I was so excited about heading to Cinque Terre, going to a little Italian riviera is right up my alley. If I ever make it back to Italy, and trust me I’ll try my hardest, I would spend the majority of my time in Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre, which translates to “5 lands” is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, there are 5 villages surrounded by hillside at one end and open ocean at the other. Since we were only spending one night here, we stayed in the Riomaggiore village.

Since it is Winter in Italy as well, much of the town is shut down, which made it feel like we had really found a hidden gem and I believe we did. After our drive to Riomaggiore, we checked into our little apartment like hotel which had the most amazing view of the ocean.

 

Naturally we immediately headed to a local cafe for our first meal and some prosecco.

 

We started our meal with fried ricotta and spinach ravioli and delicious prosecco.

 

I was so excited to be on the coast and try some local seafood. I had been talking about pasta with clams since the moment I stepped off the plane, and I bet Erin was happy too that I was finally about to embark on my pasta so that I’d at least stop talking about it.  I enjoyed one of my favorite meals in Italy, Spaghetti with Clams; it was everything I imagined and so much more!

 

Don’t kid yourself, other than a few bites from Erin, I ate every bit of this pasta. Since we were in the region where pesto originated Erin decided to have pesto gnocchi and it was very yummy as well.

 

After three days of sight seeing in big cities, Erin and I were so excited to just relax and take in the beautiful village.

There are great hiking trails that connect each village and had we been there for longer we would have hiked all over, but since we only had one day we decided to stay in our village and take in all of Riomaggiore. We found an adorable Enoteca, wine market, and found some great goodies.

 

Our favorite find, was a brand of local wine. Erin’s nickname growing up has always been Scoogie and finding this wine felt like treasure because we think it directly translates to Scoogie. If we are wrong, don’t tell us.

 

Hi Erin!

After exploring a bit we decided to head to dinner. With so much closed, I am almost certain that everyone visiting the village was having dinner at our restaurant, all 20 of us.

Sticking to the seafood theme I decided to get the crab ravioli served with shrimp and sweet pea puree. It was very good, but didn’t hold a candle to my spaghetti with clams.

Erin was looking to try anchovies, since they were also from the region, so she got a spaghetti with anchovies and capers.

 

We were oh so full after this meal, but not too full for a glass of vino. Since our hotel was right on the water, we decided to sit out on the ocean rocks and enjoy the ocean.

I loved Cinque Terre so much and can’t wait to go back! Early in the morning we were headed to Varenna on Lake Como to meet up with Sarah for New Years Eve.

Stay tuned…

Arrivederchi!