Adventures in Italy

We've been back home to Ohio for a little over a week now, and I'm finally caught up with laundry, email, restocking the fridge, sleeping, returning messages (most of them)...and now think it's about time to add some postings on here about our AMAZING ITALIAN ADVENTURE! Gary and I took a 10-day trip to Italy and left Madelyn with both our parents. She stayed with his mom and dad for the first 3 days and my parents for the rest of the time. Of course she had the time of her life...and so did we. It was our first time away from her so we didn't know exactly how we would respond (emotionally). But to tell you the truth, it seemed to be a very healthy time away for all of us. It was so nice to re-connect with my husband and be able to come and go on our own time schedule (for 10 days in a row!) Also, it was nice to pay a little bit more attention to our little baby boy who is now almost 26 weeks along. He's kicking and moving all the time now, so it was fun to have this little baby bean as the center of attention for once!

We started our trip in Rome and spent 3 days there enjoying the many many many sights that you just "must see" when in Rome. Then we took a train up to Florence and the pace of our trip started to slow down significantly. After 2 1/2 days in Florence, we rented a car and drove north/east to the Mediterranean coastal area called "Cinque Terre" (Five Lands). We stayed in the most northern of the 5 villages called Monterosso and had a wonderful time hiking, swimming and relaxing in this quaint, untouched part of Italy. Our last day we drove down the coast, stopped in Pisa to see the famous Leaning Tower, and spent our last night back in Rome near the airport. The whole trip was amazing. I'll add some photos and maybe a video clip or two if I have the patience to upload them!

These photos show "Part 3" of our trip (namely the last several days along the coast in Cinque Terre).

Sitting on the famous Ponte Vecchio Bridge in Florence. Our last evening in the city.

We finally arrived to Monterosso in our cute little Fiat Punto. Driving in Italy was a fun adventure (for the most part!)

Once we arrived to our hotel in Monterosso we went up to the Lemon Garden Terrace (right outside our room) and just relaxed for a moment.

Then we strolled down to the seaside and got our first feel of the cold water.
The next morning we set off for our hike along the coast. It was a REALLY RAINY morning (4 hours of down-pour). We waited here in the cute Riomaggiore (town #1). Even in the rain, this town still looks beautiful.

Finally, the rain stopped and the sky started to clear. At about 12:30pm, we set off for our long, adventurous hike along the coast. You can see Manarola (town #2) in the background.

As you can see, the day became increasingly beautiful. This is Corniliga (town #3).

Vernazza (town #4)...probably the most picturesque of the towns. We spent a lot of time here relaxing, people-watching, eating gelato and preparing for the last 2 hour leg of our hike back to sweet Monterosso.

The next morning we woke up to a beautiful day...perfect for the beach. This is the beach where we spent the whole day. How can you resist this?

The Monterosso beach (2 minute walk from our hotel)

Beach Bums (and loving it!)

The following day (our last day) we drove down the coast and stopped in Pisa. Thank goodness we arrived when we did. I was asked to stand here for several hours holding up that Leaning Tower. Otherwise I'm sure it would've collapsed!

Downtown Pisa by the river.

Here's a video clip for our little stop in the town of Vernazza on our big hiking day. Gary was sound asleep on the rock wall as I was filming.