Cinque Terre (Part 2)

Saturday morning we got up early (okay, 8am-ish, but that’s early for us while we’re on vacation) so we could catch the 9:05am train to Manarola.  Manarola was my favorite of the 5 towns.  It was colorful and beautiful and the coastline was just gorgeous.

This is the little area that they lower their boats down into.  There was a waterfall coming from under the town that fell into this alcove.

A view of Manarola from where they kept their boats.  And you can see that crane on the left – that’s how they get their boats into the water.

This was the trail that went north of Manarola.  We walked along it and took some pictures.  It was beautiful and the rock along the cliff was fascinating.

After our little photo shoot we found a playground up on a hill and let Abbie loose for a while.  She’d really been wanting to walk, and we didn’t want her walking along the path by the cliff, so we’d kept her in the Ergo.  But she had fun running all over the playground for a while.

After our excursion around and over the ridge, we headed back into town.  Abbie had to point out all the boats on our way through town.  Lucky for her, there were about 50 of them.

The walking trail from Manarola to Riomaggiore, known as via dell’ Amore, was open, so we walked along that next.  The tale goes that people from both towns would meet along this path, giving it the nickname Lovers Lane. 

All over Italy you see padlocks locked to pretty much anything people can put them on, mostly bridges.  The tale goes that people in love put a padlock on something and throw away the key, making their love everlasting.  Via dell’ Amore was no different.  There were padlocks stuck everywhere!

I personally thought this guy was nuts!  That water below him was violent, and if he’d made one wrong step he would have been in the drink.  I can’t imagine there was a bunch of fish in water that was that violent, but what do I know?

After a nice mile long stroll to Riomaggiore, we hiked up the hill to check out the town.  We passed this little waterfall, which ran underneath the main road.  This person had a little house built for his ducks and was using the waterfall to run his little mill wheel.  It was pretty neat.

 

About a block up the road we saw this.  One of the big disadvantages of living on a huge hill.  I’m sure it’ll take them 2 months to fix this, even though it was blocking the road.

These people put a garden wherever they can!  There were tiny gardens everywhere and little stairways going all over the place.

I really like Riomaggiore too.  It was a quaint little town and the people seemed friendly (and there were actually people around).

 

Abbie found a butterfly while we waited for the train.  

We headed back to the apartment for Abbie (and our) nap around 1pm with plans to try to make the 3:56pm train, but we quickly nix’d that when the train back to our apartment was 15 mins late.

Our plan was to check out the last of the Cinque Terre towns, Corniglia, Saturday evening, but it was dark by the time we got there since we caught the train was late, yet again.  So this is pretty much all we saw of Corniglia.   (It’s the train station.) 

We had planned to get dinner in Corniglia, but after we got off the train we didn’t have a clue where the main street was, and after walking up the hill about 1/4 of a mile, we turned around and decided to head to Monterosso’s “Old Town” for dinner.  We had to wait for a half an hour for the train, but we encountered an American couple and chatted with them for a while, which was nice.

Old Town Monterosso was pretty neat, even if we didn’t see much of it because it was dark.  We had dinner at a little pizzeria and it was really good.  Abbie did really well, especially considering they didn’t have any high chairs (as usual).  She sat on a little stool next to Mark and ate all her food and watched a noise bunch of kids that came in after us.  She kept pointing at them and laughing and saying “funny”.  It was pretty cute.

It was raining when we headed back to the train station, but we had umbrellas and I figured out how to wear Abbie in the Ergo and stick the handle of the umbrella in between us and hold on to the edge of it to keep us both dry.  It worked pretty well.

Abbie woke up early (just before 8am, but that’s early for her, especially considering she was up until 9pm the night before), so we packed up the apartment and left Deiva Marina by 9:30am.  It was a little overcast when we left the coast, but about an hour inland it was snowing like crazy!  It took us until 4pm (including 2 stops) to get home because it snowed and rained for the last 5 hours of driving.

Abbie proved herself, once again, to be a very good little traveler.  She did amazingly well the entire time we were gone and didn’t have any major meltdowns.  Mark is hilarious with Abbie.  He tells me about 40 times per hour how perfect she is and how she’s such a good girl and how he thinks she’s the greatest thing ever.  He’s always telling me to look at whatever she’s doing.  She has him wrapped around her little finger like no one else.  It’s entertaining at times.

