lets talk italian

ciao.

i really don't know where to begin but since i started this blog with the idea of talking about travel, i feel i need to go into all of the types of travel we have done. we really did have a trip of a lifetime thanks to my brilliant husband who researched and planned this whole expedition. really, it was fantastic! because of this i am going to do blog posts devoted to certain parts of the trip that created fantastic memories for both of us.

first off is italy. in particular, the cinque terre, along the italian rivera. this encompasses the five villages starting from riomaggiore, manarola, corniglia, vernazza, and monterosso (where we were staying). this was the "vacation" from our vacation part of our journey. to elaborate, mark and i love to travel. and when we travel we don't stop. we go from museum to monument to landmark from early in the morning till late at night. cinque terre forced us to slow down, and it was absolutely lovely.

our days consisted of waking up, going for a hike or kayak to the next village. due to the 40 degree weather we were "forced" to take a dip into the mediterranean. This part was cool as you could access the sea from many areas around the coast. There were many people just diving off the cliffs, although that was a little to adventerous for my blood.

then we would have some pesto pizza or fresh pasta. life really can't get any better can it?? ooo wait, it does! we would stop nightly at this local cantina where a gentlemen took us under his wing to teach us all about the local liquors made in monterosso. i wish i got a picture of him as he was quite fantastic! our nights ended usually on our balcony, overlooking the sky and listening to the music from the streets, drinking the liquors we bought. too mushy!?? he he. well it was our honeymoon.

but lets get the honesty train out here too. there was quite a few jellyfish and unfortunately mark fell victim to one of them. the little rascals. after that we took on jellyfish watch when we jumped into water.

and the amusing antidote was all the "openness" in europe with the topless sunbathers. i can always count on mark to take to a place with nude sunbathers (wink wink).

here are a few pics of our journey...

this is just a few of our beach adventures. note the jellyfish and mark's marked hand (that by the way still has a mark). one of the towns, vernazza can be seen at the bottom, on one of our small hikes. and at the bottom corner is mark doing what he did everytime we took a dip. the starfish. apparently he thought it was amazing how much he could float in the water because of the salt content.

this little bit is of our lovers walk. hence all the hearts and such. it was quite an easy pathway containing "locks of love" and in a shelter enclosed area tons of writings of people expressing their love for each other. very cute!

here are some last random pics. kayaking, swimming, having gelato (we may have had gelato taste testing twice a day, purely for scientific reasons...and because it was hot....and because it was delicious!). the little kitty at the bottom was eying the seafood being cooked in the restaurant while the next girl found fantastic acoustics in a square and starting to sing phantom of the opera. at the bottom on the right hand side is a pill box. mark was pretty pumped to see that as they were made in the war years.

that's all for now.
love