Day Three: the Cinque Terre

We arrived in Vernazza on the midnight train. We were supposed to get in earlier but had some, eh, difficulties navigating the Italian train system. Luckily we had reservations already, and Vernazza is a small town! We walked down the platform from the train and someone called out "Mandy?" So I guess that confirmed my worst suspicions, we totally looked the part of the lost American tourist. Michelle ( a San Francisco native who came to Italy and never returned) had never seen me, yet she singled us out immediately as her guests for the evening. She escorted us to Guiliano, her husband, who showed us to our cottage. I didn't remember much from that first night, but when we woke up late the next morning, we were greeted by these views. It was beautiful. I opened the door to the porch and saw old women dotting the hillside tending to their gardens. These gardens were absolutely something else. There were grown in what looked like should have been impossible plots smooshed altogether and climbing the steep cliffs of the village in little terraced harmony. The cottage was a work of art. It had been impossibly built by hand-carrying (oftentimes back carrying) the materials up several hundred steps to it's small plot amongst the gardens. No heavy equipment had been used, no vehicles, just a man with a vision and the nerve to make it work. Guiliano, with the help of some friends I'm sure, had constructed it from the foundation up himself with the materials he brought up the cliff. You could feel his pride as he shared the story and you could see what a labor of love and hope it was for him. This is where our vacation truly began for us. In the Cinque Terre we had time to rest, to relax, and finally feel in sync with the local time. Which brings me to another piece of advice: It was serendipitous that I planned "restful" locales in between the hustle and bustle of the cities. That worked so well for us to be able to take a breather in between Rome & Florence, and Florence and the Amalfi Coast. That was not on purpose, but I would absolutely recommend doing it that way to anyone who might be following in our footsteps. Whittling away three days in the Cinque Terre allowed us to refuel for the nonstop schedule I had planned for us once we arrived in Florence.

Day Three: Vernazza & the Cinque Terre

Monterosso, one of the more touristy villages.
The view of Vernazza, as we descended from Monterosso on our hike of the five villages
Vernazza again

Day Two: Rome cont'd

If you have figured out by now that I don't know what I am doing, you are a bright thing! Elke, bless her heart tried faithfully to give me a crash course in blogging 101. I retained some of her training, but not all. Just bear with me and I think it's going to all work out. Day two was a continuation of the madness of day one. I wouldn't recommend anyone do what we did with respect to Rome. In fact, now that I've been, I'd say to really enjoy Italy you have to plan on returning. You can't possibly see and do it all, and if you try, you'll rob yourself of enjoying the experience at all. Our first two days were so packed we barely had time to snag a gelato in between destinations. We saw so much in so little a period of time, it's hard to really remember where we had been at all. It was a glorious city though, definitely recommended. If there is something else I might say to the novice tourist, it's this: pay for the guided tours when you visit ruins or other places of historical importance. I naively expected everything to have plaques in English somewhere below the Italian. If you can't read the native language of the places you visit, and you don't take the guided tour in your language, you miss so much of the experience. We did not take the tours and I truly regret that. I planned the whole trip without the assistance of a travel agent, and I did well other than not booking a couple of tours. It would have been money well spent. Every now and then we caught wind of an English tour and it was fascinating to learn the stories behind the various buildings, pieces of art, etc. When we go back, I'll get it right!

Day Two: More ruins, and the Pantheon

Day One: Rome

These pics of our first day in Rome; we arrived at 8:30 and hit the ground running from there. It took several days to recover from the jet lag, but that didn't stop us. I had an itinerary and we weren't going to miss out, so I drug Jonathan from sight to sight. He was so happy to learn that our next stop was the Cinque Terre. Nothing to do there but stroll the sleepy waterlocked villages, mingle with the locals, sleep in, and stake your piece of sand on the narrow beach. Rome was incredible. We only had two days, but I feel confident you could take a week or two to see everything in that amazing city. The last pic is of Caesar's tomb. It was a surprise to say the least; I was expecting a lot more pomp and grandeur.

Day One: the ruins of Rome

Where were we?

Okay, I have secretly been spying on my dear friends lives, and some of their dear friends, and I can no longer ignore the pressure to put my cards on the table. So here I am, 9 months later, to make good on my word that I would update this blog and keep the posts coming. I'll expect you to hold me to it (ha ha). I am going to back track to Italy because I have never posted the pics of that trip and fast forward, touching only on a few things to the present day. First, as most of you know, I do have good reason to have not touched this thing in the last three months or so. Jonathan was promoted in March to a position in New York, and since that promotion life has been a whirlwind. If I get around to it, I'll actually take some pics of my messy house to document that I can in fact have a functional disaster. Between cleaning the old house to sell it, looking for a new home, Kelli's wedding, buying the new home, a trip to Mexico and moving in to the new home, there really hasn't been any time to indulge in frivolity. So there's my excuse for my negligence...I am getting back in the saddle though and we are getting settled so be watching for some news from Connecticut...