Il Saraceno Cinque Terre

... as the place was so cramped and nothing else to do in town, but ended up having a good night both nights we were there.


Sunday did the walk between the 5 towns from Riomaggore to Monterosso. Took about 4.5 hours including thestops in each town to check them out.
The views out over the Ligurian Sea are stunning. Leaving one town and seeing the next far off in the distance, and sometimes a lot higher up in altitude, was really cool.

... Now, our 23,000 lb 26' Penske truck is in no way designed for mudding, and needless to say, we got stuck! Not my ideal way to start our drive. The guys in the moving company were an odd bunch as well. One guy was a total jerk. He was condescending and just kept asking how it happened, and what was going to happen to his grass. The other guy was incredibly nice, tried to help pull us out, and even offered a number to his towers. Ultimately ...

... around wishing we had gotten moving 15 minutes earlier!

So here we are, back at our spot on the Peoria city dock. The morning hasn't been wasted however as we did some shopping at a couple of local hardware shops and stocked up on fresh bread, greens, and local cheeses at Peoria's farmer's market (the last one of the season).

We'll be leaving in about 2 hours and obviously won't be covering as much distance today as we had hoped.

... and arrived at the Peoria docks at 5:15pm in driving wind and rain. We pulled up behind another sailboat that we saw passing by the day prior. This Canadian couple, Bob and Martha, started from Ontario in July and after the Caribbean, plan to cross the Atlantic to explore the waterways of Europe.

Yesterday's route in the morning hours took us through the most barge traffic that we've dealt with thus far. As an aside, I've learned through the years that Tom does ...

... br>
Later that night was probably the most interesting part of my time in Cinque Terre. I went out at around 9 to find something for dinner, and as I was walking past a café on the main street in Riomaggiore, I came across an Australian I had met over two months earlier in Hamburg. That is a long time and a long distance. Europe is way too small…

But thankfully the Australians are back. I feel much safer now.

... among the vines and winded in and out of forests. It easily had the best views of all, and probably the most memorable part of our trip so far... Sorry Santorini!
We spent the afternoon on the beach again, at Vernazza this time. Overall Vernazza was our favorite town of all...It was a perfect day.
So even though Cinque Terre is starting to get overrun,we still found little pockets of serenity and had an amazing 3 days.

The flight got into BMI about 9:00 p.m. Grabbed my luggage after a short wait and then got onto the shuttle to go to my car.

I met a couple who sailed the same week but on a Norweigan ship. They were suppose to go to Sitka Alaska as one of their ports but ended up in Glacier Bay and Tracey Arm instead. Their captain said that on the way to ...

... the mountains run almost straight into the sea, so the Italians cut their driving time by going through them rather than around. After my drive time in Italy I don't want to see another tunnel.　 We’re sick of tunnels.　


Cinque Terre is made up of five small towns not far from each other that all hug the rocky Italian Mediterranean coast – (from south to north: Riomaggiori, Manarola, Corgnilia, Vernazzia and Monterosso). We ...

... and their two fantastic little girls, Maggie and Maya, to celebrate Maya's baptism. Throw in both sets of grandparents, us and aunt Julie and you have a proper family meeting.

Washington is a small suburban town suited wonderfully to accomodate young families. Plenty of nurseries, schools, open spaces and safe roads. Just the place you want your kids to grow up.

The Christening service by ...

... because he saw on the Italian man's sports bag the words "Federazione d'Italiano Calcio Arbitri" which means Italian Football Referees Association. Andrew was very excited by this and immediately struck up a conversation with the Italian in bits of broken Italian and English. I sat there not understanding a thing (I usually don't anyway even when Andrew is talking football in English!), just quietly observing the good looking Italian!