Ahhh, the Joys of a Vacation

The last two days we have spent in Cinque Terre (means 5 lands). These are 5 little towns on the Western most edge of Italy in the Italian Riviera that are now preserved by UNESCO (don't ask me what this stands for, but it sounds important) as a national preserve/park.

We've walked the trails between the five little towns some and taken a boat between all of them as well. What fabulous views. We have also sat in lounge chairs on the beach (you have to pay to use the beach) and soaked up the sun and swam in the beautifully warm water. We feel very refreshed. The last two days have been around 80 or more degrees out we figure. The climate is quite tropical here, there are cactus, geckos, and palm trees here.

Today, we took the boat to the furthermost town of Riomaggiore and forgot to get off (we have a little trouble translating the Italian messages that come across the loud speaker) and ended up being carted off to another town way farther south called Porte Venere. Turns out Porte Venere is quite cool actually. It has a very old fort structure with a castle and churches that miraculously hug the rugged rocks along the water. They date back to the 4th century. We were able to catch another boat and head back where we belonged, and you'll be happy to know that we did not get lost. We spent the rest of the afternoon soaking up even more sun (if that's even possible) on the beach again, for another 7 Euro for the lounge chair.

Tomorrow we leave bright and early, 9:00 a.m., for Florence. We hope to stop by the Carrera marble quarry on our way.

It doesn't get any better than this!!!

Kat

P.S., I'm actually turning brown - very unusual situation for me; though I am being careful about my face, and using lots of sunscreen, but it doesn't seen to make any difference, sigh... :)