We decided to go into town (Monterosso) for lunch. Rob is determined to have some authentic Italian pizza! Who am I to argue? We retraced our steps from yesterday, since we were attempting to find a pizzaria that we had walked by and that also looked good. We stopped at one place and sat down, only to discover that this restaurant had no pizza on the menu -- oops, wrong place! So we got up and continued walking and then happened upon our destination -- looked good! We needed to wait a few minutes for a table to free up; this place is quite small. We ordered a large pizza Margarita with side salads and some local, white wine. The pizza was quite large, but we managed to eat most of it -- molto bene! By the way, a pizza Margarita here does not have the basil that we are accustomed to at home, it is just tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. After lunch we returned to the hotel. Our plan for this afternoon is to swim in the Meditaranean Sea!
Our hotel has a private beach area reserved for its guests, so we procured a pass from the front desk as well as some towels and walked down to the beach. It is a gorgeous day with no clouds, but not too hot. We select our chairs under an umbrella and lounge on the beach. After a little while, we waded into the sea and then plunged in for a swim. The water is cool, but refreshing. The salt in the water makes us very buoyant! We continued lounging away the afternoon. I collected some sea glass, which seemed plentiful, but the pieces were on the small side. The beach had some sand, but it was hard to walk on since most of it was very coarse, almost pebbles. We went for another swim later, then returned to the hotel -- very nice afternoon; neither one of us had ever swam in the Mediterranean before. Here is Rob:
After showers and a little rest, we went out for dinner. We elected not to make a reservation, but went to the other restaurant recommended by our hotel, a place on the other side of the tunnel called Miky's. This place is a little fancier, so we realized perhaps a reservation might have been a good idea, but we were seated. One of the specialties of the Cinque Terre is anchovies. There is a whole section of the menu for anchovy antipasti. I'm feeling adventurous, so I asked Rob if you would share a dish with me. He said yes, so when it was time to order, I ordered anchovies prepared Monterosso style, stuffed and fried. She suggested ordering a sampler selection of various preparations for a few euros more, we agreed. In a few minutes, three plates of anchovies, prepared three different ways were presented. I can't recall the descriptions, but the one we liked the best was with lemon and garlic; it helped mask the fishy flavor. We were congratulating ourselves for our bravery in ordering and eating the anchovies. Then I realized I should have taken a picture of the plates before we had eaten them. Oh well. Suddenly, the waitress appeared with four more plates of anchovies -- what is this? Okay, the first round were the cold preparations; the second round included the hot preparations. Our smugness soon wore off when we realized how many more anchovies we had to eat. There was no turning back now! Our waitress was amusing as she cleared the plates. She said, "Yes, we have a lot of anchovies here ... all year round!" She was rolling her eyes as she said this which made it clear that even a local like her could certainly get her fill of anchovies! Here is a picture of the second round we were served (don't they look yummy?):
For our main dishes, I ordered a ravioli made with sea bass and a special kind of spinach grown only in this region. Rob had tagliatelli with shrimp, mushrooms, and tomato. Both were outstanding. The presentation of my dish was weird almost, as a layer of dough was spread over the dish, which the waitress heated with a flame and then pealed off, revealing the ravioli. I'm pretty sure the dough was not intended to be eaten, so I didn't eat it. This was our best meal so far here in Monterosso, even with the anchovies! Our local wine was also very good. Here is a picture (no idea what kind of grape this is):
Time to walk back to the hotel and retire.
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