Before leaving Alpe d'Huez I had to have a pain au chocolat so we stopped at a little bakery I know in town and grabbed a few goodies. We also posed for a few pics at the finish line of the climb...not the real finish where Le Tour ends, but where people who do the ride can stop and go into the Tourist Office to get a certificate saying that they rode up the climb....maybe next time.
Down that crazy road we went and then drove through another amazing valley headed east. We made our way down out of the Alps, passing some amazing scenery along the way, then eventually turned and crossed the border into Italy. After a few more mountain passes we hit flat ground and got onto one of the big highways. It was pretty boring, but we were able to do 130 which allowed us to cover ground quickly.
After passing Genova we drove for a little bit before turning off the highway and onto a small road down towards Levanto. Just before we got there we turned onto yet a smaller road to get down to Monterosso Al Mare. It was quite the drive, but our Fiat was up to the challenge. We found our way without a single wrong turn, thank goodness for the GPS.....gotta love technology. We had to be at our B & B by 6:00 or we risked losing our room. I had predicted that we would be there by 5:30, and at 5:25 we were on the last stretch. We turned down the road that the GPS told us to and we couldn't find the place. The road was so narrow that even turning around in a small car was a challenge. Eventually we parked and started to walk up and down, it sure didn't look like the brochure! We found a place with the right address, Jo rang a doorbell but no one answered. I kept looking at my watch at the time ticked away. "This isn't right' I said, and we hopped back in the car and backtracked a bit. We drove down the last road again and spotted a little sign that was hidden by some branches. We turned down the little road and after passing a sign that said Private Road we wondered if we were on the wrong track again. Just around the next corner the place came into view.......
WOW, we found a piece of heaven on earth! We checked into our room and were blown away by the place. The place is built in the middle of an olive grove which is still actively farmed. Our room has a spectacular view of the ocean, and we have our own private garden patio complete with a lemon tree.....every so often a huge juicy lemon drops to the ground and we scoop it up :-)
Here is the view:
After settling in we decided to go for a stroll and find something to eat. Monterosso is the only town in the Cinque Terre with big sand beaches, so it's very popular with the sun worshippers.
We strolled up and down the pathway that runs along the ocean for a while and then decided we should find something to eat. We'd read about a place online that people raved about, it was called Miky's. We got to sit on the patio out front and it didn't disappoint. We had read about the seafood risotto so we ordered it, along with a bottle of the local wine.....yum hardly works!
They had some other fresh seafood as well...
We ended up sitting between two elderly couples, one from Australia and the other from Luxumberg. We shared stories, wine and Limoncello, and had a wonderful evening. And anyone that watched The Tour de France this year knows the irony of us sitting between a couple from each of those countries, especially after we had just been in Alpe d'Huex. After and amazing meal we wondered back to our oasis to get some sleep before the big hike tomorrow.