So now we’re home and unpacked and the laundry is started.  We have 3 days to get organized and repacked and then we head out for our trip to Amsterdam, which I’m excited about, but also pretty nervous about.  Naturally Mark has to fly nights on Wednesday night, so he won’t even be home until midnight-ish, and our flight leaves from Milan (3.5 hours from here) at 6:30am on Thursday.  My original plan was to leave Wednesday afternoon and check into a hotel near the airport and get to bed early so we could get up early and make our flight.  Now I get to wake Abbie up in the middle of the night and pray to God she goes back to sleep for the drive to Milan, and then wake her up again at 5am-ish when we get there.  (Did I mention that she didn’t sleep AT ALL in the car during the 10+ hours we were in the car on this trip?)  I think it’s going to be a very rocky start to this trip since Mark and I won’t get any sleep and who knows how much Abbie will sleep.  But at least we won’t have dog puke to deal with!

Cinque Terre

  For Thanksgiving we decided to head to Cinque Terre, which is located on the west coast of Italy in the Italian Riviera, about 4.5 hours from where we live.  We’d heard lots of great things about Cinque Terre and we were excited to check things out.  Cinque Terre, translated means Five Lands, consists of 5 tiny towns along the rocky coast.  From north to south they are Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.  We found an apartment in Deiva Marina, which is a 15 minute train ride north of Monterosso.

The trip started off a little rocky.  We weren’t more than 30 mins down the road and Sadie puked all over the back seat of the car.  Nice.  All over Abbie’s toys and the bags of food we had behind the drivers seat.  So we pulled over to clean that all up and then drove another 1.5 hours listening to her dry heave.  We decided to stop at an Autogrill by Bologna, had a nice lunch, bought a $10 bag of M&M’s (no kidding, this bag was not the grocery store size, but not as small as the gas station size either.  It was in between the 2 and it was 7.60E, which is about $10….), and went back out to the car to discover Sadie had puked all over the front seat of the car.  So gross!  Thank God Mark cleaned it up because I was getting nauseous from it.

We made it to Deiva Marina around 4:45pm after Sadie puked in the car 2 more times (last time we’re ever taking the dogs on a trip over here), and after 2 trips around the tiny town, we found where we were supposed to check in.  Deiva Marina is pretty much a ghost town this time of year.  It’s beautiful, but there aren’t many people around at all.  We really, really liked our apartment.  It’s small, but efficient.  It had 2 bedrooms and a bathroom with a shower and a washing machine and a little kitchen, living room, dining room area with a computer with internet access.  For 90E/night, we were very happy with it.  If we had the windows open we could hear the waves crashing on the beach since we were about a block from the ocean.  Thursday night we went literally right across the street to a tiny (and I mean tiny) grocery store to get some food for lunch.  The lady behind the counter didn’t speak a lick of English, but was very nice and helpful and she gave Abbie a piece of focaccia bread that was DELICIOUS.  We had dinner and got Abbie to bed at 7:45pm.  She didn’t nap at all on the trip, but surprisingly she was still in a good mood and slept from 7:45pm until we woke her up after 9am.

Friday morning we wanted to take the train to Vernazza and then hike to Monterosso, but that didn’t work out.  We got to the train station 15 minutes early because we wanted plenty of time to get tickets and figure out which platform to get on.  Conveniently they didn’t have anyone there selling tickets.  They just had a machine with a sign on it saying it didn’t accept credit cards and to go to a hotel in town to get train tickets.  However, we’d just walked past that hotel and it sure didn’t look like anyone was around.  So we decided to try to use the machine since we had Euros and we got it to work, but of course the machine didn’t give change.  It just printed out this “I owe you” receipt for us.  Mark and I just looked at each other and laughed.  SO typical Italy.

So we get to Vernazza and we want to buy a map.  We only had a 20E bill since the stupid machine hadn’t given us any change and ATM’s don’t give out smaller bills.  The girl said she didn’t have any change, which is VERY typical in Italy.  I don’t know how merchants make any money when they NEVER have change.  Don’t they realize that ATM’s only give out 20’s or 50’s?  Italians don’t make sense sometimes.  So we didn’t buy the map and went to the train station counter to buy tickets for the National Park.  (Cinque Terre is a park and you need a pass to hike on the trails or to ride the train between the towns.)  So we found out there that all the trails are closed and you can’t hike between the towns.  …  Great.  The whole purpose of coming to Cinque Terre is to hike between the towns along the coast.  All we could do is laugh and say whatever.  So we asked to buy a train ticket to get between the towns and use the “I owe you” thingy to buy it and of course that wasn’t an option because they weren’t Trenitalia (the main train company in Italy).  Man, I love Italy.  We just decided to screw it and figure it out later since we were getting frustrated.     

