The weather really messed with our day today. But that's ok, that happens sometimes - you just adapt! (Although sometimes you adapt completely backwards like we did today!)
Our plan for the day was to go to the beach all day. We had rented some chairs from one of the beach companies and planned to enjoy the day by the water. But the forecast had other plans. It said there was going to be rain in the morning and it would eventually clear up by late afternoon. So Todd booked us a morning class to make focaccia and pesto, and we thought we could just go to the beach in the afternoon after the rain ended. Of course, you can see the sky behind me in the morning...
Grant didn't want to do any baking or cooking with us, so we decided to just go on our own.
YUM! Let's go!
We spent our morning with 5TerrEx, and Francesco taught us all about baking the focaccia, while Julia told us about and assisted us in making pesto. Francesco told us that the baking of focaccia actually started several hours before our arrival. They use a very specific type of flour - pizza!
Pizza dough works best for focaccia because it has that similar texture. You just need to add some water, yeast, olive oil and salt!
Francesco showed us how to put fingerprints into the dough and douse it in salt water and olive oil before we set it aside and let it rise a bit and acquire a bunch of bubbles from the yeast.
Then we got to kneed the dough and pour olive oil on it ourselves before it went back into the oven.
I'm so good at this.
Once the focaccia was set aside to rise, we sat down at the table and Julia walked us through how to make pesto.
We had to have a little water to make sure we stay hydrated!
This was the most beautiful and fragrant basil plant I've ever seen.
There aren't many ingredients in pesto. It's just pine nuts, garlic, salt, olive oil, Parmigiano-Reggiano and basil.
It is NOT easy to mash up - even if you have a high quality, wicked heavy mortar and pestle. These particular tools were actually made here in Italy from the same white marble quarry that makes many of the statues you see in Rome.
Todd adds his olive oil.
It was super funny- none of our pesto looked the same. And Julia said that was ok. She said sometimes you can make it a bit heavier on the basil side, particularly if you're not super strong and can't mash it to a perfect paste. If you are really able to crush down the basil, it might taste heavier on the pine nut or olive oil side.
What? It's 10:30 am you say? When in Italy!
Wine and pesto time!
Meanwhile, poor Francesco is back there working hard! Cheers!
Because focaccia takes a while to bake and it gets done in several phases (namely the rising of the dough and then the baking), Francesco had prepared some that had already risen so we could complete the final steps to put it in the oven.
Ok I feel like maybe I'm NOT great at this.
But Francesco was very reassuring! And wait... is this how Todd sees the world? Why am I so short?
Meanwhile, here's a view from my world. Francesco pulled the PERFECT focaccia out of the oven!
DUDE. Of all the meals I had in all of Italy on this trip, this was my favorite one.
It's a thing of beauty! We actually had two focaccias. One plain and one with onions. And of course, pesto and wine!
OH MY WORD! Wait, did I wear my sunglasses on my head the entire time I was here?
Now I normally don't DO raw onions. But Francesco had soaked these for some time in some salt water so they weren't crunchy. They were not overpowering, sort of like a sauteed onion, but a bit more crispy. I imagined it would be like raw, crunchy onions on top, but it was HEAVENLY.
I was STUFFED after this. We took the little bit of pesto I had left and the focaccia (I ain't wasting that!) and packed it up to take back to the hotel with us! Also, if you write a review (somewhere, anywhere), they will send you recipes for both the pesto and the focaccia. I don't have a stand mixer so we have not attempted the focaccia yet, but Todd made the pesto already and it was amazing!
Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to gather up the boy and grab some lunch. Lunch was more for him than us, because we were not hungry at this point!
After a bite to eat, we went down to the beach where we hoped to spend a relaxing, rain-free afternoon.
But no. The Lord had other plans.
OK, we can at least swim for a little bit. Ummmm, also nope. They were in here about 15-20 minutes before the red flag went up and they had to get out of the rough waters.
Well that looks ominous.
There's the red flag. As soon as this went up, people got out of the water and the workers started closing up the umbrellas and stacking the chairs. I mean... we were probably here a half hour to 45 minutes total.
Don't forget... the forecast was for morning rain and afternoon sun. Instead, we got morning sun and afternoon rain. A LOT of afternoon rain.
