Italy

Well Mel and I have been in Italy for around a week and a half and are loving it. Great food, great wine and great people.

Our first stop was Cinque Terra....5 little towns on the meditteranean. What a gorgeous area, we stayed in the middle town of the 5 called Corniglia. The nice part about these towns is they are all linked by trails and train access. Corniglia is the quitest and most remote of them all. The only issue is that if you dont want to wait for the shuttle bus from the train station it is quite a hike up to town....some 382 steps to be precise....no wonder Italians are in great shape they climb stairs all the time.

We ended up staying for 5 nights as it was the perfect place ot relax and to get to know Italian culture. We quickly made friends with the owner of the local wine shop (Mario or Merlo Blanco"white Mockingbird) as well as his two closet friends Folco and Renaldo (El Gatacho "wildcat". The shop had a great vibe and seemed to draw in travelers constantly. Folco is well known Italian folk musiican with a very tom waite like voice and style...he was always playing the guitar. El Gatacho was a retired boat radioman...you would never guess he was 78. They were harvesting during the day but would hang with us all night...heck i even got to hang out with them asd they started to make wine. This little wine shop has alos played host to Jack Johnson as he was there 5 or 6 years ago....it has a kind of magic in drawing people in.

We met lots of great people while there including a retired couple (Mike and Deana) from Seattle who are on a 4 month vacation and had just dropped their daughter off at school in Europe. A great couple from Michigan as well as an Aussie couple who were on their honeymoon as well. He owns Redmen Wines in Koownaharra Valley...so we got chatting about wine a fair bit. We also had the pleasure of watching the France - Italy Soccer game with all the locals...they put out a tv in front of the wine bar for all to enjoy.

Mel and I have been enjoying the train trips as we get to see the country side, meet new people and eat well. We buy bread, meat and cheese for the road and wash it down with a bottle of wine.

After Corniglia we arrived in Rome....what a crazy city.....tourists everywhere....but what history as there are Roman Ruins everywhere. Soem highlights from Rome so far are:
- Dinner at the Embassadors house - Thanks Fiona, your parents where fantastic.
- Seeing all the sites of old rome including the emperors palace and the coloseum
- seeing the parthenon
- visiting and seeing the enormous wealth of the vatican....how they could not come up with 13 million to restore the sistine chapel frescos is unbelieveable.
- watching Scotland beat France in the Eurocup qualifier at a irish pub....what a great game and monumental win....almost makes up for the loss to Brazil in the 2000 world cup.

Well we are off to Paris tonight by plane. I am hoping to catch a rugby game while there as they are hosting the rugby worldcup.

One of these days I will post photos but be warned we have over 1200 so far....some real good shots though.