Cinque Terre - fairy tale villages and pastel houses

Day 9 (12 May 2025)

Today, we took a full-day trip to the UNESCO heritage site Cinque Terre. You might have seen this on travel brochures, advertising the pretty pastel-hued houses along a rocky coastline. Cinque Terre comprises five villages (its name is literally "five lands"), the smallest of which only has 200 residents. It's far north and took us about 1.5 hours by bus from Florence.

We were going to visit three of the five villages: Manarola, Vernazza and Monterosso. Each of these villages are connected by a short local train ride or by boat. We took the train to the first two towns and boat to the last one. The local train stations are so cute, just one platform.

Our first was Manarola and instantly we were greeted by a scene right out of a picture book. Brightly painted houses, steep terraces, winding cobblestone paths. Cinque Terre is a fishing area and the guide explained that historically, the fishermen painted their houses in bright distinctive colours so that they could easily spot their homes when they were at sea. The houses were also built up high along the rocky cliffs so as to avoid pirates. Now that the area is a heritage site, it's forbidden to change the colours of the houses! So if you buy a red house, you can't paint it turquoise even if you dislike red 😆 

So many steep steps and narrow alleyways. I felt quite sorry for the tourists who were dragging their luggages to find their accommodation often tucked up in some corner up a hill. 

It is at Manarola that we see the site of the iconic scene that graces all travel brochures on Cinque Terre. It's very, very pretty, like something right out of a postcard. The weather was also on our side - brilliant blue skies, cool seabreeze, perfect 22 degrees celcius weather 😍 

It was so pretty that when we came across some benches with a view of the houses, I sat down to do a quick sketch.

 

 

I painted it back at the hotel. Don't think I did a very good job though, overdid the contrast of the rocks so it overpowers everything else 😕

Our second stop was Vernazza. Another very picturesque town.

We were told that the speciality in Cinque Terre is fried fish and the guide recommended trying from this shop. So we bought some. You order a cone of the size you want and they fill it with an assortment of seafood. You can choose which ones you want but since we didn't know what would be good, we asked for everything. Our verdict? It's basically what you see - battered fish. Again like with most Italian food I've tried, I found it salty and underwhelming in terms of flavour, with the exception of the prawns. There's a salty smokiness about their shrimps that's very delicious. Their calamari too, are not chewy like the ones back home, but soft and juicy.

Finally, we travelled to Monterosso by boat which was a nice change. 

Another very pretty island. The water is a glass of blue green that's very hypnotic. 

Monterosso is a seaside town and a beautiful beach. People come here to swim. The public toilets have shower facilities.

I took this picture because of the girl right on top of that rock. I felt a bit nervous at the thought that she might dive (or slip) from there 😨

Cinque Terre is admittedly super pretty. To be perfectly honest though, after a while, it all felt too commercialised for our tastes. Every house we saw was either a hotel, a restaurant or a shop, and there were throngs of tourists everywhere. I don't think anyone actually lives in the city centre which explains the small population.

We went to a restaurant wanting to have just dessert and coffee but they wouldn't let us, said we had to order lunch. Didn't like their attitude so instead we parked ourselves on a park bench. Andre bought himself a pesto focaccia from a takeaway shop and I decided to sketch the building in front of me.  

I sketched directly with a fineliner and the proportions came out wrong so I winged it a bit. Added watercolour back at the hotel. 

The day trip ended back in Florence. There, we headed to the popular Trattoria Za Za for dinner. This is another one of those restaurants which is deceptively small. It's a maze deep inside with multiple rooms, each one having its own themed decor. Apparently it's a historical place in its own right with its vaulted ceilings and stone walls.

Even the toilets are decorated ala museum mode!

The food here is more reasonably priced than most other similar retaurants. We ordered a steak and a fish with a side of truffle fries. The food tastes quite good, but the surprise was the dessert. I haven't had dessert in Italy yet (except gelato) and asked the waiter for a recommendation. He immediately replied without hesitation: "The apple pie with mascarpone cream. It's my favourite. If you don't like it, I'll pay for it!" 

