Italy Follow Up

Logan, hope you're ready for some videos!


To some Americans (mainly). I can say that, 'cause I'm American, we would be the most boring vacationers ever. You will rarely find us at museums or ruins, or what have you. You'll probably find us scouting around trying to find the (and we did) "Slow Food" restaurant John ate at 3 years ago. We found it, in about an hour, after we gave up and sat down at another restaurant across the street. John's pregnant wife was not very happy with the situation, her feet weren't either.


I guess I wasn't "all about" Cinque Terre, 'cause it was just villages on the coast, something I've seen in California all my life, grant it, not this old.....or in Italy.


One day we hiked from village to village and met a couple that was from California. We talked about the advantages of living in Europe and some things Americans need to learn from "their elders". :) Once again, we were all American, minus John, so we could talk freely about some issues.



We love our boat rides, so one day we took a boat to see the villages from the Mediterranean viewpoint. That was nice. We ended up in a place called La Spezia (i.e. the following pictures).



We actually did go to a ruin site at this juncture. Who knows what the history is? All we know is that it was built with famous marble of the area and erected in the middle ages.



Our favorite part was the cool people that we met. This is a family who are now living in their huge palace of a bus. She (Manny) home schools their kids. They seem to all play an instrument and/or sing. We met them at the campground we stayed at. They redesigned the interior of the bus by themselves. A bunch of us got together one night, grilled fish, kebabs, and vegetables, ate and played music. It was so nice. I hadn't done that in a long time. That was the night the campground cat finally got some fish instead of the milk and cheese I was feeding him.


The previous pictures are from some famous street in Genova with a bunch of cool architecture. There were a lot of high class businesses on that street. Don't ask me what it was, though. We just happen to walk along it on our way to the train.



John had never been to an aquarium before, so we went to the one in Genova. He was so cute. He asked the lady at the desk, "Are there sharks?" He really wanted to see live sharks. Here he is petting a stingray. For whatever reason, these guys were safe to pet, and John said they were really soft. I just couldn't get Steve Erwin out of my mind.




Seals

Here I am comparing myself with the size of the fountain. I'm not far behind.

It was sad leaving our little house/cabin. We learned how simple life can be without the everyday distractions. We read and listened to sermons (that is a common thing in our house because the the language barrier) and we ate three times at our favorite pizza place. I even read my quilting book. There were a couple of days in there that we just stayed in. I just don't have the energy to run around everyday.

Stau-ed Out

John, here, is talking about the traffic jam that we were in for over an hour on the way home. "Stau" is German for traffic jam. In fact, a lot of Americans like the term so much you can often hear the military personnel talk about the autobahn being "stau-ed out, man". Hilarious.


Before the pass in Switzerland.


After the pass.

Peace.