We walked downtown Vernazza and watched the waves crashing on the rocks for a while and took some pictures of the coast and the town.  It’s a pretty little town with a lot of character.  We saw signs for a castle, so we decided to go check that out, only to get halfway up there to have someone tell us the castle wasn’t open that day.  *sighs*  She pointed us in a direction saying there were some pretty look-outs that way, and we ended up finding them which was nice.  It really is a picturesque little town.  I just don’t know how people live there year round.  It’s literally built on a cliff, so the whole town is just a bunch of stairs and VERY narrow walk ways.  I couldn’t imagine moving into a house there.  I’m not sure how you’d maneuver furniture through those narrow sidewalks.  But we got some good pictures and a magnet while we were there.   

We headed back to the train station so we could take the train to Monterosso since hiking wasn’t an option.  We ran into a bunch of Americans there and had a nice chat with them while we waited for the train.  Monterosso was a little disappointing, but we discovered afterwards that we never went to the “old town” part, we were only in the “new town” part.  Maybe tomorrow we’ll get a chance to go back to the “old town” part if we have time.  We got a few cute beach photos, even though it was pretty cold, let Abbie play at a playground for a little bit and then walked along the walkway by the water before heading up to the train station.   (She wasn’t too sure about the waves at first, so she had to hold on to daddy’s leg.)

 

(Not a big fan of the swing.)

 

We came back around 1:30pm, ate lunch at our apartment and then all 3 of us took an almost 3 hour nap.  I love afternoon naps.  One of the nice things about traveling with a toddler is that she needs a nap, so coming back for her naps is a perfect excuse for me to take a nap also.  We decided to just hang out in Deiva Marina on Friday night instead of heading back down to Cinque Terre.  We got dinner at a place right up the road that had really good pizza and pesto focaccia bread and then came home and went to bed.

       

Side note:  There is a place about a block from our apartment that reminds me so much of the Tower of Terror at Disney World in FL, it’s not even funny.  I seriously think whoever designed that place must have seen this place.  It’s incredibly old, abandoned and just plain creepy!

He’s home!

Mark made it home yesterday and we were very happy to see him.  Abbie immediately wanted him to take her to get some food at the airport.  She grabbed his finger right away and started pulling him towards the little restaurant in the airport while pointing to her mouth and saying “eat!”.  She doesn’t beat around the bush at what she wants.  She was ALL OVER him (quite literally – see above) once we got home and she would get very upset if he left the room.  She is 100% a daddy’s girl.  When she woke up from her nap she asked for daddy as soon as I opened the door and she was more than thrilled when he went in to get her up this morning.  I listened to the two of them laughing at each other from the living room.  It just melts my heart every time I hear them laughing together, which happens quite frequently.  Today Abbie and I took Mark some lunch, but we didn’t really get to do more than say a quick hi and hand the lunch over.  Naturally they wouldn’t give him any down time when he got back from a trip.  He’s in the swing of things full force, but we’ll enjoy his time off on Thursday and Friday in Cinque Terre.  Abbie was running around the squadron calling for him while she was looking for him.  I think it confuses her when she sees almost everyone dressed the same as her daddy usually is, but I held her up to a board with everyone’s pictures on it and she picked Mark out right away.

This time when Mark was gone was INFINITELY better than last time.  I don’t know what my deal was last time, but this time was the polar opposite of last time.  Abbie and I had fun, she slept GREAT the entire time he was gone and I wasn’t stressed.  She is doing better at entertaining herself now, which allows me to do other stuff besides keeping her occupied the entire time she’s awake, and that helped out a bunch.  She wasn’t teething, another HUGE plus.  She is going to the sitters now and I had friends babysitting so I could go to practices, so I got some breaks which was great.  (But VERY expensive…  The last week Mark was gone I spent over $150 in babysitters….)  And I was feeling much more settled before he left than I did the last time.  In August I was still adjusting to life in Italy, and now I feel comfortable here.  Fingers are crossed that the next TDY goes as well as this one did.

I almost got everything done that I wanted to.  My Christmas cards are pretty much done.  I have to finish 15 more of the letters and then stuff a bunch of them with the letters and pictures and put stamps on them all and then I’ll be done.  I’m praying to God I find my address stamp soon because that’s going to take a TON of time if I have to hand write our address on 150 envelopes…  I have no clue where that stupid thing went!

My quilt is almost done.  I have 2 more sides to finish the binding on and then it’ll be done and ready to send.  I have a bunch of boxes that I need to get ready to mail so they get to the States on time.  I plan on doing that next week when we get back from Cinque Terre and before we go to Amsterdam.  Whew!

Well crud!

Last night was our ladies crud tournament.  Our squadron had 2 teams playing in the tournament and we’ve been practicing for weeks.  I absolutely LOVE playing crud, but I much prefer to play it when there isn’t an entire room watching screaming at you while you play. 

