Day Forty-Six - Manarola

As we were meeting Rod and Helen at twelve thirty we had the morning free but not enough time to visit one of the other nearby Cinque Terra towns. To make the most of the time we decided to catch the train into Le Spezia to buy our train tickets for Saturday to Rome. We are slowly deciphering the ways of the Italians and learning through elimination, asking questions and making mistakes.
We couldn’t buy our train tickets from Manarola to Le Spezia at Manarola but the Information Centre said we could buy the tickets on the train from the conductor. There was no conductor so we had a free train ride. We shared the train compartment with six very tired hung over young Australian women. It was not a good look!
Buying the train ticket to Rome was easy but getting back to Manarola was another matter as we didn’t see the asterisk next to the time noted on the timetable and patiently waited for the Sunday and holiday train on a Tuesday! Needless to say we and others waiting on the wrong platform missed the next train leaving at a nearby platform. We then had to wait another forty minutes for the next train. We were getting anxious as we were getting back to Manarola at twelve fifteen and meeting Rod and Helen at “twelve thirtyish“. And we thought we had all the time in the world!
Helen and Rod drove from Chianti which took them about two hours and parked up the top of the mountain and walked down to the village. It was lovely to see them. After a quick tour of the main street down to the harbour we had long lunch at Il Porticciolo where Henk and I had dinner the night before. Once again the food was simple but delicious and the restaurant was busy as ever. We also had the local Cinque Terra red wine which was also good. We then showed Helen and Rod around “our village” walking around the headland up to the cemetery and back down to the harbour. The small village cemetery has the best views over Manarola. The sea was still wild today crashing on the cliffs and the little fishing boats which are parked on the main street haven’t moved since we arrived due to the weather.
At five o’clock we walked Helen and Rod (with gelattis in our hand!) to the car park. It’s a steep, long climb to the top and we can now say we have done it.
It was a light dinner for us of hard Italian bread, cheese and ham.
Photos: Henk, Rod and Helen at lunch; Our local grocery shop; A local laneway near our unit.