This is post 5 of 5 in our series on Italy, with previous posts covering Florence, Sienna, and a food tour around Parma. With all the amazing food we had already enjoyed, with all the beauty we had already seen, it may be hard for you, dear reader, to believe that one the finest meals I’ve ever eaten is yet to come. And in what is likely not a coincidence, it was shared with the person responsible for another of the finest meals I’ve ever had, over 20 years before.

Cinque Terra, literally translated to English as Five Lands, is an area within Liguria, in the northwest of Italy, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea which covers the towns and lands surrounding Vernazza, Monterosso, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. After a train ride in, we walked the narrow cobble stone streets of Vernazza through an arched passage that opens onto the sea.

After settling in, a stroll through the town and up into the surrounding hills provides a view of the natural port surrounded by hills dressed in lemon trees and vineyards.

Wandering back to toward the city, we stop at Cantine Cheo to enjoy the wines produced by Bartolomeo Lercara at his vineyard clinging to the hillside with dry stone walls. Dry stone means no cement, so the rain can easily run to the sea. The white wine blend is comprised of Bosco, Albarola and Vermentino grapes, golden in color, complex but not overpowering, the essence and product of the afternoon ocean breeze.

Wandering further down the streets and up the stairs which wind through the hillside town to the balcony cafe at Gianni Franzi for a negroni and a rosé wine.

Salt-cured anchovies were served in a pool of fresh, local olive oil, with capers, dried herbs, and butter, along with various breads. A bite of the bread, spread with butter and topped with a preserved anchovy is a pure delight. A burst of salty fish, then mellowed with the creamy buttered bread.

Then focaccia with fresh buffalo mozzarella, fresh yellow tomatoes, and Genovese pesto which was light on pine nuts and heavy on basil grown ocean side. Does basil grown in the spray of the Mediterranean Sea taste different? I cannot say with any certainty, but I believe it to be so.

And as the sun sets and the second glass of wine is finished, we linger a moment longer, for how can you not linger? The clouds display their colors, waves roll to the cliffside rocks, and we linger. Finally, slowly, we descend the steps back down to the streets of Vernazza and find a small cafe.

An orange tart shot through with pieces of orange rind alongside a La Polenza Sciacchetrà bring a day of oceanside sun to a close. Sciacchetrà is a locally produced dessert wine which manages to taste citrusy despite, or perhaps because of, the tart. Not orange, maybe lemon? But subtle, a hint of just the zest? And this again was mere prelude to the epic events of the day to come.

The five villages are vined together with a railway line, each a separate cluster of pastel buildings perched upon the rocky shores. Vernazza, perched on the hills around the jewel of a port, has only the one dramatic entrance, but Monterosso spreads languidly alongside the sea, ripe with visitors eagerly enjoying the beaches here.

We are meeting friends at Ristorante Il Gabbiano, which lines the bustling main street and looks out upon the sea through large, opened windows. Once before we met Victoria in Europe for a meal, a brunch after Easter mass. Hosting us in the south of France, she invited us to join the family for one of the most enjoyable meals I’ve ever experienced. Time and space does not permit a full description, but I will tell you it included a dish of white asparagus in a pastry shell on a luxurious bechamel sauce. That meal finished with a selection of French cheeses so decadent I should have gone right back to the church for confession.

For this meal, we were meeting her husband’s family for his birthday and we started with a few bottles of Albarola, a crisp, refreshing white wine from Cantine Lunae and then a few more. The tasting notes from the producer talk about a medium, but persistent finish with hints of lime zest. Ah, there is that citrus note I’ve been searching for in the wine from the previous night.

And then the seafood emerged, in wave after wave.

At the very top of the picture above there is a plate of mixed local seafood plate, buttery tender calamari, mussels, shrimp, octopus served cold. Followed by mussels steamed in a very light broth with a wedge of the hillside grown lemon alongside. Seafood so fresh, it tastes of the briny breezy blowing in the from the sea.

Victoria insisted I try the ravioli with ricotta and Swiss chard with a walnut cream sauce, which is authentic to just this area of Cinque Terra. Shaped a bit more like cappelletti, pasta almost translucent, so thin, filled with a pillow of ricotta and cooked Swiss chard, topped with a velvety smooth walnut cream, with just a hint of nuttiness.

And then seafood risotto with small local lobster (perhaps Mediterranean spiny lobster?), mussels, tiny local clams, and scampi over rice with the perfect texture, each grain soft, but distinct and full of seafood flavor.

And finally, grilled local prawns served with more of the locally grown lemons.

Fittingly, the meal ends with a digestif, Limoncello, showcasing the lemons one more time. Each dish showcasing another treasure of the local sea. With each course another bottle of that beautiful Albarola. And after hours of talk and seafood and wine, we walked out into the bright mid-afternoon sun, the breeze blowing in off the ocean, and the hint of lemon trees in the air.

And as we walk off the post-lunch haze, someone says – “How about a nightcap?” “What?” “Yes, join us for drink! You have to come! It’s my birthday!”

How could any one say no? So, we pile into two two cars and we’re off, down the winding roads of the Italian coast, headed south to the town of Lerici and Castello San Giorgio.

There, that castle across the idyllic bay, where the anchored sailboats gently bob on the waves, that is where we’re headed, originally built in 1152 to control the Gulf of La Spezia.

Inhabited since the time of the Etruscans, this bay came to be known as the Gulf of Poets to honor Percy Bysshe Shelley, who once wrote of the sunset – “There now the sun had sunk, but lines of gold hung on the ashen clouds.”

Perhaps upon this hill Shelley composed his “Lines Written in The Bay of Lerici”:

I sat and saw the vessels glide /Over the ocean bright and wide

Like spirit-winged chariots sent / O’er some serenest element.

And then from the castle, amongst friends enjoying a classic Negroni, we look out upon the bay and hear his words once more:

And the wind that wing’d their flight
From the land came fresh and light,
And the scent of winged flowers,
And the coolness of the hours
Of dew, and sweet warmth left by day,
Were scatter’d o’er the twinkling bay.

And in that sweet warmth left by day, we huddled together in the coolness of the late hour, enjoying one more sip, one more moment, one more memory. Bringing this travel through the Five Lands, around the Bay of Poets, and to the Castello San Giorgio to a warm and wonderful end. Our culinary journey through Italy is now complete and we head home once more to our Great Lakes, full of inspiration, wonder, and fond remembrances.