We had a pretty decent sleep. We slept until after 7 this morning. Our little place was just for 1 night as we needed to re-jig our days to accommodate Dana and Lindsey’s schedule. Anyway, that means that we need to change places to the one where will stay for the until the 24th of May when we head back to Florence for a night before Dana leaves and Lindsey arrives. So with that in mind we have a leisurely breakfast and repack after unpacking a bit last night. 

Last night while going into my bag I found this notice.  I did notice that my bag was not as I had packed it.  I have never had this happen before.  Not sure if it was just a random check or they saw something that they wanted to check out.  I do have some Stu with me, so who knows.

We made our way to our next accommodation booking.  The address is on Via Columbo, the main street in Riomaggoire.  We waited for a few minutes and looked up at the many many steep narrow steps in the building and sighed.  When our host Sarah arrived we learned that we were not actually staying in this building.  This is the office.  Our apartment is close to the port.  That is a huge BONUS!!

It is however through a maze of streets, which are just narrow alleys, consisting of steep narrow steps up and steep narrow steps down.  Some around scaffolding erected to do repairs on the hundreds of years old buildings.

Thankfully Sarah has offered to wrangle my bag, which is much heavier than anyone had hoped.  She managed well!

Our little apartment is so close the water.  We have a little path right in front that many people pass by.  We have windows that from the outside are like mirrors.  Sarah told us that many people look into the mirrors and take selfies as the ocean is directly behind them.  We chuckle at that thought.

Sure enough, as we are settling in many people are taking selfies in our window.  We are laughing as we watch.  They have no idea that we are inside watching them.  😊

This is us in our selfie mirror.

We were told by Sarah that there is a monthly pass for the train between Riomaggoire and Monterosso.  It is available to locals and tourists and is cheaper than a 3 day Cinque Terre pass that must be used on 3 consecutive days.  There are sections of the trails that require a trail pass so we can purchase those for the days that we need to.  This monthly pass is not generally offered, so must be requested specifically.  Even though the monthly pass is only valid until the end of May it is still a better deal.  We went directly to the train station and got this pass for 33 Euros.  Great to know.

After that was taken care of we headed to a harbour side restaurant for lunch.  We had great views and a Bruschetta and a Focaccia bread to eat.

Since we have our monthly pass, we decide that we should go to Monterossa for dinner.  It is the northern most village of the Cinque Terre, a 14 minute train ride.

This village is a flatter village right on the water.  Not as many hills or stairs as where we are staying.  It is very popular with people with young children.

We find a place for our dinner.  It is inside as most of the sidewalk restaurants are full.  We order a half litre of wine for 6 Euro and we each have a pasta dish.  Mine with clams and Dana’s with smoked salmon.  Both very nice.  We finish our meal with desert and Limoncello.  Nice.

Stroll back to the train station for our journey back to Riomaggoire. 

A very great day!