THE ITALIAN RIVERIA

We’ve spent the past two days at La Cinque Terra or 5 Terre.  This is an area on the west coast of northern Italy.  It is made up of 5 small towns on the water.  We stayed in Monterosso, the largest of the 5 towns.  It is primarily a beach town where hundreds of people escaped the heat by playing in the water.  We wanted many times to jump in the water to cool down, but packing light, we left the swim suits at home instead opting to partake of the popular Italian gelato, or to continue our afternoon siestas to stay cool.

The 5 towns are all connected either by walking trails, train or ferry.  Due to the heat, we chose to ride the train between them, except for the shortest walk between Manarola, and Riomaggiore.  It is called Via Dell'Amore, or “Lover’s Walk”.  It was a nice walk with a beautiful view of the sea.  Similar to the Lover’s Bridge in Paris, it is common practice for people in love to connect a lock to the railing of the path and then throw the key into the sea.  This is said to seal their love forever.

We leave Montorosso tomorrow (July 12) and travel next to Parma, Italy.  Hopefully the temperatures cool down a bit as we get away from the coast. 

AMERICAN MUSIC EVERYWHERE

We are finding it strange that everywhere we have gone so far they have played American music, or at least music in English.  There have been the crooners, like Harry Connick Jr., top 40 music, and a cab driver with an Elvis Presley ringtone.  It just seems odd that there wouldn’t be French or Italian music played locally.  We have just never heard it.  It is all in English and often not even edited for content like it is in the US.  We are learning that the “F” word isn’t as taboo here as it is at home. 

THE CINQUE TERRE, ITALY

These are five little towns along the north-western coast of Italy connected by walking trails, but you can also move between them by train or boat.  It is a very cute place.  They are beach towns and lots of people are taking advantage of the hot summer weather and enjoying a day at the beach.  That is, everyone but us.  We didn’t pack for beach weather, so we are taking daily siestas during the hot afternoons and staying inside our hotel or enjoying a cool drink in cafés with shade.  Being so close to the Mediterranean Sea, it is quite humid and being spoiled northern Californians, neither of us do very well with the humidity.  We plan to go back out later and do some exploring when it starts to cool off.

Again, we have a great hotel with air conditioning.   It's called the Hotel Villa Degli Argentieri, monterosso Our hotel was a villa built in the 1950’s and was renovated in 2003.  It is very quaint and right across the street from the beach.  Well, if you can call large gravel a beach.  We are so spoiled with our silky soft sand.

NO EYEBALLS PLEASE

Tonight (Sunday, July 10, 2011), we had dinner at Café Del Porto.  This restaurant doesn’t have a waterfront view, but I can say the food was wonderful.  We both started with a pasta.  Mine was Bolognese and Rex had spaghetti with clam sauce.  There were so many clams in this sauce, I think it was clams with sauce.

For the main dish, I ordered the Sea Bass with olives and tomatoes and Rex ordered the Scaloppini.  When my dish was served, I was surprised.  I wasn’t expecting my Sea Bass to be looking at me.  I will need to make sure in the future to order my food with the caveat of “neinte con gli occhi, per favore!”  In English, “nothing with eyeballs, please!”

The fish was great once Rex took the skin and bones off for me. 

SUNNY SANTA MARGHERITA

The train trip to Santa Margherita was uneventful.  Once here we walked along the bay to our hotel, which is a lovely Best Western with awesome air conditioning.  This hotel and our hotel in Paris are both Best Westerns and I can say honestly they are the best hotels thus far on the trip.

We have a huge room and a large covered balcony overlooking the yacht harbor. 

MY DOGS ARE BARK'IN

Not sure if it is the heat, the humidity or the amount of walking we have been doing, maybe it is a combination of all three.  Whatever it is, my dogs are bark'in.

I am wearing 4 bandages per day.  And my feet, ankles, legs, and arms are so swollen.  I wake up with a mild case of the swelling, but then by nighttime I have cankles.  Yesterday it was so bad that I couldn't close a fist or open my hands all the way.  This is a crazy phenomenon.

I hope that once we are home the swelling goes away.  If it does I might be a whole size smaller.

I WANT MY ONE EURO!

Do you remember the movie, “Better Off Dead?”  In that movie, a young boy chased a teenager around for the $2 he owed him for the newspaper.  Well, in Varenna(a little town down from Belliago) yesterday, I had an old woman chase me down for one euro because I used the toilette in the hotel.  Not our hotel, but it was the closest toilette to the ferry station. 

When I went in I asked where the “bagno” was.  A nice lady told me where it was.  After using the bagno (toilette), this old woman said to me, “one Euro for the toilette!”   

You really need to tell someone that there is a pee charge before they pee.  I think it is unethical to allow the person to pee, and then inform them that there is a charge.  I may not have chosen to pee in that location had I had then information ahead of time.

 Annoyed, I told the old woman that my husband had the money and would come back. I was not planning to return to pay the one Euro, so I walked out the door a different way from where Rex was waiting and then signaled him to come to me.

However from around the corner she came with her hand outstretched saying, “one Euro for the toilette!” 

I was stunned.

Lesson – always order something, even if it is a small something, and use the toilette after the purchase.