It was funny, I spent two months micro-planning the trip, then didn't leave myself enough time at the end. Sarah was kind enough to take us to the airport, and I wound up packing in her car. Seriously. I had to leave a whole bag of stuff that didn't fit into my bags in her car. Then we thought we had plenty of time once we got to the airport, so we had a steak dinner at the new Terminal A Chophouse. Oops, we really didn't have that much time and wound up being the last two people to board. Which means they tried to gate check our bags. I worked really REALLY hard to pack only carry-on bags for our 2.5 week trip and let's just say I did not take to the idea of a gate check. They miraculously found space on the plane, which they sensed was in their own best interest. And yes, it would appear I need to work on my time management skills.
Then we circled Dallas for two hours due to weather. Thank heavens we got those bags on that plane, or else they would've missed the connection. We ran through DFW, managed to catch the connection. Once we landed in Heathrow the door broke so we sat on that plane for an extra two hours. We were planning to catch the Heathrow Express and take a double decker bus around London with our 7.5 hour layer, but ended up only having enough time to go through security and grab a bite to eat. Thank heavens for that long lay-over! Fellow passengers weren't so lucky, I thought we were going to see the emergency door deployed by an angry mob towards the end of that long ground wait.
With that rocky start, we finally arrived in Milan. We enjoyed a leisurely morning, spent some time in the Galleria and the Duomo (the 4th largest church in the world), then caught a train to Genoa.
My first Italian Prada store, in the Milan Galleria:
Because of the crappy dollar, I didn't actually purchase any Italian designer goods in Italy. Bizarrely enough, I was not saddened by this unexpected abstinence. Probably because I was busy buying cheap Italian wine.Genoa was off the tourist beaten track and was a great way to start off the trip. We detoured here in order to use the free nights we had with Ultimate Escapes . Our room was gorgeous, the hotel was very conveniently located right across from a train station, and it was an authentic, non-touristy aclimation period. The weather wasn't great, so we went to a maritime musuem one morning that wound up being a lot of fun. Yes, Mike is a good sport.
The harbor in Genoa:
We did an afternoon trip to Cinque Terre from Genoa, it was 1.5 hour by train, and it was absolutely gorgeous. That morning we woke to lots of rain, decided to do it the next day instead, then belatedly discovered the weather would only get worse. So we hopped on the train several hours later than we should have, but still managed to see most of the CT towns. Because it was pouring in the morning, there weren't very many tourists and the trail was closed. But it cleared up right after we finished a late lunch, so we went ahead and started the hike around 3:30. Since the trail was officially closed, there wasn't much traffic which was really nice.
We started off at the northern end, in Monterossa. The trail from Monterossa to Vernazza is the longest and most challenging, but since the weather was still cool from the rain it was pleasant
The easy starting off point in Monterossa.
Shot of what the trail looks like. It really varied, at some points it was fairly wide and flat, other times it was all stone steps, and then sometimes it was a teeny tiny dirt trail on the edge of a cliff.
We're almost to Vernazza, looking back to our starting point Monterossa in the distance:
Looking down into Vernazza, our favorite of the three CT towns we visited:
The backside of Vernazza, as we resume hiking towards Corniglia:
The trail takes you up and down between the towns, just to get from the town of Corniglia to the train station is over 400 steps. All said and done, we did almost 2500 stair steps that day....the equivalent to more than 200 flights of stairs!! Needless to say, we had guilt-free gelato at every stop along the way. Before we started off towards Corniglia, I was told by a French lady with knee high hiking boots and ski poles in broken English that my shoes were too flimsy and that I would break my skinny ankles attempting the hike. Good thing we ignored her, it was not as rugged as non-Colorado folks would describe.
Midway between Vernazza and Corniglia, you can see Corniglia perched on the hill behind us. And now the sun is out, so the 500 m of vertical climbing and 11 km distance is showing.
We had an adventurous midnight train ride back to Genoa that we somehow survived, and were very happy we ventured the rain for what turned out to be a gorgeous day in the Cinque Terre.
Stay tuned for volume 2, Lake Garda and Venice. Or you can skip the dialogue and check out the album posted to the right.
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