The next morning we awoke in the middle of Vernazza to the sound of falling rain. Looking out the window, we saw people walking on the narrow, all-pedestrian street below, all under umbrellas. Any hope we had of the hiking trails opening today were washed down the gutters with the rain. But life goes on, so we packed up our backpack (we had left most of our things at the beach house and were able to travel very lightly to Cinque Terre) and we headed up the hill to Guili and Michelle's, where we dropped our things and checked in. Things are pretty informal at their six-room accommodation. As we were ready to set out, Guili noticed that we only had a small umbrella, and he offered to loan us a large one of theirs. Guili apologized up and down for the rainy weather and assured us that the old-timers of Vernazza, as well as himself, had never seen a month of May as rainy as this one! Lucky us—getting to see meteorological history made in the Cinque Terre! Since the trails remained closed due to the rain and falling rock, we decided to buy the very inexpensive train passes for the Cinque Terre. So we boarded the train at Vernazza and headed South to the southern-most town of Riamaggore to check it out. The trip only took about 10 minutes, and when we got there we joined all the other tourists wandering around in the rain with umbrellas. We checked out some vistas of the coast and of the town of Riamaggore, then had lunch and got back on the train to head back to the northern-most town of the Cinque Terre, Montarossa. Again, we wandered around there in the rain. We liked that town much better than Riamaggore, as it was more charming and less gritty. When we went back to the train station to return to Vernazza, there was a pretty major train stoppage, and no one explained why. We waited on the train for about an hour, and the train finally left Montarossa for the five-minute ride to Vernazza. We had made dinner reservations that morning for the cute little trattoria, La Pirata, run by two brothers who joke around with guests, most of which are American tourists. When we got to dinner, we were seated in this tiny restaurant right next to another American couple, Dick and Joanna Wright, who were being seated at the same time. Since we were on the same timetable, the four of us had a nice visit while we had dinner together. Joanna suggested we go to “The Blue Marlin,” for a nightcap, which is the local hot spot at night for the “younger crowd.” We decided that with four of us, there was strength in numbers and we'd braved it. We had a couple drinks there and had a great time enjoying each others' company. Plus, a young man we'd met on the train this afternoon from New Jersey was at the bar too, with a bunch of friends, all of whom were American. By the time the lights came on in the bar, we were all friends, comparing notes, and getting information about Pompeii and other things to see South of Rome, where we plan to go the last few days of our stay in Italy.
We said goodbye to our new friends, Dick and Joanna (pictured here), who are leaving tomorrow on a train for Milan and ultimately their home in San Diego.
Everyone from here keeps apologizing for the rain and saying how rare it is in May. They say the place looks completely different when the sun is shining, and I'm sure that's true, especially with the sun bouncing off the water, and the beaches inviting to swimmers and sun bathers. The rain kept us from hiking and it made getting around a nuisance, and it didn't exactly enhance any of the vistas. Yet we were dry and comfortable under our umbrella, loaned to us out of goodness by Guili and Michelle, and we commented on how rare it is we have a chance to stroll around in the rain under an umbrella. We saw beautiful lemon trees and many wild flowers. We can tell from all the dense vegetation that rain is no stranger to this area, even if not in May. Then the day ended with meeting new friends, having a great dinner and all in all, a really fun evening. We truly made lemonade out of lemons today!
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