Good morning!
Good morning.
It's Allison and Eric again, with DW Travel.
So, this is day 4 of our epic campervan roadtrip.
We were up in lake Garda last you saw us.
We explored the beautiful city of Sirmione, we visited the castle,
and then we made the long drive out to the coast.
That's right, we have arrived at the Five Lands,
also known as Cinque Terre.
We're here, and it is beautiful.
My gosh, it's so beautiful.
We're taking a break from the campervan today,
mainly because cars are not allowed in the city.
It's called the Five Lands, but it's actually more about the 5 villages in the area.
And they're super unique because they're all carved into the cliff-side.
They're made up of these incredibly colourful buildings.
They're so picturesque and it's right next to the sea.
So you have this pristine blue water
complementing all the colourful buildings in the villages.
It's beautiful!
So, this area is actually in a National Park.
So, there is everything to do here:
There's amazing wildlife, there's hiking,
you can stroll the beautiful cities,
or, like us,
you can eat the beautiful cities.
We're here to eat, you guys.
So, the plan today is to visit each of the 5 villages,
but also eat some local dishes along the way.
Alright, another perfect – and delicious –
day in Italy starts right now.
We have made our first official food stop.
And it was actually tucked quite away in the first city,
so we've been just wandering through the corridor, taking in all the bright colours.
It's very charming, but we have come to pasticceria Laura for this.
This little piece of pie is called the Monterossina,
and this is...
I believe apricot jam at the bottom,
some custard,
and then a chocolate layer,
all sandwiched between this lovely pastry.
And it is, I guess, very, very famous.
Uh, so, the outside is actually nice and...
crunchy, almost.
You mostly just taste
the chocolate in here.
I taste like perfectly melted
hot cocoa, or something like that.
In cake form.
What kind of surprised me is that
it's almost more crackery.
I was expecting it to be
maybe a little bit more soft and brittle,
but it's definitely more like a cracker type of texture on the top and the bottom,
and then really the chocolate is the main flavor you get.
And I'm not sad about that, because it is freaking delicious.
We just realized that right across from the restaurant is, I guess, their kitchen,
where they make all of the pastries.
There's a guy in there actually right now,
jamming out, he's singing along,
he's rolled out all this dough, and he's buttering it and cutting it
and rolling it into one of their pastries.
Looks like a lot of fun.
And it smells awesome!
We're currently in Vernazza.
And that is Monterosso, where we started this morning.
To get in between each city, you have several options.
You could drive,
but you have to go up through these winding mountain roads,
and it takes an extremely long amount of time.
Another option is, you can actually hike between every city.
Without stopping, though,
it takes about five to six hours.
Yeah.
There is also a ferry on the water that you can take,
which we did the last time we were here.
It's a lot of fun in the summertime.
But there is a fourth option,
the best option, the option that we are doing.
And that is the train.
Because it cuts through all of these hills,
and takes about 4 minutes to get in between each town,
instead of an hour or so.
We only had time for a quick stroll through this city,
because we have a date with lunch
in the next city.
Oh yes, in a very special spot
with hopefully a very special view.
Yes.
Wow. It felt like the stairs were never gonna end.
Oh my gosh.
You kept going like around one corner and you couldn't really see.
And you'd turn on one and you'd be like "oh my God,
I've had double left what I've already done".
But our restaurant is conveniently located right at the top of these stairs.
Yeah, you walk up your last step
and you hear this like fun music playing and then it's the restaurant.
This is pesto pasta.
Cinque Terre is actually part of a bigger region called Liguria,
and Pesto was invented here.
And then topped on all sorts of different
pastas and lasagna, on bruschetta.
It's in and on all the things here.
This is such a unique looking pasta dish with the little potatoes in there and green beans.
Oh, yeah.
That's a good pesto.
Very good pesto.
I love that they make the pasta al dente, so it has a little bit of a bite to it.
And then the pesto,
is just the only word I can use to describe it,
it's just: fresh.
And it's very, very delicious.
To be honest, I was actually more excited about this sea bass ravioli.
Oh man, it just looks so dang delicious.
Wow.
That is very, very good.
The minute it hits your tongue, it's a flavor explosion.
So...
cheesy and buttery and just packed full of flavor.
I'm a huge fan of this.
Get the sea bass ravioli if you come here.
You guys, we made it to the southernmost village,
Riomaggiore.
Is this beautiful or what, you guys?
Holy cow.
I can't decide which one is my favorite, because even though they all look similar,
they have a similar architectural style, they're all different in their own ways.
Y'all, look what we got.
This is another thing this region is actually known for.
They have a very good focaccia.
Now, if you're not familiar with it, focaccia is just kind of a flatbread similar to pizza dough.
But they put all of these indentions in it before they bake it.
And that is key because it hold all the
toppings and all of the oil.
It's absolutely delicious.
And you guys know,
the dough itself is the star of focaccia.
I mean, obviously the ingredients are delicious, but it's just so soft and pillowy.
Then you have all this oil caked on the top.
Man, it is a lot like pizza but just basically thicker.
What an awesome spot to eat focaccia.
Check this out!
I'm not even looking at you.
I'm just looking at the buildings.
Oh my God, I just now looked down.
Oh yeah, don't look down!
Holy cow!
It's just rocks.
Never mind, I take that back.
It's a terrifying spot to eat focaccia.
Finally, you've got to catch the sunset from one of the cities.
We chose Manarola.
That's the final city that we haven't seen yet guys, but we're here!
Our original plan was to catch the sunset
from a restaurant up on top of the hill,
so that you get to see the sun go down on the city itself.
Unfortunately, the queue was way too long.
Yes.
So we found out that you can have a takeaway drink,
and come sit on the water itself and watch the sun go down.
It's awesome because you still have views of the city up there.
Epic sunset over there.
Amazing company right here.
To a wonderful, wonderful day!
We had an absolutely amazing time exploring Cinque Terre yesterday,
and sadly today we have to head up north.
But we decided before we go
to get rid of some of our recycling.
So, our campsite actually has this amazing recycling area.
I swear, this is not all just us.
We've been trying to...
Stay on top of the amount of trash and waste we create.
But we met some friends at the campground and had them over,
so we added a bit more to our pile.
But we are going to responsibly take care of it today.
They're on the glass and there's the fun part.
It's so loud!
We're about to hit the road.
We only have a hundred kilometers of range, because they weren't able to charge here.
We kept tripping the breaker.
That will probably only last for 50 kilometers.
Yeah, because we have to drive up
to get over the mountains and out here.
But I hope you guys enjoyed eating Cinque Terre with us and just
exploring the 5 different villages.
We had a blast, that's for sure.
Oh, it was such a fun day.
Although, if you are taking the trains around there, pay attention!
Yeah, we took a couple of wrong turns.
I didn't film it because I was honestly kind of embarrassed.
Yeah.
We got on a couple of wrong trains, but anyway...
We gotta wrap this up and hit the road because we're running very very late.
And then, stay tuned for our next episode in the series
to see if we're stranded on the side of the road
in our amazing, electric vehicle.
We're strained and I guess we're self-contained, right?
So it's not so bad.
Yeah, we're just gonna sleep.
Goodbye, Adventures.
We'll see you on the road.