Day 9- Sestri Levante

This would be our last full day in the Cinque Terre. This view of Monterosso is from a hill overlooking the city.
This picture taken from Monterosso looking south shows all the cities of the Cinque Terre. The last one, Rio Maggiore, is just barely visible on the right. Today, we decided to hike the rest of the trail connecting the cities, so we took the train south to Rio Maggiore.

Here is a picture of Rio Maggiore, the last of the Cinque Terre cities, looking back from the trail heading north. The trail from Rio Maggiore to Manarola is paved and level. It is only about a mile long, and takes only 15-20 minutes to walk.
This young child was sitting with its mother along the path from Rio Maggiore to Manarola.

When we had hiked from Manarola back to Corniglia, which was also an easy 1-2 mile walk, we took the train north to Sestri Levante. Here in 2002, Jon, Kanien, Caroline et al had found an ice cream store that they boasted served the best ice cream in Italy (which means that it probably had the best ice cream in the world). They extolled the wonders of this ice cream, and told of trophies, lining the shelves of the store, which the owner had won in ice cream competitions. Katherine and I had not gone with them in 2002, so we felt that we had really missed out. This year I asked Jon where in Sestri Levante the ice cream shop was located. He told me that he couldn't remember, and that we should not go to Sestri Levante just to look for the ice cream store, as we were unlikely to find it.
We decided to go to Sestri Levante to shop for clothes, and if we stumbled upon the ice cream shop, so much the luckier. We walked from the train station down the main street to a busy intersection. Here we chose a left turn, and walked through a park. Then we turned right down another street. We looked in the different clothes stores, but did not find anything we wanted to buy. At each ice cream store or bar (Jon had said that it was also a bar) we looked inside for trophies. None of the shops we came to had any trophies. We were almost to the end of the street, and were ready to turn around, when I looked into this shop and saw the scene below.

This was it! The famous ice cream store! The trophies above attest to the excellence of the ice cream in this shop. First, we each selected cones of three or four flavors, choosings such delicacies as "Basil" or "Ginger Cinammon". Then after eating those cones, we each selected a second large cone of our favorite flavor. Mine was Chocolate Nut, a thick rich chocolate ice cream with a hazel nut flavor. We were so full! But, that didn't stop us from over-eating at the same reataurant in the Hotel.
Our day ended back at Monterosso, with a hike to the top of the city, where the cemetery is located. We strolled among the gravesites, that are stacked one on top of the other. The end of each grave is adorned with the deceased person's name, birth and death dates, and often a picture. Next: Giro d'Italia in Pisa!