We woke rather later than expected but still had time for a lovely buffet breakfast in Hotel Margherita. We could choose from cold meats and cheeses, fresh pomodoro tomatoes, boiled eggs, toast, scrambled egg, bacon, pastries as well as hot and cold drinks.

Once breakfast was out of the way we headed out and it wasn’t long before we stumbled upon a local market, which takes place every Thursday. It was very busy with people buying from traders who were selling clothes, fruit, vegetables and handbags.

I made a couple of purchases and then we walked north towards the newer part of Monterosso Al Mare. At the Fegina beach area here you would be expected to pay €38 for two sun beds and a parasol!! On the beach, the sun beds are very close together. The most interesting part for me was seeing the Statua del Gigante, the giant statue, which overlooks Fegina beach.

The locals call it Il Gigante, but is actually a statue of the sea god, Neptune. The wealthy Pastine family commissioned sculptor Arrigo Minerbi to build it for their sumptuous villa at Cinque Terre in 1910. The statue was sculpted into the rock of the cliff, with a trident in his hands and a clam shell on his shoulders.

Today we saw a statue which looks very different. Il Gigante lost his arms, the trident and the giant seashell when Monterosso Al Mare was bombed during WW2. Sadly the statue suffered further damage in the 1960s due to rough seas and strong winds.

As we had no plan today, and we’d seen enough of the town, I suggested we go to Portovenere via the local ferry. To buy the tickets, we had to queue at a kiosk where the ticket seller was very helpful and showed us the times for getting back on the ferry. Tickets can also be bought online.

https://www.cinqueterre.eu.com/en/boat-excursions

Line 2 is the ferry line dedicated to Cinque Terre. Ferries run every hour during the summer between Monterosso Al Mare and Porto Venere. We bought a day ticket for €39 per person which meant you could get off at any of the stops on the route. After leaving Monterosso Al Mare, the stops are Vernazza, Manarola, Riomaggiore then Porto Venere. We enjoyed a Birra Moretti from the bar on board and drank this whilst enjoying the views on the top deck.

Portovenere is a hidden gem overlooking the Gulf of La Spezia. Due to the number of literary people who enjoyed the beauty of the area, it became more romantically known as the Golfo dei Poeti. It has often been dubbed the “sixth” Cinque Terre town, as it offers the same beautiful scenery but with less tourist footfall. Famous people who have visited to avoid the crowds are Steven Spielberg, Apple’s Tim Cook, Patti Smith and Andrea Bocelli.

The whole journey took around one hour and twenty minutes and we arrived just after 1pm. The harbour area has plenty of restaurants and bars, so we looked for somewhere to eat. We found Al Gabbiano, a restaurant that had pinse on the menu, a new favourite of ours (we had pinsa in Milan), made from hand pressed dough.

https://algabbianoportovenere.it

We had a quick look at some of the other places of interest including an imposing, yet stunning, church called Chiesa di San Pietro that overlooks the harbour entrance.

Getting back on the ferry was easy and allowed us to get prime position at the front of the top deck on the way back. The sea was a little choppier than on the outward journey but we were fine. I took some shots of the other Cinque Terre towns on the way back, including Corniglia which is not accessible by water.

The captain of the ferry carefully steered between buoys to avoid rocks and shallow waters. I think that the cigar helped with his concentration.

We stopped at the final town before Monterosso Al Mare, which is called Vernazza. We only had an hour which gave us time to look around. It was very busy on the small beach and along the main street in the town, Via Roma. We decided that we preferred where we had chosen to stay.

The ferry ride from Vernazza to Monterosso Al Mare is only ten minutes so we were soon back at the hotel.

Once we’d showered and packed ready for Friday, we went out to find somewhere to eat. People tend to eat here earlier so the restaurants get busy very quickly. We found a place that did seafood and pasta, called Ristorante La Cambusa. I wasn’t feeling too hungry so just had a small starter sized pasta called trofie al pesto. Trofie pasta originates from this area, the Liguria region of Northern Italy. Pesto is also produced here, so I had a typical regional dish.

After a short stroll round Monterosso harbour, we came upon a free outdoor presentation about Italian music. It looked quite good to begin with as it was showing old footage of the Rolling Stones and The Beatles.

However, the guy was speaking in Italian and we eventually realised that we didn’t know any of the artists. We decided to call it a night and went back to the hotel. We wanted to be refreshed to catch a train on Friday morning.