Fulfilling a 10-Year Dream in Cinque Terre

Our next stop on our 10-year anniversary cruise after Genoa was La Spezia, a port city in Italy from which you can access many famous sites. Originally, we were planning on visiting the leaning tower of Pisa but decided instead to visit Cinque Terre, a series of five towns in the region of Liguria in the Italian Riviera.

This was the culmination of a 10-year dream of mine, because we wanted to go during our honeymoon cruise but we got a late start and missed the train and then it would've taken too long by the time we got into the city. We had to turn back then, hopeful we'd have another chance to visit someday.

So when we had the opportunity on our anniversary cruise, we knew we had to take it. We just had to choose whether to see Cinque Terre from Genoa or La Spezia, and M figured out La Spezia was significantly closer. There are a few options for transiting Cinque Terre: ferry, train, car, and hike. If it had just been M and me as it was on our honeymoon, we would have opted for as much of the hike as possible.

Instead, since we had S with us, we walked the easiest path between villages (Via dell'Amore between Riomaggiore and Manarola) and otherwise took the train between the towns. Even still, it was extremely hot and tiring to explore in the heat of August, and later on the ship we learned it had broken over 100 degrees Fahrenheit that day! So much for escaping the heat once we were out of Dubai.

We bought a Cinque Terre day pass that included the trains between the Cinque Terre towns and La Spezia without having to reserve specific times. The ticket came with other perks, too, like free use of otherwise paid bathrooms at the train stations. The Via dell'Amore path did cost extra on top of the Cinque Terre ticket, but having done the walk I think it was totally worth it since it was beautiful, mostly shaded, and recently renovated in 2024.

Online, people recommended you only attempt Cinque Terre with good sneakers, and I'm so glad we listened to that advice. All the towns were hilly, even if we didn't do the big hikes.

One mistake I made was bringing sunscreen and leaving it in my bag. I didn't realize until the end of the day that we hadn't put it on, and by then it was too late. I wound up with a dorky tan line, but somehow the fair-skinned M and S were relatively unscathed... They're better than I am about always finding shade wherever we walk, apparently.

Each town had its own charms. Here are some of the highlights:

• Manarola had the best scenic viewpoint, with the perfect snapshot of the town's colored buildings contrasted with the gently rolling ocean.
• We had spectacular gelato at Alberto Gelateria in Corniglia. The Basilico Speciale is a must, with creamy basil ice cream made from basil from their own garden topped with local olive oil.
• We didn't have time to experience them ourselves, but the beach clubs in Monterosso looked amazing. We glimpsed the iconic orange and green striped umbrellas from above.
• Vernazza had great shopping and smaller/calmer swimming areas than Monterosso.
• We just passed through Riomaggiore to start Via dell'Amore, but the town looked fantastic and I would've loved to spend more time there if we hadn't had a deadline.

We really had to rush to cram in all five towns in a single day and make it back to our cruise ship in time, so I can totally see why people stay in Cinque Terre for a week or more. It's one of those places that completely lives up to the hype. The towns were so cute, with colorful buildings lining the vineyard-striped mountains and crystal-clear blue water below. I would definitely come back again. Wouldn't you? That's all for now, until I blog about our next stop, where I visited Pompeii.

Eating Our Way through Genoa

Our 10-year anniversary Mediterranean Cruise stopped in Genoa, Italy following our time in Gibraltar. (Fun fact: did you know it's "Genova" in Italian but "Genoa" in English? I didn't until our trip.) Originally, I planned a complicated itinerary involving lots of train travel around the region, but M talked some sense into me and instead we spent the day exploring the city of Genoa itself as a family.

I tried three of the most famous local dishes: fresh Genovese pesto (which apparently is supposed to be made at room temperature fresh and never cooked but merely added to a dish at the end, oops) with focaccia, pansotti pasta with walnut sauce, and panisse (chickpea flour fritters that look identical to thick-cut potato fries). (I heard farinata, a fried cake of chickpea flour, is actually even more iconic in Genoa but I didn't have room for a heavy, creamy pasta and a full fried flour cake.) We also got gelato (because how can you not when visiting Italy), and it's always phenomenal.

Throughout our trip, S's appetite continued to amaze (especially when we found some of his favorite foods out and about in the wild, like grilled squid in Genoa). He was also a huge fan of panisse. To my surprise, focaccia was not so much his thing. It was nice we had plenty of options without allergens that he could enjoy, and he's getting old enough to understand that's why we sometimes can't share all the food on the table.

Besides eating our way through the city, we walked around without a particularly detailed plan or guide. One of my favorite things to do in an old European city is visit old churches, and Genoa had plenty we could stumble across and explore (as you can see by the dominant theme of this post's photos).

My favorite one we saw was the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, which has a unique striped design on the exterior and interior that sets it apart. (The black and white stripes also made S go, "It looks like Halloween!" - which I'm sure is not what the architects were going for there.) That church was built around 1098; the time scales are mind-boggling and it's amazing to think about when you're standing inside and enjoying such historic buildings and art.

