Our last night in Paradise

At first I wondered where all the fabulous green hills were. 

For me, this was the most anticipated place on our itinerary.  But getting there was hectic and making sense of the directions was a bit confusing although Brian had printed out plenty of instructions.

During the entire hour and a half drive, my finger throbbed miserably and I wondered if I might lose the fingernail.  When we loaded the suitcases in the back of the car, I got my finger nearly permanently wedged between my sisters suitcase and the lousy wheels on the thing.  I yelped and knew the worse was yet to come when I had to yank my finger out otherwise I would be carrying the danged thing by one poor fingernail the entire trip.  I cursed my sister when I finally got up the courage to pull my fingernail out from the evil thing.

An hour later we slowly made our way up some small hillsides.

Where are the valleys, where are the hills, where is the lush countryside?  My heart began to sink a little thinking I was going to be more than disappointed in my expectation.

THEN, as the road narrowed and curled and "ssss" around, the descent was barely noticable.   As we rounded curve after curve, the edges of the road dropped off to breaktaking views.

I wanted to tell Brian to look, but I was afraid he would and I didn't want his eyes off the crazy winding roads.

We had long decided to stay in Volterra after watching a Rick Steves show on Tuscany and he named it his favorite.  An agriturismo is a working farm and after much research, we verified San Lorenzo Podere to be the perfect location for our stay by seaching on flickr.com and finding Rnout's pictures and posting a comment.  He's from Amsterdam and was very helpful in helping us make our decision.  Although flickr is a photo sharing site, it's a great way to get feedback from people who have visited anywhere you might want to go.

By law, an agriturismo must make more profit from their farm than their hospitalities.  San Lorenzo Podere is an olive farm.  The dining room, back in the 1200's was originally a monastery for a small group of monks.  The frescos can still be seen near the window.

When we arrived, we were exhausted from the train rides and the car trip, so we all took a long nap.  Our room was next to the dining room and around five we were all awakened by the amazing aroma emanating from supper being prepared from Marinella and her staff.  Each night there was a full seven course genuine Tuscan slice of heaven.  Brian was hooked on the spaghetti carbanara which is unmatched throughout the world.

The peace and quiet was exactly what we needed in the middle of our trip and "our" agriturismo was perfect with it's breathtaking views and natural pool.  We soon learned a natural pool meant that should you decide to swim, you would likely be joined with the melodious frogs that would sing a beautiful frog chorus for the guests.

Surrounding us was the olive fields.

Brian was lucky enough to return in October when the olives were ripened and caught this picture of Marinella harvesting the olives.

On his second trip, Brian brought me back a bottle of San Lorenzo's olive oil.  Of course I can never use it, although I would love to.

Sadly, it was one year ago tonight we were spending our last night at this heavenly place, planning our next adventure to Rome the next day.

There is more to tell about Volterra and Tuscany itself, but I'll save that for the next post.  Needless to say, this was a tie for the top favorite place in Italy. 

I can't wait to return.

My Favorite Part of Italy

REPOST:

One year ago today, I was watching this sunset on the Italy coast.  I want to go back!!!!

We've argued this point. Brian and I. The places we chose to go were so different and so wonderful that's it's very difficult to actually name a favorite.

We started planning a year in advance, studying, reading, researching. Obviously there were easy choices, Rome, Tuscany, Venice.

I first heard of a not-so-obvious choice when I was waiting on a flight out of Indy to Fort Myers, months before we finally selected our itinerary. Bob had flown out earlier in the day, so I was at the airport alone. I was wanting to learn Italian and stopped at the Rosetta Stone kiosk. (By the way, they are way overpriced at airports.)

While listening to the vendor, a middle-age man was slightly behind me. We struck up a conversation and, as it turned out, he and his wife had been to Italy the previous year.

Then he told me their favorite place. Somewhere I had never heard of.

Cinque Terre.

I sat next to him with my Italy book and he told me about these wonderful towns. Five of them (duh, Cinque). I shared the story with Brian and the more we researched, the more we decided we had to find a way to include it in the itinerary.

Wikipedia says: "The Cinque Terre is noted for its beauty. Over centuries, people have carefully built terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the cliffs that overlook the sea. Part of its charm is the lack of visible "modern" development. Paths, trains and boats connect the villages, and cars cannot reach it from the outside. It is a very popular tourist destination."

"Rugged, steep landscape"? No, they are not kidding.

This is my picture, which is almost exactly like every picture you will find online when you google Cinque Terre.

 

This is Manarola, the least "touristy" of the five towns.  We chose Manarola after alot, and I do mean alot of research.

