cinque Terre

cinque Terre

amy: we arrived here yesterday, travelled up to the 3rd floor, and opened our balcony door... ahhhhhhhhh! (those were angels singing in case you couldn't hear them.) our view is picture perfect. this place is beyond beautiful.

there are 5 small towns located along the northwest coast of the Italian  peninsula. hence the name cinque terre.  we are staying in the largest one called monterossa.  you can travel between the cities by boat, train, or hiking trails.

yesterday we enjoyed lunch on our balcony and spent some time on the beach.    now let me tell you about some unknown rules of a European beach...

1.  it doesn't matter how old you are, you can wear a bikini. 

2. to go along with that, it doesn't matter how fat you are, you can wear a bikini... preferably string. the more showing the better.

3. if you have a weggie  no need to pick it. it is actually somewhat fashionable. this might stem from rule number 2 as larger booties have more tendency to hang outside of the swim suit.

4. wearing a white bathing suit... usually by men in speedos, is the thing to do. 

5. if you need to change into street clothes no need to find a changing room. just drop trough and change right in your lounge chair.

6.  my favorite.  aqua socks are back in style... just like the old school ones that I used to wear to the water parks when I was 10. 

our dinner last night was really neat. they brought out a large terra-cotta bowl filled with rice, muscles, prawns, lobster, and calamari. very different and very good flavor.

we came back to our hotel and found a beach party going on... which was cool... until about 2 o'clock in the morning... then the loud dance music and partying that we could hear from our room wasn't so cool anymore.  ohh well.

josh: today we woke up and went for hike on one of the five trails that connect the towns together. the original plan was to go to the furthest town by train for and easy hike to the next town, then train home. those plans were quickly dashed when we approached the train ticket window and were informed that the train workers would be on strike today.... making that train wasn't going to be possible. for some reason there was one train that went through and would take us to the next town. must have been scabs running the train.  (by the way  it is a 24 hour strike... not sure how that works.)

so we eneded up doing one of the tougher hikes...back to our town from the one next to us.  great views and pictures to come.  all in all it was a two hour hike. makes that hike up to the third floor to our room seem like a piece of cake.

after a picnic lunch we laid on the beach for the rest of the day, before having another great seafood dinner.

 if the trains are up and running tomorrow we plan to do a repeat of today... hike in the morning and beach in the afternoon.

p.s. on the train ride into monterossa we ran into a couple from Canada, we told them we were from the u.s.  he asked where, we said Ohio.  he got excited and asked where in Ohio, we said Cincinnati. not going to believe it, but he is a huge bengals fan. he actually made his family take a detour after a trip to Chicago so they could come to Cincinnati and visit the bengals pro shop.  nothing like meeting a Canadian bengals fan on a train in Italy.