So people ask me what crud is all the time when I post anything about it on FB or here.  If you want the full rundown on it, check this out.  The shortened version is this:  It’s basically like full contact pool, without the sticks and you only play with 2 balls.  Each team plays with 6 players and each player has 3 lives.  If you don’t have 6 players, you can play with a ghost, and then the first 3 lives lost on that team go to the ghost.  Once you lose your 3 lives, you’re out.  Any time you’re on the table (and not waiting for your turn) you defend the black ball first (try to keep the other person from hitting it with the white ball – this is where the full contact part comes in) and then you’re trying to hit the black ball with the white ball.  If the black ball stops on your turn, you lose a life.  Or if the black ball goes in a pocket, someone loses a life.  Or if you knock over the refs drink or throw one of the balls off the table (which happens fairly often) you lose a life.  The last team to still have lives left wins.

I’ve been nervous about this crud tournament all week.  As I said, I absolutely love playing crud.  It’s competitive, there’s a good amount of skill, along with some luck, involved and it’s just a ton of fun to play.  The last (and only other) tournament I played in was right after I learned how to play at Luke.  I ended up being the last person on the team left with lives.  All my other teammates were out, I still had 3 lives left and the other team had like 4-5 people left with a bunch of lives.  The scary part is that there were tons of rowdy fighter pilots, most of which I didn’t know, crowding around the table and SCREAMING at me, half of them telling you to do one thing and half of them telling you to do another.  It was scary, I lost and I was pretty nervous about that happening again…. and it ALMOST did.

So last night my team was playing a team from the other fighter squadron on base.  There are only two fighter squadrons on base and we have a friendly rivalry between us.  Of course I wanted to win, but I wouldn’t have been heartbroken if I hadn’t won.  I just wanted to have fun and get practice playing in front of a large group of people. 

As it so happened, the EXACT same thing happened last night, that happened at Luke, almost.  I was the only person left on my team and I still had 3 lives left.  There were five people left on the other team (only their ghost was out) and they had eight lives left between the 5 of them.  I’m not sure how, but I managed to get all of them out and win that game for my team, and then my team played one more game after that and we won the tournament.  I don’t remember too much about the game once it got down to just me.  My friends told me afterwards that the other team had eight lives and 5 people left.  I wasn’t paying attention to that at the time.  I remember on my first turn up after it was down to just me and the other team, I completely missed the ball, twice, so the black ball stopped and I lost a life on that first play.  Oops.  I remember the ref saying to everyone that this is what we all came to see and everyone yelling and him doing some motion indicating his heart was beating hard, and I remember thinking “Yours?!  Mine’s about to pound out of my chest!”  And I remember all my girls from the squadron screaming a ton every time I got someone out and lots of high fives and hugs.  And after I finally won the game I remember being mobbed by 20 girls all screaming and yelling and jumping up and down and hugging everyone.  It was great.

I never got to play sports in high school.  I’ve only played on a few intramural volleyball teams and I’ve only been kinda good.  This was the first time I really felt like part of a sports team and like I helped the team win.  It’s kind of silly because it’s just a game, but I felt important, and I was really excited, but also kind of embarrassed from all the attention.  I really, really, REALLY wish Mark had been there to cheer me on.  I’m so bummed that he missed my one and only shining moment and he couldn’t share in the excitement with me.  (He’s still on TDY.)  I wish I had pictures to show, but I don’t.  If some of the other girls put them up on FB I’ll try to post them on here.

On a side note:  Most of the girls did a shot of peach schnapps before the games started.  I figured, sure why not.  I’ll have one.  I had half of one and holy cow.  I got dizzy, I got hot, my legs felt weak and my face got beet red within 5 minutes.  Every time anyone would even look at me they’d bust out laughing and they were taking pictures!  It was kinda funny, but in my defense, I really don’t drink.  I haven’t done a shot in I don’t even remember how long, and I hadn’t eaten dinner.  I’m sure I’ll get a call sign based on my inability to tolerate liquor but oh well.  I think it was my good luck shot!

Friday Fill-in

1. If you had to be shipwrecked on a deserted island, but all your human needs – such as food and water – were taken care of, what two items would you want to have with you?  If we’re talking items and not people, I would take a laptop with an infinite amount of power and internet connection, and a Kindle full of books I want to read.
2. If you were a salad, what kind of dressing would you have?  honey-mustard.  Kinda sweet and kinda tangy.
3. If you had to live on a ranch, what kind of animals would you raise/own?  Horses of course!  Friesians if I had my choice.
4. If your life was was portrayed as a movie, who would you choose to play you and your significant other?  Reese Witherspoon to play me, only because I like her and Ryan Reynolds to play my husband, because he’s HOT!
5. What was the last thing you put a stamp on (envelope, duh, but what was in the envelope)?  Thanksgiving letters  full of pictures to my parents and grandma.