i just returned from what i seriously consider the best weekend of my italian sojourns thus far. it was a weekend filled with wondrous sights, challenging climbs, good food and wine, and just about the most perfect beach outing that has me seriously contemplating a career as a beach bum. wowzers.
but the beach comes much later – let’s visit the first city along the cinque terre (translates as five lands) trail – riomaggiore, which was the place we stayed for the night. i’m really going to shut up and just let the pictures do (most of) the talking.
the beautiful city and marina of riomaggiore – no sandy beaches here though, but the water is typically crystal clear for most parts
every scene gives one a certain sensation of idllyic carefree-ness. work is pretty much a thousand miles away.
overlooking the main street of riomaggiore, via colombo
riomaggiore connects to the next terre, manarola (which is actually a hamlet of riomaggiore), via a picturesque mountainroad aptly named via dell’ amore (love road). its the earliest of all the paths to walk and correspondingly, the most touristy. and as per all things in italy associated with love, we see tons of padlocks chained to any possible niche or fence along the way.
gee whiz
gee whiz (part 2).
meals here are obviously sea-inspired – and accordingly i chose the spaghetti allo scoglio along with some cinque terre vino bianco. ah, life…
riomaggiore after hours – and yeah, people are still swimming.
the endangered sartorialist 