Vacations Blog

Manarola from the hiking trail

The Cinque Terre region of Italy is one of the most beautiful spots in the country. Cinque Terre means “Five Lands” in Italian and is a collection of five small villages nestled into the cliffs on the Ligurian Sea. The villages were founded on agriculture and fishing, but now survive with the help of tourists dollars.

Cinque Terre is an easy day trip from Florence, Pisa or Milan (Pisa is the closest airport), but you should plan at least two days on the shortest trip, and more like 4-5 if you really want to relax. There’s not a whole lot to do in Cinque Terre really, but that is its charm.

Each of the five villages has its own distinct personality. Monterosso is the most resorty of the towns. It is the only one with full-service hotels and a true beach – though it is a rocky one. Just south of the town is Vernazza, another village popular with tourists and known for its picturesque harbor (it also has a very small beach).

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The Tenuta di Canonica Agriturismo in Todi, Italy

I’m one of those parents who prefers to keep my children penned in to the backyard area with a hose and some water balloons, because when I take them out in public we are bound to meet mishap of one kind or another.  As such, our travels, while increasing in frequency as the boys get older, have yet been limited to family visits and low-profile excursions.  I have read with envy the blog posts about families traveling to Europe or the Amazon, experiencing epic adventures together.  “Someday…” I dream, wistfully.

Someday might come sooner than later if opportunities like Piccolo Chef’s Italian Culinary Vacations become possible for us.
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From guest blogger, Andrea Widburg, of Andi’s Answers

When we traveled in Europe last winter, we had to deal with two immutable factors: the long distances we had to cover and the high cost of lodging. We hated to spend our days stuck on trains, rather than walking around and sight-seeing, and we hated to spend our nights paying $300 for a small room with a half bathroom. A sleeper train seemed like the logical solution. There are lots of websites that give information about this way of traveling (see here and here, for example) and they all make it seem very civilized and easy. They’re almost correct.

We took our first sleeper train from Paris to Venice. Although we had very carefully and specifically booked a cabin just for the four of us, we were promptly led to a cabin that already boasted two other people. Fortunately, the conductor was a sympathetic type, and the train wasn’t too full, so we finally got a cabin all our own.

Our cabin had two lower berths that functioned as seats during the daytime, and two upper berths that folded up against the side of the car when not in use. I didn’t have a tape measure, but the berths felt as if they were about two and a half feet wide. The train company provided a thin nylon sleeping bag that served as both a top and bottom sheet (much like the sleep-sheet used in hostels), a small pillow, and a thin blanket. Our luggage was stuffed under the bottom berths and placed on shelves above the top berths.

The good part of the sleeper train was that we did sort of sleep. We took our shoes off and got to lie down. The train had that nice, relaxing chugga-chugga-chugga rhythm, and there were mercifully few horns and whistles. The kids were initially too excited to go to sleep but exhaustion finally overtook them and they blinked out.

The bad part was the fact that the berths were extremely uncomfortable and, for my tall husband, way too short. Also, getting to the bathroom was no fun. You had to crawl down from the berth (since my husband and I slept on top), put on your clunky winter shoes, unlock the door (which inevitably woke the spouse), and then stagger down the rocking aisle to a very cold and, usually, somewhat dirty bathroom. If there was no toilet paper, you staggered back to your cabin, got the toilet paper and started all over again. Multiply this not just by your own bathroom stops, but by the children’s, and you’ve got a pretty lousy night of sleep.

Of course, after all this discomfort and inconvenience, we woke up to find ourselves in beautiful Venice. Once there, although we were tired, we spent quite a nice day sightseeing. In other words, the plan worked perfectly, with us doubling up on travel and lodging and not wasting any daytime hours sitting on a train. So even though I really did not enjoy the experience, I ended up doing it all over again when we traveled from Venice to Rome, and I’ll do it again the next time I’m in Europe.