How to turn down an offer like that? I typically don't order pies for dessert cos I find pastry too filling. But when this one came, we realised it was pastry-less. The whole pie was made from apple, so it's more like a dense cake. When Andre and I each took our first spoonful, the flavour exploded in our mouths. Sweet and creamy and custardy, topped off with the mascarpone cream, it was SUBLIME 😍 We wolfed it down in no time at all and even Andre who doesn't have a sweet tooth was quite enamoured. I had to stop myself from ordering a second one.

We're coming back again tomorrow, just for that dessert 😋

 

 

Mothers' Day in Firenze

Day 8 (11 May 2025)

It's Mothers' Day and Andre kindly arranged for a leisurely day today. First we walked over to the duomo. Duomo means cathedral. It's more than a church as it's usually referring to where the bishop resides. To add to the confusion, there's basilica which also means church but a special one of special significance as designated by the Pope. 

There are more than 300 duomos in Italy but when people talk about The Duomo, it generally refers this one in Florence - the Cathedral of Santa Maria. We already knew it was going to be impressive but still, we were unprepared for just how magnificent it was. We turned the corner and there it was - this massive architectural wonder, with its exquisite arches and statues. The bells rang and honestly, it felt like we were in a different time period altogether. Photos don't do it justice. You have to see it in person.

We didn't buy tickets in advance to see the inside of the duomo, something I regret because it's supposed to be a treasure trove of art. It's quite a madhouse trying to get tickets to these major attractions on the day itself because of the long queues, so we didn't try.

Most duomos have an adjacent baptistry and a bell tower.

Around the square were artists painting on site and displaying their art, something I didn't see in Rome.

Right at the Piazza della Signoria is where the replica of Michelangelo's David stands (we saw the original at the Accademia yesterday).

We passed by Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Florence, originally built more than 2,000 years ago. Interesting fact: this was the only bridge in Florence that wasn't bombed in World War II, on the orders of Hitler. The bridge is even mentioned in one of my favourite arias - "O mio babbino caro" by Puccini!

Initially I'd intended to paint the Duomo on site but once we reached the Piazza del Duomo, I instantly recognised my foolishness. First, there's no way I could do it justice. Second, the square was so crowded it was impossible to find a spot with a good view. 

 

So I decided to paint Ponte Vecchio instead (back at the hotel, not on site). I took some liberties with the sky colour (love my turquoise and pink skies!) 

 

We also saw Pitti Palace, a Renaissance Palace that belonged to the powerful Medici family. Quite different from all the ornate palaces we've seen in Europe, this one looked more like a fortress. 

In our search for a toilet, we stumbled upon a nondescript gelato shop that turned out to be a great find. We're learning fast that pistachio flavours are Italy's speciality. The waitress was pretty surly though and really didn't look like she enjoyed her job. Ah well, our experience so far has been that the more unfriendly the staff, the better the food😆

On this trip, we have a lot of unplanned walking which is great because we come across unexpected finds. One of them was this local market that we accidentally wandered into. Lots of interesting stuff - we saw artichokes! It's very foreign to us and we tried some on our first day but it's one of the specialities of Italy (particularly in Rome).

There was a guy slicing prosciutto that looked delicious.

Then Andre's eyes lit up when he saw someone selling lampredotto, one of the speciality foods in Florence. It's a sandwich made from cow's stomach. Of course he had to get some. It's tasty but what got me was the fries - crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Possibly the best I've ever had, I couldn't stop eating them! 

In the evening, Andre treated me to Mothers' Day dinner at a trattoria recommended by our hotel. In Florence, you have to try the namesake Florentine steak. The catch is that this is a massive 1.3kg t-bone steak cooked rare on a smoky grille (the Italians have big appetites!) We had ours with a side of potatoes. It was so tender and juicy 😋

Not sure if it's because it's Mothers' Day but they served us free prosecco to start and limoncello (lemon-flavoured liquer) as an after-dinner drink. Both were so strong Andre had to finish mine for me 😆 (plus he ordered a glass of white wine!) 

 

I was so stuffed after the meal and thought we did quite well to polish off so much meat, then I saw a little old Italian lady (one in yellow) at another table eating the meat off the t-bone with her hands, then finishing off with a bowl of salad before asking for more bread 😱 Never underestimate the Nonna! 

 

Happy Mothers' Day 🌹🌹