The ocean is calling...

Today we decided to take a side trip to the ocean (since it has been almost a week since we got off of the boat and we are both going through withdrawal).

We took a bus tour to Cinque Terre - five villages nestled up against the ocean on the western  side of Italy.  We expected to walk between the villages (there is a walking path the connects all five villages).  But this particular trip only had us walk one leg of the journey.  This was probably good for me because my feet still ache from yesterday and I did manage to get blisters on both feet even with this reduced walk :-(

The walk was really beautiful though.  I will post pictures as soon as I can get them off of the camera.

It was a really lovely day (I LOVE 25 degrees celsius - it is SO MUCH better than 33 degrees celsius!!!)  Our tour guide was nice and we enjoyed meeting the other people.  Several newlyweds which was nice to see.  Hard to believe that Bill and I have been married for 28 years.

We started our trip in Manarola and walked the "Via dell'Amore" to Riomaggiore.  Then we took a train to Monterooso al Mare where we had a nice lunch and then we were all free to explore for awhile.  Bill and I went swimming, of course.  The water was lovely and warm.  The beach was made out of small pebbles which were hard on our tender American feet.  The Italians didn't seem to have any trouble with the rocks and we felt like wimps (or at least I did). The last leg was on a boat to Vernazza and then we caught the train to La Spezia to pick up our bus for the return trip to Florence.

It was a lovely relaxing day.

Tomorrow we leave Italy for France.  This has been a great part of our trip and I definitely want to come back to Italy again.