Genoa to Rigamorre to Siena

So we have officially begun the traveling part of our trip...by that I mean, dodgy hotels, running with big backpacks to catch a train that should have left 10 minutes ago and finally being relaxed enough to start spending a couple hours reading although there are, of course, a million amazing things to see...I mean isn't understanding 'who is john galt' as important as seeing a 15th century fresco?

We are knee deep into Italy now and although we love France there is something about Italy that brings with it more of a gravitational pull...maybe it is the gelato, i don't know. We began our Italian adventure after a poor decision by me for us to drive across France so we could have one more night of luxury at Lizzie and Mike's but that proved to be a lesson in why Europeans use public transport. The answer is not because it is necessarily a more pleasant experience although that could be argued but this is certainly a monetary decision. To drive 7 hours in a diesel car with gas mileage to compete with any Prius cost us around 150 euro due to gas prices (at 1.60 euro per liter = $6.40 a gallon) but this was not a suprise but what was a suprise were the tolls...about every 50 miles you must pay around 10 euro to just use the road (they are nice roads mind you). Although I was highly disturbed by the pull on my purse, this did seem to be reasonable if the goal was to have people use public transport. We still have not even begun to feel the crunch in the US, the price elasticity has not even begun to become taunt.

Anyway, we were headed for cinque terre, an area on the Italian coast, where 5 villages are linked via a rugged trail which many people hike, for our own hiking excursion but due to our late arrival we decided to stay in seedy Genoa because we thought we could find a place more easily (since this was my one attempt for the entire 7 weeks of being relaxed enough to not secure accomodations). Turns out we could get a room for cheap and I had flashbacks of Moldova for a second as we entered the dingy accomodations but then I remembered we were actually backpacking and I realized that I might really be 10 years older than when I last did this and a little more pampered.

We got up early the next morning and headed for cinque terre and as we arrived the thunderstorms rolled in and I felt like the children in cat and the hat. I was very sullen and had a pathetic look on my face as we sat in a cafe and sipped tea. Hoyt said 'let's go anyway' and so we started up the terrain with wet pants, heavy raincoats and thoughts repeating 'this was a choice remember.' 15 minutes later the sun burst through the clouds and the rest of the day was crystal clear and even more perfect because the rains had driven away the clouds and the rain had made everything glisten. I remembered why I always tell myself that the winter serves a very important purpose which is to prepare us to find joy in the spring...imagine if we had peonies all year round, we would miss that first moment when they bloom.

We finished the day in the last town of Riamagorre in a yummy restaurant with a bottle of chianti served with pasta and fresh mussels from the harbor below. Yummmm.

The next day we headed for Siena and for our most perfect hotel where the owner must have friends of friends of Lizzie and Mike because they have created a little piece of heaven in tuscany. The patio looks over the burnt red walled city and in the distance we can see the beginning of the tuscan hills...we have spent today totally relaxing by walking through all the small allies, in and out of shops, stopping to watch the little ones excitement as they discover the fresh gelato of the day and in general enjoying eachother...it is rough but someone must do it...