We wake up to a warmer morning.  It has been a bit chilly and rainy the past few days.  Greg and Dana have decided to hike to Manrola today.  It is a steep ascent, a small portion of relatively flat and then a steep descent.  I am not up for that today, so Leslie and I will take the train to Manarola. 

The trail begins near the train station.  Leslie and I walk with Greg and Dana there and bid arrivederci as they head off on the trail.  The hike is anticipated to take between an hour and an hour and a half.  The train takes less than 5 minutes to arrive in Manarola, the next terre of the Cinque Terre, to where we are in Riomaggoire. 

We wander around the village for a while, taking in the sights.  It is a beautiful little village as well.  We make our way up the main street to the Church and Bell Tower, 2 of the landmarks in this village.  We look up into the hills and see many hikers making their way into the village.  We are not sure if they are coming from the village to the north, Corniglia or from Riomaggoire. 

After taking in the views from above we stroll back down to the harbour.  We are booked into a Pesto making class at 1:30 so we make our way to the beautiful harbourside location to check it out.  The harbour is very busy this morning.  Lots of people swimming and sunbathing.  This has been the first day that it would be comfortable to sunbath.  It is so lovely to feel the warmth of the sun!!

We make our way further along the harbour and find it a bit quieter and a nice place to leave some of Stu with a view of thise beautiful little bay.

We make our way to Nessum Dorma, the venue for our pesto making class.  There are a couple of levels and we are now above where the morning class is finishing up their experience.  The white umbrellas are where this all takes place.  We re-unite with Greg and Dana here and soon we have found our seats for the class.  The venue is stunning.  We start by picking the leaves from the basil plants we are provided.  Our instructor takes us through the steps to make the best pesto.  It requires a lot of work!!  The chant of “di, di, di” which is supposed to mean go, go, go or something to that effect.  Very vigorous pestling!!  Our host is very entertaining and gives us the history of his little place.  The most beautiful spot on the harbour sat empty for many many years before there was a local contest to see who had the best idea of what to put in this space.  He won!  Only 3 people put in proposals for the location.  It has been transformed into a gorgeous spot.

After we have done our work we are served wine, white wine of the area and a charcuterie board of delicious nibbles of parma ham, bruschetta, focaccia and the most amazing cantaloupe I have had in a very long time!.  Also bread to eat our amazing pesto.  There was a bottle of wine to the winner of the pesto, everyone won!  Each couple came away with a small bottle of wine.

We headed back to Riomaggoire on the train.  WOW, was it crowded.  People were pushing in until there was not an inch to spare.  Thankfully we only had a five minute ride back to our village!  We have dinner reservations at a local restaurant for 9pm.  We are all stuffed from our pesto class so stop in to change the reservation until tomorrow.

After resting we met Greg and Leslie in the center of town where there are little shops that sell fried food in a cone.  There is calamari, fish and chips, mixed fish and mixed vegetables.  We order our little cones of fried stuff and wander down to the harbour to watch the sunset.  It is so beautiful even in the waning light.  We take another opportunity to leave Stu in this beautiful place.

This was an incredible day all around.  Dana and Greg got to do the trek and Leslie and I were free to take the train!  WIN WIN!!