It’s my birthday today lovely readers and I’ve treated myself to a little water fun! !Let me tell you about it…
‘Come on in the water’s lovely’! calls one of my fellow guests. We’ve just moored beneath a majestic waterfall, the Prosecco’s flowing, Dean Martin’s crooning and the water is more than lovely, it’s delicious! Cool, crystal clear and the perfect salve to recent deck basking. Kids are playing on the green mossy rocks below the fall and we are floating over gentle waves on a batch of pool noodles singing ‘like a big pizza pie…that’s amore’. Yes and ‘questa è la vita‘ – this is the life!
And so began an idyllic viewing of the Cinque Terre – the ‘five lands’ via a sparkling ocean dotted with Yachts, pleasure craft and our very own quaint little fishing boat.
The cooling swim beneath the waterfall has our temperatures under control in time for a leisurely onshore feast in Vernazza. Pizza pie? Heck no! Delicate little freshly marinated sardines and squid, rich black tapenade and olive infused tomato bruschetta, paper-thin prosciutto and rockmelon and spaghetti laden with seafood, Genovese pesto Trofe pasta; and all washed down with a crisp white or two followed by a searing espresso guaranteed to keep you awake ’till Wednesday.
Another dip and back on deck for a lazy float on down past Corniglia and Manarola to Riomaggiore and back to Monterosso al Mere, admiring tiny little beaches along the way that mountain goats would find challenging yet the locals have conquered…and some of them are nude.
Eight assorted Aussies, two Canadians and one very lusty Italian – Angelo our Skipper – saw Prosecco glasses flying, olives bouncing, little kids tipping over, the boat precariously too, in the rush for binoculars. Our fabulously fun host Linda whispered that the Adonis standing on a rock with his back to us was ‘excited’. Oh yes? She chuckled – ‘An audience for a woodie?’
Our second skipper hails from Adelaide, owns a business with 35 ‘yes sirs’ and can think of nothing better than his annual stint doing exactly this…ferrying excited tourists hungry for just one more glance at the colourful little gems nestled within impossibly narrow crevices, the lush green mountains protecting their backs, the deep blue ocean lapping their shores…ah the mighty Cinque Terre.
Now that’s Amore!
Have I told you about my little nest? My abode? The one I sacrificed my first born to rent? Eh! eh! And you thought Port Macquarie Holiday Inn was a tad on the dodgy?
ce you persevered you’d be sleeping in the bathtub for there’s only one bed, a permanently folded out sofa protruding from under thewardrobe cupboards. And it’s mine. I’ve grown quite fond of my bed…and the bedspread. It closely resembles a green and orange checked picnic blanket and is complimented with matching lime sheets the texture of table cloths. Thread count? Let’s just say, exfoliation while you sleep.