We stayed under the railroad overpass for a LONG time.
This storm just sat over us and rained itself out, just like a Florida afternoon storm would.
But wait! It finally ended and I see a little blue sky! Let's emerge from underneath the railroad tracks.
The drainage system from the town of Monterosso drains all of the rainwater down to the beach and into the Med. EWW. If you go to Monterosso and go to this beach, don't park yourself on the sand where this stormwater river is located. You have no idea what's in that water!
Ok cool. The rain has stopped and we will wait for the workers to bring the chairs back and open up the umbrellas again.
Oh but no. We won't do that. Because as soon as we finished these drinks, it started raining again.
Ugh fine, whatever. Let's just cut our losses and call it a day. We went back to the hotel, got cleaned up and had a little happy hour in the lobby bar.
I'm a little hungry at this point... wait! We have the left over pesto and focaccia down the hall in the room!
And after our happy hour and snack break, we finally made our way out for some dinner at Da Eraldo.
If the wine has your daughter's name on it, you have to drink it! (Ok ok.. it's almost her name!)
Wait. Did Grant order... Bolognese? He certainly did.
I ordered these raviolis with red sauce, pesto sauce AND olives. It was delicious!
That's a table full of goodness right there!
After dinner, we walked back down to the water. Because after a big Italian meal, you HAVE to do a little walking.
And then we decided to explore a bit more down by the jetty.
Jetty views and beautiful cirrus clouds.
Hmmm. What's that up there. It's the Torre Aurora! Well, we will have to explore that too.
But first, let's enjoy the sunset and the crashing waves.
This is why the jetty exists. So that these rocks and concrete can absorb the energy of these powerful waves rather than the beach or any of the city buildings.
Grant is always such a willing participant in family selfies.
Oh look! It's where we started our hike to Vernazza the other day!
Snap a picture in any direction in Italy and it's going to be a keeper.
I began to write "walking on the jetty" and now I have "Dancing on the Jetty" by INXS in my head.
Todd thinks he should have been one of the Price is Right models. Tell them what they've won, Bob!
After we explored the jetty and watched the sun set, we decided to go up. We thought we could visit the Torre Aurora but it's actually a restaurant now, and not a tourist attraction.
Now that's a nice view of the western, newer part of Monterosso!
I mean if this isn't the best picture ever, I don't know what is.
The statue behind them is St. Francis of Assisi, who is the patron saint of animals! This area is sort of the walkway up to the Convent of the Capuchin Friars of Monterosso al Mare.
Apparently this is one of only three towers still standing out of 13 that were originally built to defend Monterosso from the pirates. It was built in the 16th century. There are two others- one is the bell tower for the church, and the other is down in the newer part of Monterosso.
As I mentioned, we did not go in the Torre Aurora because it's now a restaurant but you don't need to go inside to get great views above the old town of Monterosso.
Hey I can see Vernazza from here!
We decided to keep walking up with no real plan, just trying to see what was up here!
Up here on San Cristoforo hill is a convent for the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. It was built between 1619-1640 and Capuchin friars have lived here off and on since then.
There are definitely some views from up here that you do not get anywhere else in the town!
For sure - this should be the motto of every church/mosque/temple!
That's a pretty tall tree!
We just kept walking UP. What's up there? Turns out it's a cemetery!
Now that's a view! That bridge is actually ginormous but looks so small here.
We wandered through the cemetery for a bit - everything was above ground (which was only kind of weird because we were so high up above the sea!) Cemeteries are always just a bit outside of the town because of the health issues they could possibly expose to the residents.
At this point we realized we had seen this place before in a Rick Steves episode! Some of those buried here were killed in World War II raids that targeted the rail system in the Cinque Terre.
It's very sad because you can see a bunch of plots that have the same death date on them (or within a day or two).
As it was getting darker, the little LED candles helped light up the graves.
It was very peaceful and beautiful up there.
But... it was also getting dark! So we made our way back down San Cristoforo hill and into Monterosso.
Look at all of the lights!
Before we made our way entirely down the hill, we spotted a bunch of people... country line dancing? What in the world is going on here? They're just out there getting their boot scootin' boogie on!
And tomorrow, we will make our way back east to Venice! Until next time, Cinque Terre!
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