Italia

Cloudless skies prevail here in Italy -- and we like it! We hiked the Cinque Terre and treated our feet to a nice boat ride back to our home base in Vernazza -- this is really a gorgeous place and we encourage all to pay it a visit (or two or three). Nice evenings spent with a bottle of wine on the harbor and not a tourist in sight (besides us of course).

We're now meandering our way through Tuscany -- two nights in Volterra (walled hill town - very high up), three in Lucca (one of our continual favorites) and now our second night in Florence...a little bit strange to be coping with the tourist throngs again! Marcella (our B&B mom) hugs Alyssa in the morning and the evening and makes sure her 'bambini' are well cared for!

Next stop: Assisi and then to Lucio's olive farm near Cortona...and maybe to an internet cafe with enough bandwidth to get our photos uploaded -- aarrgh! Some teasers now available for viewing.