After a short visit to Nice we crossed borders to Italy. Our first stop was in Genoa, a medium-sized city on the Mediterranean coast (the birthplace of Christopher Columbus) a few hours East of the France-Italy border. Genoa was a great old Italian city to walk around and without too many tourists we were really able to observe daily life in the city. Tucked away in the beautiful architecture lies a multitude of restaurant and cafes offering traditional northern-Italian cuisine. For lunch we found delicious homemade panini, in a small café, filled with mozzarella and grilled vegetables. For dinner we tried a Michelin-rated restaurant and had our first bowl of Italian pasta with pesto – a delicious meal. To wrap up the evening we had gelato from Grom, a world-famous gelateria, that offers numerous organic, local and slow-food approved flavors. Grom has numerous locations throughout Italy, but also has a few international stores, including New York City.
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| One of the central fountains and squares in the old city of Genoa. |
After a day in Genoa we hopped on a train to Cinque Terre.
Cinque Terre is national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site that contains five small towns along the Mediterranean coast.
There are well-established walking trails that connect the towns with gorgeous views of the terraced land.
Although known as a large tourist location, the five towns retain their old-world charm and each have their own personality.
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| A view from one of our walks. |
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| A view of Vernazza, one of the five towns in Cinque Terre. |
The landscape is filled with vineyards and citrus trees planted on handmade terraces that line the cliffs.
These terraces produce great white wine, a few of which we sampled during our picnic dinners.
To go with the wine, we had meals with bread, fresh mozzarella, olives, local tomatoes and peppers, homemade pesto and fresh rosemary picked from the bush next to our B&B.
After our dinners we walked to the local gelateria and sampled more delicious Italian gelato.
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| Our picnic the first night in Cinque Terre. |
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| One of the many cones of gelato we ate during our trip. |
We had a great time in Cinque Terre and we are now moving on to our next WOOFing farm in the northern piedmont region of Italy. We look forward to learning more about organic farming and experiencing some Italian home cooking.
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| A few of the many terraces that line the coast of Cinque Terre. |
