The top 10 things I miss about the US

After being gone for more than a month and being in 5 different countries (7 if you count Vatican City and Monaco as countries), Barrett and I have come up with a list of the things we most miss about the United States and look forward to enjoying when we return home in August! This list is in no particular order:

1. Family

2. Friends

3. Free refills on drinks/ free water

4. Our bed

5. Our closet (packing and unpacking clothes every couple of nights gets really old)

6. Chipotle (though any good mexican would do)

7. television in English

8. Being able to understand everyone

9. DVR/ DVRed shows

10. Having a full pantry/ being able to cook

Levanto, Florence, and a bunch of beautiful beach towns

After Tuscany, it was on to the relaxing part of our vacation, or at least the partially relaxing part. We stayed a week in the small beach town of Levanto, Italy near the cinque terre. Levanto has a great beach, which made it a perfect home base for exploring the area. The cinque terre is a series of five towns that are right on the Mediterranean close together, and the next town up the beach is Levanto, so everything was accessible by train. Here is one of the towns (Manorola) so you have an idea of what they look like.

The first day we did a long hike up in the hills outside Levanto. We were headed for a point by the sea, but it ended up being too far. We probably hiked about 5 miles of hilly terrain, and that was around 2/3 of the way to the first cinque terre town of Montorosso. The next day we trained to Manorola, walked "lovers lane" to Riomaggiore, and then swan and cliff jumped in the water. It was really fun, and 7 and I even got Trillion and Lauren to jump in. We also got a snorkel, and there were tons of fish to see in the clear blue water.

We weren't quite done with our sightseeing in major italian cities, since you can't go to italy without seeing Florence. We actually conquered it in two separate days, one on our way to Levanto and one in the middle of our stay. We were probably crazy to train into Florence from Levanto (supposedly 3 hours) and spend the day, but it worked out in the end. The late and delayed Italian trains made it take four hours each way and added a considerable amount of stress. It was worth it though because we got to go to the Uffizi gallery, one of the great art collections in the world. Florence is also famous for Michelangelo's David, one of the greatest marble sculptures in the world, and the Duomo, the first domed cathedral built in renaissance times.

I almost forgot, Florence is also soon to be famous for putting up with the people from Jersey shore for 6 weeks. At least we know they didn't completely trash the place. We accidentally ate at the pizzeria where they worked during their stay. They signed the wall, and various articles of clothing were hanging from the ceiling. I guess Snookie liked the bathroom...

Most of the rest of our time was spent hanging out at the beach, walking around Levanto, and of course eating. The best restaurant was da Rino in Levanto. It was really fancy, but not too expensive. I got Trofie pasta (a local favorite, it is homemade thin spirals about an inch long) with pesto and everyone else got herb filled ravioli with a walnut cream sauce. They brought it in small clear plates that looked more like they were for salads, but they packed them full and there was tons of food. The local specialties are foccacia and pesto, and I tried to get them as much as possible. We got gelato from a man named Pippo about 10 times. I think Lauren developed a small crush.

The week went way too fast, but it's not so bad when you are leaving for Barcelona... We drove through Monaco and Nice, France on our two day drive. There was really awesome scenery along the way. Monaco is rich beyond belief. It's too bad we missed the wedding last week. I did gamble at one of the casinos. I started with 5 euro, got down to about 0.50, and then got it back up to 4.50, not bad overall. The beach in Nice was beautiful and really long, but we only had an hour. Chalk that up as a place I would like to come back to see. More about Barcelona soon.

leaving levanto

Its the last night in levanto...







we plan to eat at a place we all like...again...the triangle place.







late at night sometimes just before we go to be we watch some italian tv. the game show on channel five...
it has made a real impression on us...trying to figure out the rules....and the length of the show..3 hours! it is all just really DIFFERENT.

they always seem to mix in random scanty clad girls and then weird humor at totally random times.

overall just bizarre tv.



as usual...more later

jim

Under the Tuscan Sun

I would like to be able to write all about what we did during our week long stay in the Italian region of Tuscany, but I think it would take about a day out of our vacation. We went to so many fascinating hill towns, and though they did start to all run together a bit, almost all were unique and very interesting. Then there is the beautiful Tuscan countryside, which just seemed to go on and on. We stayed in a small village called Scrofiano in a great apartment. Here is a View from our window.

The highlight of the week was definitely the town of Siena. It is the biggest hill town in Tuscany, and and by far the most exciting. The primary reason for that was we went there during the start of the palio horse race. It is a race between the town's contradas (neighborhoods) and it is a big big big deal for the sienese people. The race is three laps around the town square, the piazza del Campo, with riders riding bareback. The first horse to cross the finish line wins for its contrada, whether there is a jockey on it or not. You might think that is farfetched, but second place this year was just that, horse sans rider. Here is a picture of the huge town square with the cathedral in the background.

