A Well Kept Man

We spent the long weekend (Friday - Tuesday) in Italy, staying near the coast on the northwestern side of Italy (we stayed in the area of La Spezia, near the Ligurian Sea...I thought it was the Mediterranean Sea, but then again I never really excelled at geography). Our first day was spent hiking in the Cinque Terre, which are a series of small towns perched along the coast of the sea and separated by about five hours of walking. You could take a train between the towns, but apparently exercising was a higher priority. The paths were very narrow and at times a bit precarious, but the views and experience was completely worth the salt crust that formed on my skin as a result of excessive perspiration (I thought for sure I would have to burn my clothes, but thankfully that wasn't the case).

Italy is such a beautiful place and this setting certainly lives up to the images I have conjured in my head. We also took advantage of being close to the sea with our food selection, sampling fresh anchovies (normally I would say ick, but I tried them here and they were amazing!) Also, fresh spaghetti with clams, grilled swordfish, pasta with fish (fish wasn't described, I'm guessing swordfish, but possibly something else), and the freshest calamari and shrimp breaded and fried. The sea was colder than I imagined it would be, but nevertheless I found time to put my legs in a few times.

The only negative aspect of this trip...driving (seriously, I should have learned from the last time, next time I am in Italy, it will be on a Mediterranean cruise with a port of call in Rome or something). I managed to high five a couple cars with my side view mirrors, no significant damage thankfully. I also seemed to find my way down the narrowest road known to man, only to find a dead end and then having to retrace my steps in reverse (did I mention the giant brick wall to my right and cavernous abyss to my left?). At one point, I crested a hill (in the dark, so cresting was unknown to be occurring) only to find the pitch of the road changed from a severely positive gradient to an extremely negative one (I felt like Starsky & Hutch hot on the tail of a bad guy, or maybe it was more Dukes of Hazzard...either way, the Jetta had some good hang time).

We had lots of gelato and pizza as well, so it was a great getaway with our friends Bethany and Andy. Tomorrow, I will regale you will tall tales of a leaning building...