Residence Stella del Mare Vada

... and limited to pastry or pizza at 5pm, but I found Brasserie La Loggia near the station that had a full menu all day.
Walked in to order a pasta and was amazed and delighted that they also had a display case full of Belgian, German, Dutch and other quality beers.
Had a La Trappe with my bolognese. Even though it's made in the Netherlands it was still a good tripel.
Was ready to go after that but ...

... before. In the states our oil is more of a yellowish-green color, this stuff is pure green.
The next two days it poured all day long, so we sat in our apartment writing and relaxing while Vilmo was visiting a woman in Northern Italy. Finally Tuesday the sun decided to emerge from its hiding place and prance across the skies again. Unfortunately because of all the rain, the ground around the trees turned to thick mud. Picking olives became ...

... trattoria – and in the end, Murray’s food interest had picked up. I had minestrone soup, and Murray and I split the porcini mushroom risotto. Murray was even feeling good enough for a beer at that point, as well as a veal with mushrooms entrée (I seriously hope he’s not pushing it too much…!). After dinner, we were back to the hotel by 9:30pm, and in bed not long after that. Here’s to better stomachs tomorrow…!

partie tot ce matin pour faire les 4.5 heures de train entre milan et pise, nous avons traverser plusieurs petit tunel. le paysage de la toscanne est beaucoup moins plat que ce que nous avons vue du nord-est de l'italie.

une fois nos bagage depose a l'auberge, on est partie vers la fameuse tour de pise. effectivemnt, elle ...

Cinque Terre photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album. php?aid=163678&id=613699523&l=b ae7645b89

Stayed at Affittacamere Patrizia Hostel in Rio Maggiore in Cinque Terre and wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
When we got to the Hostel it was just an office and no one was there. Our keys were stuck to the door with instructions on how to get to our dorm room. There was another set of keys there too so we could have taken those too and ...

We are finally home and it is actually Nov. 20th. We finally got in last night around midnight and could not download anything for the last several days because WiFi is too advanced for the small town we were in. It was the most relaxing of all the ...

... all of our gear on our backs and headed into the woods on a very poorly marked trail. Greg said this was the sort of thing people died doing (Moms- remember in this, we ended up making it out ok)... We even gave Diego our names in case people came looking for us. We started climbing around 5:00 and began losing the trail around 5:20! (Dad, I REALLY fell back on my Eagle Scout days and drew confidence from the activities and adventures I lived through there.) We sweated so bad, got ...

... as you move up the spiral staircase your weight transfers backwards and forwards according to which side you're on. There's not much room to move up the top and if you slipped in the wrong place you could easily topple over the low railing guard. With the clear blue sunny sky we could see for miles around and the pretty Piazza dei Miracoli below looked fantastic. We could only spend 1/2 hr on the tower before the next tour ...

Managed to get to Pisa early before the hoardes arrived. We went up the Leaning Tower, you get 30 minutes for 15 euros each. Later on we realised that once the crowds turn up you only get 20 minutes up there for the same price! And some people may take that long to get up there! We did hear some americans debating whetehr there was a lift, with one very sure that the lift must go to the fifth floor at least. But no it is all stairs, and they have ...

... tour of the long row of souvenir stalls. On our way back to the train station we were waylaid by a couple of young girls, reasonably well dressed and with painted fingernails, who started begging for money. We shook our heads and kept walking, and they followed. One walked ahead of us and the other behind, and their persistent harassment put our guard up immediately. "Watch my back," I said to Ricki ...