Riomaggiore

Buona Serra from Riomaggiore, Italy!

We started our day in Milan with breakfast at the hotel, then headed to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery Milano for some coffee and an experience. I got a cappuccino and Ray tried their signature cortado. We got to watch some beans getting roasted and also enjoyed browsing for souvenirs, though we didn’t purchase any in the store.

After that we walked around town a little bit more before heading back to the hotel to check out. We left shortly after 11 to catch the metro to Milano Centrale and then catch our train to Levanto for our next adventure. We thought the train station was pretty neat!

We arrived in Levanto about 20 minutes late due to some issues with the tracks in Genova and missed our originally scheduled train from Levanto to Riomaggiore. Thankfully, it wasn’t an issue and we caught the next train! We arrived in Riomaggiore early afternoon. We carried our luggage straight up the main drag (about 10 minutes uphill) and checked into our hotel here. It was really tucked away, as most things likely are, and a bit hard to find. The mother/daughter duo got us checked in and gave us some advice on the Cinque Terre, including a couple dinner recommendations. We got exploring shortly after getting settled into our room. Riomaggiore is an adorable town nestled into the cliffs on the Mediterranean with lemons and basil growing everywhere and an active marina. We took our time getting down the main drag, stopping in the local stores selling limoncello products, Cinque Terre wine, spice mixes, homemade pasta, souvenirs, and more. We made it down to the spot just above the marina where all the famous Riomaggiore photos are taken from and got a few of our own!

We were pretty hungry at this point but the restaurant we’d decided on didn’t open until 6:45. We sat on the Main Street for a little while watching the world go by and took a little stroll up the stairs for another view over Riomaggiore.

For dinner we went to Da Dulìn per a recommendation from the hotel and got to sit outside. We ordered local wine (Cinque Terre white and Murrati red), Pesto Genovese, and Gamberi Gnocchi with Zucchini (shrimp). I’ll definitely be dreaming about that pesto for a while… Everything was fantastic!

We also made a quick stop at a tiramisu place (we cannot find it on Google maps but it was 4 doors down from the restaurant we ate at). They had 4 flavors - chocolate, pistachio, coffee (traditional), and berry. We got the chocolate one and it was worth the price, even if a bit small.

Tomorrow we are planning on hitting the remaining four of five Cinque Terre towns (Monterroso, Vernazza, Corniglia, and Manarola) and we can’t wait to see what the rest have to offer!

Amy