Day 3: Cinqueterre Adventure

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Cliff jumping oasis in emerald green waters.  Watch out for the jelly fish!

We were woken up early to catch a boat out to the cinqueterre, which we missed by just a couple minutes.  They even came back to pick up some cranky Italians that were left behind and we still missed it.  It turned out to be a blessing because the all day boat ticket would have cost us 200 Euros total for both of our families.  We ended up driving into the first cinqueterre stop and taking the train over to the beginning of the walk we wanted to do. 

Henry loved this accordion player

After we took a dip in the ocean, we hopped on the train only to realize that we had left our backpack on the platform just as the train was pulling out of the station.  We were all mortified because we had all our stuff, swimsuits, food and our money in that backpack.  Justin quickly had the conductor call the station and a policeman grabbed the bag.  We didn’t know that he had found the bag and spent the next 45 minutes waiting to find out if Justin had recovered the backpack. 

Our crew sans Laurel who was behind the camera.  What a fun group!

While we were waiting I noticed some Asian women cooing at my children and I asked them were they were from.  They told me they were from Japan and I immediately called Lucy over.  She charmed them with her amazing Japanese and as more and more Japanese people showed up they all took turns taking photos with Clementine who was performing beautifully.  She let them pick her up, said “cheese” in every photo and even kissed them on the cheeks.  They would put their cameras away and then simultaneously take them out every time Clementine did something else cute.  At one point she took my wide brimmed hat and put it on and I told her to put her hands on her hips and she looked just like a movie star on the red carpet with the paparazzi all around her taking photos, laughing and cooing at every move and smile.  

This might be the cutest shot of the entire trip.  Men all over Italy get together to talk and argue in large groups and I saw one and couldn't resist plopping Clementine in-between them all. 

 Justin finally got off the train and we were on our way.  We decided to explore the town of Monterosso before our hike and discovered an awesome swimming and cliff jumping area.  I stayed with sleeping Vivi and the others spent the next hour swimming and jumping off cliffs.  Justin got stung on his hand by a jellyfish and Lucy was picking them up with sticks and holding them by their caps, which was freaking out all the Germans.  Lol.  After drying off we headed back to the trailhead and headed out.  This trail takes about 20 minutes to walk and it’s completely paved.  It has been named the lovers lane or “via dell’amore”.  People have affixed locks with their names written on them all along the trail, wherever they can put them. 

No where else in the world...It's just fantastic

 Bea and Sawyer, my friend Laurel’s son who is Henry’s age, walked together down the whole thing.  It was darling.  Clementine was the trailblazer and left us in the dust most of the walk.  She loved hiking on the trail.  When we got to the next town we ate gelato, bought some fruit and bread for a snack and bought tickets on the boat for the ride home.  It was so perfect because since it was the last boat of the day they didn’t make us pay for any of the kids and it was just 7 Euro each to get back home.  That’s a lot better than the 200 we were going to initially pay. 

View from the boat

We passed by all the cinqueterre towns, took lots of photos and spoke to some people behind us who were adoring my kids, of course, and we told them about us and they told us they were friends who all worked for a pharmaceutical company in Switzerland.  They were really friendly and interesting to talk to.   Bea told me later that Sawyer had let her fall asleep on his back and since his shirt was black, she said it was so warm.  She also said, "I like him and I love him and I want to marry him because he's nice to me".  I was happy to see that Lucy got the shot of her asleep on Sawyer's back.  What a sweet boy

Bea, I hope you do marry this darling boy with a British accent.  He's a gem.

When we got home we had to get home quickly because we were going to be late to our pizza party!  I was a little distraught because I had not been able to find our nice camera and I spent a lot of time searching for it.  I couldn’t find it and eventually just went up to the party.  The pizza was different from what I had expected but totally delicious.  

Giant Italian style table with a million people eating brick oven pizza.  We lucked out!

 It was made in a pan and not right in the oven like I thought it would have been and she didn’t use fresh mozzarella, but the normal hard kind.  She also put olives and ham on top of the pizza and said that she doesn’t use basil on her pizza, only Oregano.  I’m not a huge fan of oregano but I will eat anything made by an Italian woman who loves to cook.  The pizza was excellent.  They also had beans and ricotta cheese on the table , which was excellent.  We brought some of our buffalo cheese and had the most lovely evening ever!  Pierra sung songs for us and Lucy, Me and Laurel sung three part harmony hymns for them.  We sung St. Francis’ song “All Creatures of our God and King” and “How Gentle God’s Commands”.  They loved it. 

The coolest thing that happened to me was that Pierra’s son in law guessed that we were Mormon just by the experiences he had had with them in the past.  I was so amazed that an Italian would have just come up with that guess.  That means Mormons are getting more common in Italy! Yay!  After that conversation started their daughter was asking me about our church and I taught her about the restoration and about our living prophet and apostles.  I felt like I was back on a mission.  It was such a wonderful feeling to be teaching the gospel again in Italian.  I’m so lucky that I was able to practice my Italian for months with Marianna before I went to Italy so I could feel comfortable speaking and not stumble over my words as I’m trying to speak with the spirit.  She gave me her address to keep in touch and I’m going to send over the missionaries.  They were such a darling family.  

Too Sunny

 I will pray that they get baptized someday!  Oh, I forgot to mention that Pierra gave us two jars of jam she had made that were apricot and blackberry.  The apricot was the best!  Delicious.  Thank you Pierra! We told them our camera was missing and none of them said they had seen or found anything, but miraculously the old pervert handed it to us super early the next morning saying he had found it up on the hill.  I feel like he had had it for at least a couple days and didn’t give it back to us even though he knew it was mine.  Dirty old man! Haha.  Well, maybe he felt the spirit while we were singing and decided to give it back.  

Cool Villa right by the beach.  Next time, we're staying here!