Hi again on Saturday - I'm back in Tellaro on the Italian keyboard but thought I would catch you up on what we have been doing.
On Thursday we drove into LaSpezia to catch a train to the Cinque Terre. Now, Rick Steves says in his guidebook that this is an easy task -- It's not. For those of you that have not heard of the Cinque Terre, it is a national park with a walking path along the sea connecting 5 towns. It is supposedly dangerous in some spots, but we didn't go there. We finally got on the train and it was packed with a bazillion school kids out for the day along with another million or more old people (not to judge). We got there and got off for our "quiet walk" again according to Rick. It was hotter than ***** and packed with above kids. But once you let the kids get ahead of you, it was nice. Which is what we did. After a couple of hours of this we realized that what we had in Tellaro was as beautiful and decided to come home. So I sat with a glass of wine and a book and looked at my little section of the sea.
We realized that we could catch a bus almost at the foot of our stairs and go to Lerica, the next town over. Since it only costs a euro and the driver goes about twice a fast as Jim goes, it is quite fast and easy. That's where we finally were able to send pictures.
Let me tell you about Italian mosquitos --- they are the noisest bas..... critters you have ever heard. It is not bad enough they bite you and make you itch, they have to aggravate you first. But we showed who was smarter - we spray the apartment at dusk with bug spray. Of course, if we closed the door to the deck it would help but we can't do that.
We had a storm last night that, at least during the night sounded like the worst storm I have ever seen. I stayed awake and listened to it --- Jim slept through it.
We have had gelato every day and continue to meet some very interesting people, both Italian and tourists.
Love ya
Maggie & Jim