Our best and most reliable research came from flickr.com.   No, it's not a travel site, it's a picture website.  Typing in a destination and finding people's picture, adding a comment asking for information and.....you get real live feedback on great places to stay.  (This is also how we found our lovely agriturismo in Volterra.)  In Manarola we stayed at Arpaiu.  Their Odina room was an efficiency with two doors that opened directly out to the cliff.

A little closer look at where we stayed.  The orange building with the green shutters that looked directly out to the sea.

Yes, we stayed at the very top of the cliff.  And no, there was no method of reaching the top without walking. 

It's a great place for college kids with all of their luggage stuffed in their backpacks.  For a couple of old ladies and a mid-30 guy who had back surgery 3 weeks prior to our trip.......it was still a great place, just not one easy to get to. 

But it was worth it.

From what I have been able to discern, Cinque Terre was "developed" in 1000 AD.  All I can say is those people had to have been some badasses to manage to build on a cliff side.  Add to that, there was quite a few pirates who found a method to scale the cliffsides and kidnap people.  Geez, we have grown soft compared to the people of that age.

The view out of our room was breathtaking.  The Mediterranean is cold (at least in April), rugged, and crystal blue.

Helen - at the foot of our cliff, in front of the dog rock.

Brian, on the hike between Manarola and Riomaggoire.

Corniglia was our first hike.  I loved the town and found the best pizza in all of Italy there.

On our last night in Manarola, we revisited a restaurant that had the most wonderful minestrone.  Since Brian's back was not cooperating since we sat for awhile on rocks on the Mediterranean, we were planning on heading straight there.

On a whim I decided, despite the argument my calves were giving me, to venture UP the path of Manarola.   I strolled, taking in the stream, the town, the locals and rounded a corner where I literally gasped when I came upon this:

I felt absolutely drawn.  I entered the outer doors where I could hear a service.  Not wanting to interfere, I listened through the crack of the inner doors.   Even though I couldn't understand one word, the chills just ran through me.  I remained there for a couple of minutes and then quietly, awestruck, I left.  

Helen and Brian were making their way up as I descended the "hill".  By the time we reached back up to the church, the service was over and we entered The Church of San Lorenzo, which was built in 1338 AD.  It took my breath away, more so than any grand Basillica throughout Italy.  It was like finding a diamond when you were looking for a rhinestone.

I want to go back.  We spent three nights in Manarola.   Next time I want a week there.  Vernazza, Manarola and Corniglia were soooo worth it.  The Italian Riviera, sounds exotic, doesn't it?

So Cinque Terre and Volterra in Tuscany were a toss up as my favorite places.  Each were special, but then so was Venice and Rome and the Amalfi Coast. 

Pisa?  It has a tower that leans.  I can say I've seen it, but it was the least impressive part of the trip.  It qualifies as one of those "been there, done that".  I would not classify any other part of Italy like that.   Every other place far exceeded my expectations.

The minestone:

Toes dipped into the Mediterranian.

Brian crossing the suspension bridge on a hike between Manarola and Corniglia

Braving the cold splash.  He looks cool here, right?  That's only because I've promised not to post the picture taken a second later where he is turning away like a little girl.  But.... he got a fascinating shot.

I Asked Her

It was 30 years ago. Before remote controls were the norm.

I was staying all night at her house and I wanted to watch a movie when she and her husband were deciding to go to bed.

So I asked her, "Is it really scary?" She said no.

So off to bed they went, probably 10 pm or so and I began to watch the movie alone.

The opening scenes were not scary of course, but the music, oh God, the music. It began to creep me out immediately.

I laid on the floor, close to the TV, so I could turn down the sound when it seemed to get too loud. It started out that the music was the loudest.

Of course, the storyline was fascinating and the cast, amazing.

The first time I had to quickly change the channel was when I first saw these two.

They started to freak me out.

Everytime they showed the girls, I reached up and changed the channel. 

The night got later and later and I felt very alone in the house.

Between the "Danny's not here, Mrs Torrence" and the "REDRUM"  I was hooked and spent the late evening jumping up to change the channel whenever the blood came streaming through the hallways.

I could not believe my own sister told me this movie was NOT scary. 

To this day it's one of the best and scariest movies ever made.

The next morning when I talked to her about the show, my sister said, "Well, I got to thinking about that, I guess it's not really scary if you're watching it in the middle of the afternoon with a house full of people, probably watching it all alone at night it would be scary."

Yeah, thanks for that sis.

And here I am thirty years later watching it alone late at night.  Bob went off to bed,  we're in our Florida vacation home and I have my internet friends to keep me from feeling too scared and the remotes right next to me to change when it gets too scary.