Day 3-5

It's hot.  REALLY hot.  Josiah and I had planned to go to Bologna for the weekend, but we quickly scrap that plan and decide to head to Vernazza in Cinque Terre, a beautiful little city on the beach we visited together 9 years ago.  When we roll into town after our 3 and a half hour train ride, we drop off our luggage and head straight to the beach.  We end up at an amazing restaurant, which turns out to be the same one we ate at 9 years ago, and even have the same meal...which we don't realize until the end.  Fresh bread, local wine by the carafe, ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta in a white walnut sauce...oh the food we ate!  Italy is worth a trip for the food alone.  We also get our fill of gelatto and fresh foccacia bread during this trip...these are things I will dearly miss when I return home. (guess I'll have to learn how to make foccacia)

Since 2004, Cinque Terre has aquired national park status, and you must purchase a ticket to hike from town to town.  We decide to hike from Vernazza to Monterrosso, which looks like a pretty easy hour and a half hike on the map, but turns out to be quite strenuous, with it's steep stone stairways up and down the mountain.  We truly enjoy every minute of our new butt-crunching workout, however, due to the beautiful countryside and views of the towns and ocean.

 We spend the rest of the time laying on the beach, swimming, eating, and then--surprise!  It turns out that the town is having a special festival, which we find out when a parade starts making it down the one, cobbled, tiny street through town. There is some sort of religious aspect to it, and all the children are dressed in little white outfits with black collars and red bows, and they proceed back up the street where they meet a priest in front of a picture of Mary and say some sort of prayer.

Later that evening we are treated to an hour and a half long performance of Vivaldi by an amateur brass band.  Watching the locals during the performance proves to be just as entertaining as the performance itself.  One man with a bushy mustache watches the entire concert through his phone while grinning ecstatically.  we can only guess which teenager in the band belongs to him and how embarrassed they will be by this recording for years to come.  There are also a band of young children who run around the town, apparently unsupervised.  We decide they must be in charge. Of everything.  They play tag during the performance, disrupting the elderly and knocking over tourists. Since they town is so small we start giving nicknames to the people we see repeatedly.  Oh, there's speedo-man.  Comb-over guy.  Neck-beard. Maybe that's not very nice.  But then again, who wears a speedo all day with only tennis-shoes?  That's definitely going to garner some attention.

By the time the concert is over, the entire town has assembled on the piazza next to the beach in anticipation of the fireworks show.  This is no small-town fireworks show...all day men have been unloading giant canons onto the jetti that is next to the beach.  The fireworks show is astounding close--which means that it is LOUD, BIG, and kind of SCARY. Occassionally the fireworks don't go up, but out, and explode in the water, at which point everyone stands up and gasps and we can't help but wonder, "was that supposed to happen?" and, "hmmm...what if they accidently point that at the piazza?"

Returning to Vernazza was truly the best possible way for us to celebrate our 10 years of marriage together.  When we first came to Vernazza, we were young, had been married only a year, and at the very beginning of our journey.  Now, after ten years together, we were able to reflect on how life has changed since then, how many wonderful memories we've created, and how we are looking forward to another ten years together.  Who knows, maybe we'll return again for our 20th anniversary?