base of many houses. Most established households make their own wine and have for centuries. The only available space to grow grapes was on the shear hillsides, so for over 1,000 years the terraces have been a work in progress. Imagine gathering rocks on a hillside and then piling the rocks into walls and then backfilling the walls with soil and then planting grape vines and then repeating this process from the sea to the mountaintops on an entire coastline, only then can you understand the majesty of this place. I think working on a pyramid may have been easier. At first I didn't think the terraces covered the entire coast from north to south and from sea to mountaintop, but I was wrong. Many of the terraces have been overgrown by foliage or tumbled by land slides. The life is hard, too hard for the younger generation that continues to migrate to the larger cities. You grow grapes, you make wine, you fish and you trade what you have grown or caught for what you don’t have. The people are proud, strong and gracious hosts.

3/29/09 - afternoon

Well we finally made the 3 minute train ride from Vernazza to Monterosso. In Italy it is important to not only buy your train ticket, but to validate it in one of the many machines before boarding the train (we found this out after about three days). Monterosso is right at sea level, its a long narrow town by Cinque Terre standards and has a more moderate elevation gain as you go east up the coastal foot hills. This is where Ann actually took the picture of the bicycle in front of the little shop and not Vernazza. Since we knew there was limited time left in the day and we were unfamiliar with the territory (especially if we were to hike to Levanto in the rain), we immediately started looking for the red and white blaze (trail marker) that would lead us to the coastal trail. We found the blaze just outside the train station and headed north along the beach. There would be plenty of time to explore this town in the following days. The trail followed a little street parallel to the beach until the town ended. At this point the trail just headed up the first set of what would become hundreds of ancient stone steps. Now forget all you know about steps and handrails in the overly protective and litigious good ole USA, this is Italy. These things were easily a minimum of a foot tall and seemed like they would never end. With all the continuous rain they had become hundreds of little waterfalls. Ann had the Gortex shoes, I had trail runners. There were no switchbacks, just these stairs taking the shortest distance between two points to gain the elevation needed to traverse along the top of the coastal range. This particular route excited us because we understood that the entire Cinque Terre region could be viewed from the top. It was a strenuous climb in the rain, but well worth the view. The hike back down to Levanto was much less strenuous. The challenge was fording a dozen streams swollen from the constant rain and at times the trail itself was a stream. Three hours later we entered Levanto, Ann striding smartly in her Gortex and me sloshing in my never to completely dry trail runners. We had a light snack and retired early, tired and anxious to meet the next day with the people that would be our companions for the next week in what would be the official hiking, cooking, eating and drinking tour of the Cinque Terre, the cooking, eating and drinking conceived and directed by Pamela Sheldon Johns and the hiking guided by Kate Little.

The pictures are of Ann in Vernazza. The first atop an old fort and the second waiting for the train north to Monterosso. As you can see, having the day pack under the poncho lends a kind of hunch back look to the entire ensemble. Ann said that under my gray poncho you could see the two blinking LED’s of my SPOT tracking device, lending a suicide bomber look to my outfit. In the bottom picture Ann is standing near the northern tunnel mouth and you can clearly see the southern tunnel mouth behind her. For you engineers in the crowd, the speed of the trains passing this station pressurized the space between the two tunnels with what felt like mini hurricane, I wish I had a photo of the umbrellas that were turned inside out when this phenomenon happened, it was hilarious.

Arriving at the Cinque Terre 03/28/09

3/28/09 - Saturday

We arrived by plane in Piza around 11:00 on Saturday morning and immediately caught a train from the airport to Piza Central where we caught another train to Levanto. Levanto is where we would reside for the first week. Two days at a B&B called Villa Margherita and five days at Hotel called La Giada. Levanto is the first town north of the five Cinque Terre villages. We got into Levanto around 13:00 and took a catnap. We then headed into town for the evening meal and some local white wine. Forty eight hours of constant rain began that evening, but we had our poncho's and decided to hit the trails of Cinque Terre the next morning. The photos are of the B&B, bright yellow with orange roof in the center of the top photo, and two photo's of it's entrance below.

This dish is what is known asacciughe di Monterosso. These little guys are just up my alley and are a local favorite. I had them at least five different ways; pickled, dried, breaded, salt cured and stuffed. They are served as as aperitivo before most late day meals. Yes they are anchovies. Seafood, fresh vegetables, pasta and white wine are the staples in this region.

Retirement - hard work for little money

Retirement is not for the faint of heart. Immediately went into high gear, cutting down trees, painting rooms, trailering 650 lbs of unused Olympic weights and an equally heavy squat rack and bench to Escalon - making room for Ann's crafts, installing a new salt based water softener and yes the trip to Cinque Terre, Firenze and Siena. Don't look for me on Bishop Peak any days but Sunday morning at 7:30. I now do Ann's 4-mile loop daily at 7:00. It is easier on gas, and better yet easier on the knees. We still manage about 24 miles a week. I could still be persuaded to make the trip into SLO if anyone wants company on Bishop. Lots of time to talk about our planned attacks of Mt Whitney and Half Dome this summer and possibly a two-month portion of the AT. I have almost convinced Ann to start carrying our fully loaded packs on our daily loop.........hmmm

Tom L., thank you for the widlflower pics out on the plains. Steve G. took some great pics on the Salmon Creek hike the day after my retirement, wild flowers and some creepy critters.

kBlogs photos can be seen a http://picasaweb.google.com/kBlogphotos/AdventuresOfKBlog?authkey=Gv1sRgCPu6zvX82e2ObA&feat=directlink

Now that I have three independant water softening systems functional and I can safely say that nothing but salt works to actually soften water. The Pelican system only breaks the calcium down into smaller particles, as does the So Soft magnetic system. These systems de-scale plumbing to some extent, but that was not the desired result. If someone tells you the no salt systems are a viable alternative send them this way, I have working proof they are not. Hard water is no longer an alternative after getting the soft stuff back in the pipes. Removing a years worth of calcium build up was not an easy chore. We still drink and make ice from the hard stuff, gotta get your minerals some way.