We had seen four of the five towns over the first three days, so now it was time to visit Manarola. Becky had scheduled a Pesto Experience for that morning followed by a lunch. Manarola was similar to Vernazza in that it has a primary street that ends at the harbor. It appeared to be more of a working village based on the number of small fishing boats that lined the via.

Once we found the harbor, we could see the terrace of he restaurant where we would learn the ancient art of making the perfect Pesto.

Once we were seated we took in the views as we waited for Simon to begin.

But before we began, Becky had to make friends with the staff.

The process is not as easy as it looks:

The the real work begins: twenty minutes of crushing, whipping, and whisking while the once friendly staff stands over your shoulder yelling Die Die Die (which is supposed to be a motivational chant in Italian). Of course there are a few steps I had to leave out so as not to jeopardize our new found status as master pesto chefs.

But in the end we had the perfect pesto to complement our lunch.

And in the end we were given the best compliment by Simon who told his mother (who runs the kitchen) that we were the kind of grandparents he would want. I choose to let this be a comment about character and not age.

After a great lunch, we opted to return to Vernazza by ferry and knock one more thing off the bucket list; A swim in the Mediterranean.

Today we departed the Cinque Terre and have arrived in Florence.

We have taken a walk around and grabbed a sandwich at the market, made dinner reservations for tonight, and will start sightseeing in earnest tomorrow with a guided walking tour