Our boy was born five weeks early, so we had some more baby-time with him, which I think was great as babies grow too fast anyway, it would be great if you could stop the time every so often.
Being a mom is also exhausting though, I have to be honest here. The broken nights, less sleep and the fact that you don't do anything else than care for your baby. It's sometimes a miracle if I get to shower before noon. I choose to be home with the baby for a year, not working full time, but picking up freelance work as a designer when the time allows it. This gives me peace, knowing I made that decision and that I have time to be there for our son, see him grow up.
A while ago I had the absolute urge to go somewhere new. To get out and enjoy a long weekend as a new family. Me, my husband and our new baby.
I choose Cinque Terre, because I had never been, It's a three hour drive from Como and it seemed like a place you could visit in a few days.
I picked a bed and breakfast called Villanova in Levanto from the internet and booked two nights. It turned out to be the perfect place for us to stay, close to all five villages but in a quiet area. Beautiful spacious room with a great local produce breakfast and above all, very kind people.
The first evening we visited Monterosso, we had a good fish pasta dish, but not amazing.
A cute town right at the sea. Obviously we were visiting in winter so the hustle and bustle was missing. And unfortunately the best restaurants were closed.
The next day we made the mistake of taking the train to Vernazza, we waited one and a half hours for a ten minute train ride. I can advise you, check out the train time table and make sure it's up to date...
We arrived when the sun was dipping into the sea, a pretty sight. We sat at the harbour and saw the sky turning red to purple. It was cold as we stopped at a small wine bar for a glass of red wine, Garbin, lovely.
We took the train back and had a fantastic dinner in Levanto at Osteria Tumelin. They do great fish dishes, we tried the risotto ai frutti di mare. Very kind people and good service as well.
On our last day, after the husband investigated the area on his bike, we drove up and down a very adventurous route to Manarola. We took the buggy up some stairs to reach Trattoria Billy, where we ate some amazing black (squid ink) pasta with seafood, looking over the harbour of the tiny, charming, village from the terrace. We took some more steps to reach the most beautiful views of the sea and the sun setting in it.
Very satisfied we left Cinque Terre with a full belly and an empty head.
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| The Cinque Terre coastline with the railway |
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| Vernazza sunset |
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| Vernazza Harbour |
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| Somewhere over Levanto |
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| Monterosso |
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| Trattoria Billy's tagliolini al nero di seppia |
