Our friends George and Alice and their daughter and son-in-law, Nicole and Craig, came and stayed with us for a few days. They arrived on Saturday afternoon in the middle of the Mille Miglia drive by. They had been traveling for a week so we had a quiet dinner in and then walked over to the local gelateria for dessert.
On Sunday we went into Lucca for lunch. Below is a picture of Alice, George, Nicole and Craig on the Lucca wall with the gardens of Palazzo Pfanner behind them.
On Monday we drove to Monterosso al Mare, the northernmost town of the Cinque Terre. It was gray and cool but we only a a few drops of rain. If you enlarge the photo below you can pick out the other four towns of the Cinque Terre--Vernazza, Coniglio, Manarola and Riomaggiore.
This is the older part of Monterosso al Mare. After we checked into our accommodations we walked over to this area for lunch.
Seafood is a specialty of the Ligurian coast. George ate seafood at nearly every meal. As you can see he dug right into the shellfish.
Our lunch setting was a pretty little piazza in old Monterosso al Mare.
After lunch, we took the train to Vernazza. I think it is the cutest of the Cinque Terre but it was obvious a lot of other people thought the same thing. We could not believe how many people were there. After strolling down the main street we enjoyed gelato at the water's edge.
Here we are waiting for the return train to Monterosso.
That evening we met for drinks. We found a spot that served margheritas and daqueris and other sorts of "American" drinks.
A margherita "bucket" was ordered but Alice and I opted for Italian aperitivi (the orange glassed contained Aperol spritz and who know what else--they were very tasty). They also brought us all sorts of nuts, olives, and chips and salsa.
We had dinner that evening in a FABULOUS spot--Ristorante de Miky. The food and ambiance were both wonderful. George was happy and this was before we ate!
The water glasses were lovely. They had different patters of blue glass "dribbled" on the outside. A set of these would be nice to have but they probably don't do well in the dishwasher.
On Monday we drove from Monterosso al Mare to Santa Margherita Ligure. From there we took the passenger ferry to Portofino. On the way there we snagged seats on the top deck. The weather was perfect "sunny Italy." It was a great day to be out on the water.
Taking the ferry is always fun because you get a better look at some of the palazzi along the coat than you do from the road.
We had lunch in a waterside cafe (troppo caro!). Afterwards, everyone but Dom hiked out the point to the lighthouse. The path starts from near the peach colored Yacht Club Italiano building at the water's edge. The views from the trail are great and it is a good postprandial excursion. Portofino was also crowded, mostly with tour groups.
The harbor in Portofino is tiny. It's amazing how many boats they can anchor in there. They leave a path for the ferry boats to come and go. Here is one arriving at the dock on the right.
After we returned to our cars we headed back to Capannori. That evening we had a great dinner at La Cantina--great meat and pasta followed by more of our local gelato.
On Wednesday morning George, Alice, Craig, and Nicole headed off for Siena.
Dom and I took it easy the rest of the week, caught up on projects, and read. We have done a lot considering we have only been here two weeks!
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