We were actually in Siena for the drawing of the horses and the first of 6 practice races. We watched the actual Palio race on TV a day after we left Tuscany. Siena was quite hot, it was probably our hottest day so far in Italy. We didn't really know about the horse drawing, but trillion and I figured it out, mostly thanks to a pharmacist. She said the drawing was at 1:00 pm, it would be crowded on the square, and to “stay away from the people of Siena.” A little more about the Palio, the history of the contradas goes back hundreds of years, and there are bitter rivalries. Ten compete in each Palio, and they are randomly given a horse, hence the need for the draw. Each contrada parades into the square singing their songs, and then when they are given a horse, they go crazy, and parade out with their hose back to their neighborhood. Some horses I guess are known to be better then others, so when those horses are drawn, there is even more excitement.

I was getting to the point where I thought the pharmacist must have been exaggerating, when all of the sudden, during the parade out of the goose contrada, the horse was leaving without the parade of people behind it. I knew something weird was happening, and just a second later the fists were flying. There was a huge fight of about 50 people from two rival contradas, and from our perspective (which was pretty far away) it looked like everyone was just waving their fists in the air. It was absolutely crazy, and definitely something you don't see everyday.

We toured Siena for a while, Trillion and I had lunch with the Snail contrada, and then we got our spots to watch the first practice race. The amount of excitement surrounding this race was astounding, especially considering there would still be five more practices and the actual race. Everyone was singing, chanting, and just generally going crazy. The horses paraded out, got in the starting area, and suddenly they were off. The race was unfortunately about what you would expect from a practice. We watched the actual Palio on TV a few days later and it was a wild race, watch it on youtube if you are interested.

Another highlight of Tuscany was the town of Cortona. There was an auto show going on and a town festival. We also got great meal there, which Jim had been looking forward to the whole trip. The restaurant had great homemade pasta. I got the pasta with spicy sauce and sausage, and it was amazing. We also visited a really small town called Civita Baggenario, which I think is actually in Umbria. I think there are maybe 11 residents, and you have to walk across a bridge to get there. It used to be a land bridge, but it was bombed in WWII.

It was a great, but also very tiring week in Tuscany. Hopefully Trillion will be able to upload some more facebook pictures soon, at least within the next week. Goodbye to Tuscany, at least until next time...

porta fino boats

this is lynda and i in the yacht pen at porta fino....more later!

levanto its hot!

Well we are here in levanto now....i will just skip capri and sorranto since barrett covered them well i am sure.





lynda and i drove to porta fina a super upscale hill town next to the ocean. it was filled with the rich and beautiful...much like a mini capri.


we enjoyed the drive there...we took the back roads on purpose.

yesterday we took the train to a couple of nearby towns here in the cinque terra and all jumped off rocks into the blue water....at least most places it was blue......

we are going out to eat as a group most nights and find the food good...but expensive.


7 has been the most daring ordering things with fish and other things from the ocean in it.
we all eat a lot of pizza!

this town hops until 2am, and our apartment is right over the town park. even young kids are out riding their bikes and kicking balls etc until 2 or even 3am .....there is a sign which says no bikes balls running on the grass etc which is ignored by EVERYONE.....its italy...

well off to the beach ...kids are already there.

jim

Sorrento!!

Ok, so it has been a while since I have had extended internet access, but i still want to write about Sorrento and the Amalfi coast, our stop after Rome. We stayed for 4 nights, and it was an amazing time with beautiful weather. Here is Trillion and I with some of the coastline in the background. Part of it is the city of Sorrento, where we stayed. Our place was about a two minute walk to one of the few sand beaches in the area. There was also a decent sized harbor there with fishing boats.

On our first day we drove down the Amalfi coast, which is on the south side of the peninsula (Sorrento is on the north, and across the bay from Sorrento is Naples). It was a crazy drive with the road mostly not wide enough for two normal sized cars. Then it was onto Paestum, some Greek ruins further down south, and then Trillion and I got dropped off at Pompeii. Pompeii, as you may well know, was a Roman city buried under ash from mt. Vesuvius after its eruption almost 2000 years ago. The volcano is still very much active, and many scientists believe a major eruption could occur soon. The roman city is incredibly well preserved and really interesting. This is me in the forum with the volcano ominously in the background.

The next day was our Capri day, and what a day it was. We rented a boat and drove it to the famous and Luxurious island, which is just off the end of the peninsula I discussed earlier. It took us about an hour to get there, but much longer if you factor in trying to find a place to port. Then We took a funicular to the city of Capri, bused to Anacapri, and took a single seat chair lift to the top of mt. Salerno for a stunning view.

We left port and boated around the island for a while to find good places to swim. Thanks to our spectacular captain and navigator (see my facebook profile picture) we were successful. Jim actually did most of the boat driving and did a great job. This is my first video upload onto here, so I hope it works.

Finally on our last day we stayed around Sorrento. It was a much needed day of relaxing after a bunch of busy days in a row. Sorrento is a great city with lots if interesting shops. The whole area is famous for its lemon trees, and Sorrento in particular is known for lemoncello. There are even a few shops that offer free samples! I found a good looking restaurant online called da Giginos, and it turned out to be a great place. They served us prosecco when we sat down and had great pizza and lasagna. All around it was a great time. I can't wait til I come back on my yacht in a few years!