What a Day!

We left our villa around noon heading to Cinque Terre which is only about an hour away.  Once again, were on the plan of NO PLAN…I was told to NOT take a car to Cinque Terre – but we thought we could do it  (Or Clark thought he could do it!)  (for those going there – DO NOT TAKE A CAR!!)  Let me give you the brief break down of our day.  We arrive in La Spezia which is the town before you go up the mountain to Cinque Terre.  We drove around a bit trying to get oriented and then followed the signs up to Cinque Terre.  There are 5 small towns that are built on the mountain cliff and really the only way to get there is by train – or HIKE – and our plan was to just go to the first town and get a place to spend the night – wake up the next morning – take the train to Monterosso – and hike down to the bottom town.  Blakely found a hotel in the first town and we plugged it into the GPS and followed the directions.  20 minutes later we were back in the town of La Spezia (the opposite direction of where we wanted to go – but Oh Well!)  The day was ticking away and we finally got to the first town – but there was a problem – NO PARKING!!!  Clark let Blakely, Ford and myself out to go find the hotel while he took the other two up the mountain to park the car and take the bus down.  (Sound confusing?  It was!)  We (Blakley, Ford and I) went all the way down the mountain (TINY little village) looking for a hotel and NOTHING!  We kept walking to the water and saw a family that looked VERY familiar!   I went up to them and said I know that you are from Charlotte, NC – can’t remember their names – but they were a family of six who were from Charlotte and she said she had a painting of mine!!  NO LIE – SMALL WORLD - a little angel who crossed our paths.  We got the scoop from them about where to stay and how to get there – and got the same response – DON’T take a car!  We hiked back up the MOUNTAIN to go find Clark and the girls and they were getting off the bus with their luggage!  I told them ‘get back on – we are going back up – no place to stay here!!’  J  So, we all got on the bus to get back to our car… and headed back down the mountain.  It was getting late!  Still no one complained – just giggled a little.  I was PETRIFIED of driving around this mountain – my photos will not do it justice! 

OK – we are making the bend when we see an Italian police car put out a stop sign and motioned for us to pull over – HMMM – we were not speeding because I made Clark go way under the speed limit – so we pull over and two Italian police guards – one with a machine gun – wants our passports and Clark’s international license.  I was thinking we were getting ready to be ‘TAKEN”…a few minutes passed – we all prayed – and they released us to go down the mountain.  We have decided to go turn our car in Florence tonight…spend the night in our favorite city – FLORENCE – and get on the train back to Cinque Terre tomorrow and start all over!!!  Whew – what a day!  The drive back to Florence through the countryside was beautiful. It was worth the trip!

More to follow on Cinque Terre!  IT is absolutely stunning!

OK we made it back to our faithful hotel The Executive Hotel who has the nicest person at the front desk!  He welcomed us back and gave us a great deal on a room for the night!  Also – gave us free WiFi!  We had a GREAT dinner – the best pizza ever (Except Luisa’s in Charlotte – Ford reminded us)  we are happy and going to bed!  Tomorrow is another adventure!

Buona Sera J