Our 2 month European honeymoon extravaganza has begun and this is now officially an international travel blog again. What that means is the words we write should be more interesting and we will be posting more often (hopefully every 5 days or so). Before I jump into the past few days, let me give you a brief rundown of what lies ahead. Many of you know and contributed to the initial honeymoon plan of 2 weeks of beaches in Greece and Croatia and 1 week in the Smetana family homeland of Czech Republic. Well, that is all still happening, we just expanded it a little because, well... we could (no jobs + credit cards). The trip began with meeting friends on the Italian Riviera, is now moving west along the Mediterranean to southern France, from there we hop a plane to Greece, before one last jump to Bosnia where we have a rental car for 40 days to explore everything within our reach (with longer stops in the aforementioned priorities). This should be fun.
It starts with a very long travel day, as most cheap trips to Europe from Oregon do. We landed in Pisa, Italy, and after a couple of trains, we arrived in Levanto. With a rough map on our phone and no taxi in sight, we started walking to meet our friends at the apartments we had rented. We got pointed up a cobblestone path to the village of Montale, and during the 30 minutes of sweaty hiking to a vague destination, it didn't feel like a honeymoon. We finally came upon the village and just as we started asking locals for directions, our friends' heads appeared from the courtyard above and we were happy. They had a spread of wine, crackers, cheese, and cured meats layed out under a grapevine covered pergola with views of the sun setting over the Mediterranean and the town of Levanto below. This was our home for 4 nights, along with friends Jess, Julia (J1), and the Blancher family (Kenny, Jenna, Lucy, and Emme). This came about because Jess and J1 are meeting family in Italy and the Blancher's have been living in Belgium for the past 2 years. With the timing working out perfectly with our trip, we couldn't pass up the chance to join the gathering.
We slept hard the first night but not long. My limited experience with European travel was very evident from the get go. Flights to places down south are a little easier to handle and Spanish was getting easier to understand. Here, my language skills are nonexistent and my lack of knowledge about different power outlets means I won't be shaving until I can purchase new equipment. Our bodies were confused the first few days as to when to perform all of their necessary functions. The village church bell rang every half hour and played songs at 7 and 8 AM. The cicadas outside our window played their songs on no particular schedule. We were fueled by adrenaline, olive oil, pizza, and wine. The first full day, we laid on the beach and swam in the rocky Mediterranean, then walked the weekly Levanto market before eating paninis and pizza. That night, we waited an hour for a table at the 7th best pizza restaurant in the world (La Picea) and honestly had the best pizza of our lives. Pictured below: The Accidia (Pesto, pinenuts, cherry tomatoes, and burrata cheese). Seriously amazing.
To cap off a perfect Italian day, after dinner we caught the parade for La Festa del Mare (yearly Levanto celebration) and saw the lanterns they set afloat in the bay. We retreated back to our hilltop home and watched the late night fireworks, forgetting how little sleep we had gotten.
Day 2 took us on a 5 minute train ride down to Montessoro, the northern-most village of the Cinque Terre. If you don't know, the Cinque Terre is a ridiculously beautiful but touristy stretch of 5 villages that hang along the mountainous Mediterranean coastline. Connected by trains, tunnels, and trails, the views are stunning. We ate lunch near the crystal clear water before the more mobile half of the group tackled the 2 hour trek to the next village of Vernazza. The villages are easier to refer to by number so I will do that from hence forth, with #5 in the north and #1 in the south. We hiked from #5 to #4. It was strenuous and hot, but worth it. We ate gelato and worked our way through the crowds in #4 before boarding a train down to #1. The trails between 1-2-3 are currently closed due to landslides, so we briefly explored each using the rails. Julia and I then hiked from #3 back to #4 and enjoyed the easier trail and fewer people. The pictures below will try to do the area justice.
Back in Levanto, we went in search of great pasta and found it. There were breaded stuffed mussels, prosciutto with melon, some basic ravioli, ravioli in a walnut sauce, lingurian style pasta in a pesto sauce, black gnocchi with lobster, and a seafood risotto. They were all really, really good and I ate way too much, I just can't let food go to waste, especially when I am in backpacker mode. I consider it fattening up before the lean days ahead.
For our last full day together, we got an early start to snag some spots on the pristine beach in Montessoro (#5). The beach is lined with chairs and umbrellas that you rent, which I believe is common in Europe. We rented 2 sets for the 8 of us and did the things people do. There was some decent snorkeling among rocks and the water was perfect for swimming. The only negatives were the pebbly beach that was a little painful on the feet, and the constant flow of people who didn't pay for chairs, laying on the rocks next to us and gathering in front of our chairs. Otherwise it was a beautiful Mediterranean beach day.
On our last night, we walked to the village bar where old men were playing cards and we drank 1.50€ glasses of wine poured out of jugs. For dinner we had an assortment of wine, bread, cheese, and accoutrements at the apartments to finish up.
Saturday brought an end to the delightful friends gathering. All 3 families went their separate ways; the Blancher's back up to Belgium, Jess and J1 down to Rome, and we used 5 trains to get to Marseille, France. The scenery was spectacular along the coast for the majority of the trip, when we weren't inside tunnels. When we crossed into France, there was a noticeable difference of wealth and well manicured villas. Passing by Monte Carlo, Nice, and Cannes, the yachts were ever present. The French Riviera looks like a nice place although a bit too expensive for us.
We are now onto part 2 of our honeymoon and will be in Marseille for the next 4 nights. Getting into our Airbnb in the La Panier neighborhood was a small hassle, but we found a friendly establishment with drinks and Wifi to allow communication with the host. We will explore the city as well as the surrounding area the best we can before moving on. The jet lag is slowly wearing off, we still can't quite sleep as much as we want yet, but fortunately we have a long trip ahead of us. A tavola non si invecchia
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