We wrapped up our time in the city with a visit to the local aquarium, partially to get a break from the August heat and partially to do something more fun for S than seeing old buildings. Although we all had a good time, I agree with reviews online saying the tickets were quite expensive and the aquarium was overcrowded despite doing timed tickets only. I personally prefer the value in terms of quality for the aquariums in most other places we've been, but we did get what we needed out of it and learned a few things. My favorite things I discovered were about dolphins, including the fact that some species of dolphins form nursery pods where aunties and sisters help dolphin moms with their babies. Isn't that so sweet?

Eventually we returned to our cruise ship and watched the first part of Moana 2 for the umpteenth time at S's request. (Yes, we are those parents who stretch our normal screen time rules on vacation. We love family movie nights when we travel!) By then, we were grateful just to be back in an air-conditioned room and no longer dripping sweat from our summer stroll. It was a low-key day full of wonderful family quality time, and I was glad we took it easy because the very next day we went on a much more rigorous adventure... Cinque Terre! You can read all about that in my next post, but for now I hope anyone reading this is staying cool.

Hiking the Mediterranean Steps in Gibraltar

M and I just celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary and decided to do it with a two-week Mediterranean cruise, just like we did for our honeymoon except better with a few more stops. I decided instead of trying to cram information about every stop into one mega-blog post I would break it up so that I could give each place the care and attention it deserves. Our first stop was Gibraltar, a British territory attached geographically to Spain. I learned a lot of fun facts about Gibraltar on this trip, including:

• English is the official language but most locals also speak Spanish and Llanito, a specifically Gibraltarian dialect that merges English and Spanish with words from other languages such as medieval Genoese, Hebrew, Maltese and Portuguese.
• The local currency is the Gibraltar pound, tied to the pound sterling, but they print their own banknotes that are distinct from the pounds you would find in Great Britain.
• There is one university in Gibraltar, established only a few years ago, which is best known for biomarine science.
• Morocco is only 9 miles (14km) away across the Strait of Gibraltar.
• The whole of Gibraltar is only 2.6 square miles (6.8 square km), but over 30,000 people live there.
• John Lennon and Yoko Ono were married there.

Cool, huh? I was excited to see a hike on our cruise ship's list of excursions for Gibraltar, and then I was even more excited to see the hike labelled "strenuous" because sometimes I'm disappointed when what's billed as a hike turns out to be more of a leisurely stroll by my standards. So I asked M if he wanted to join and when he said no (as he usually does for that sort of thing) I booked the excursion with a tour group for myself. This hike was up the Mediterranean Steps, the challenging ascent up the Rock of Gibraltar, a 200 million-year-old Jurassic limestone formation that dominates the Gibraltarian landscape.

Our group drove up part of the way and then began our hike. The path was easy to follow and well-labelled, with restrooms at the entrance to the hiking path. At first, we moved very slowly as a group since the tour guide asked the more experienced hikers to stay in the back and let slower folks set the pace. About halfway through, though, he took pity on us and let folks go at their own speed while he stayed in the back to help the slower people. Unfortunately, this delayed the tour group quite a bit, with some members seriously struggling with the difficulty of the trail. It was challenging, and I would not recommend it unless you're in shape and have hiked before. Because the last folks in the tour group were running hours behind, I and a few others who finished the hike first ended up breaking off from the official tour group (letting those who stayed know we left so they could tell the guide) and finding our own way back down the mountain via cable car.

The view at the top, which I heard is normally excellent and allows hikers to see from Spain on one side to Morocco on the other, was completely obscured by clouds on the day we went. Although this made the summit a little disappointing, it led to some stunning photos on the way up with the sun filtering through low-hanging clouds and reflecting on the misty ocean. I enjoyed stopping at various points throughout and capturing the movement of the sun, clouds, water, and boats as the morning progressed.

At the top, we visited O'Hara's Battery, a must-see for military history buffs. We could visit the engine room and see the ammunition and the cannons that hint at the site's past. The exhibits were quite minimal by way of explanation, so if you're really interested in this topic I recommend you go with a proper tour guide or at least an audio guide.

Another surprise of my time on the Rock of Gibraltar was the prevalence of Barbary macaques, monkeys that can be found all over the Rock of Gibraltar. Our tour guide warned us to give them their distance and he did not need to tell me twice. I'm not here to disrespect wild animals or tempt fate by teasing or feeding them. (I saw one group of tourists getting the monkeys to jump on their shoulders and pose for pictures, and I gave them a very, very wide berth.) That being said, I did enjoy taking photos from a distance. The monkeys were everywhere! I even saw several sweet little baby monkeys with their moms.

After finishing my hike and getting down by cable car, I met up with M and S in Gibraltar City for lunch and a nice walk around. I had the best fish and chips of my life at a pub called Lord Nelson, and I understand Gibraltar is well known for British pub fare and Spanish tapas. By the time we finished our food and explored a bit, though, we were really sweating. Once we all got back on the ship, we were so relieved. S laid on top of our cool bed sheets and said, "Ahhhhh, I like cold things." I guess living in Dubai has given us as much a taste for appreciating air conditioning as tolerating the heat. Well, I hope you enjoyed reading about our time in Gibraltar, and I look forward to sharing other stops on our 10-year anniversary journey in future posts, starting with Genoa! Until then, I hope you're enjoying your summer as much as we are.