We had been organised and packed the night before as we had an early start on Wednesday morning. The hotel arranged a cab for us, which arrived in minutes, to take us to Milano Centrale train station. The intercity 657 took us on a three hour journey down to one of the five towns that makes up Cinque Terre, Monterosso Al Mare.

It was a ten minute walk from the local train station to Hotel Margherita. Not an easy task when we had backpacks to carry in the heat of the midday sun. Thankfully, although normal check-in is 3pm, our room was ready. This enabled us to get a quick shower before going out to explore.

https://www.hotelmonterosso.it/en/

Monterosso Al Mare was very busy when we left the hotel. It looked as if a cruise ship may have dropped its passengers at the port of La Spezia, which is a 25 minute train ride away from Monterosso Al Mare. It was heaving on the seafront and the beach.

Further back from the seafront are lots of restaurants and bars, hidden down the narrow paved “carugio”, which is the Ligurian way of saying “alleyway”. It was a bit quieter there. We first tried a “enoteca” which is a name for a wine store. We couldn’t go past without trying a wonderful glass of Amarone, whilst escaping the midday sun.

Feeling a little peckish, we looked about and found a lovely traditional restaurant, Ristorante Al Carugio. Meals were mainly seafood and pasta dishes at reasonable prices. A half litre of house wine was €6, and I don’t think you can go wrong with house wine in Italy!

Once we’d eaten, we decided to walk along part of one of the paths that takes you to another Cinque Terre town, Vernazza. The distance is approximately 3.5km from Monterosso but we had not planned to walk it all. It would have taken up too much of the day, and it was really hot too! If anyone wants to try the full path, the seaside towns of Cinque Terre are linked by a pathway, which takes roughly six hours from one end to the other. Walking or hiking shoes are a must.

Even though we didn’t walk far, we got some great views of the town and the beautiful rugged coastline.

Next, we walked around the promenade to a small harbour wall where there were many people swimming in the lovely blue waters of the Ligurian Sea. We sat behind the harbour wall just admiring our surroundings before deciding to walk further up the coast to look at the tower that was jutting out of some rocks overlooking the sea.

This tower turned out to be the Torre Aurora (Aurora Tower). It was built roughly around the year 1000AD, to defend against pirate attacks. Today it is privately owned but there is also a restaurant/bar there. This fabulous place offers some great vistas overlooking the sea. Had it not been closed on Thursday we would have definitely booked a table.

https://www.torreauroracinqueterre.com/en/

We did a bit more sightseeing on the way back to Hotel Margherita, winding our way down the narrow carugio. We needed to make sure we could get a taxi to a restaurant that we had booked. The booking was something I had arranged a month or so ago, when I was searching for restaurants with a view.

The taxi was due at 6:50pm but we waited…and waited…The hotel staff were really helpful and contacted the taxi driver twice, as well as the restaurant who said they would hold our table for us.

The taxi eventually turned up 25 minutes late, and apologised by taking us on what I can only describe as a death ride. The restaurant is at the top of a big hill overlooking Monterosso Al Mare. The road up to it winds along the cliff edges that had some pretty tight bends. The driver obviously knew the roads but he was going way too fast. We were both glad to get out of the car unscathed.

The restaurant we booked was called Il Ciliegio. As I said previously, it was something that I’d found when researching restaurants with a view.

https://ilciliegio5terre.wordpress.com

Tables were available both inside and out, so we went for an outdoor table overlooking the bay. We could see Monterosso Al Mare below in the distance. The friendly water took a genuine interest in us, asking where we were from and telling us about his time in England. He took our order and was very helpful when we asked about particular dishes.

Starters were lovely: anchovies prepared five different ways together with a green salad, black truffle and Parmesan cream. Main courses: well I had to send back a very undercooked steak which had cold pink pepper sauce. When it was brought back it was much better.

The views were absolutely beautiful at the top. We could see for miles across the hill behind us, and the Ligurian sea in front.

Once we’d finished we asked with a little trepidation for the waiter to order us a taxi back down to Monterosso Al Mare. The ride was much less hairy going back thankfully. Once we’d arrived back in the town we headed back to the hotel for a beautiful red wine on the terrace and planned what we would do on Thursday.