Cinque Terre

At this point, I assume many of my friends and family are saying "enough already, I get it, you're having a great time, everything is beautiful or amazing or brilliant, now shut up already." I get it. I remember reading Heide and Mark travel blog with 75% enthrallment, and 25% unrelenting jealousy. But it also inspired me, so maybe you'll read this and the travel bug will bite you too. Or not, but this is also for me, so I'm sorry to go on and on, but I don't want to forget how spectacular this whole experience has been.

I digress. So we left Nice early this morning and headed for the Italian border. We arrived at the train that took us to Cinque Terre and hopped on. I wasn't quite paying attention when our tour guide explained this part of the adventure, so I didn't know what to expect exactly - I was just going with the flow. Sometimes not knowing what's next allows for the best surprises. Cinque Terre was so cool and one of those places I would have never thought to go on my own. It is five little towns along the coast connected via train or walking path. We did a nice little hike between a few of the towns and then had lunch in Monterosso. And when I say lunch, I mean one of those lunches you dream about - Margaritas and the best gnocchi I've ever had with a spectacular pesto alongside the beach. The lunch was only topped by the best part of the vacation so far - the beach. The water was warmish and a bunch of jumped in regardless of not having towels. We had so much fun just being silly and playing in the water. It was a really great time. much before I was ready, we grabbed our things and jumped on a boat that took us to another port. We jumped off with just enough time to grab a gelatto (I had apple - delicious) and transfer to anther boat. The view of the western Italian coast was spectacular. None of could figure out how some of the houses were built there without roads. This is probably the second best day of the trip so far - but there is still Pisa, Florence and Rome.