Italy - Day 1

It is 1:45 PM Mountain Standard Time as I write this, and I can hardly stay awake! Why you may ask? Well it's 9:45 PM - in Italy! I've been travelling for what seems like days without a lot of sleep. 

Saturday night was the drive from home to an airport hotel in Calgary. Sunday morning - a flight to Toronto, followed by an overnight flight to London Heathrow. I watched a good movie on the plane ('Wild') and tried to get some sleep with a bit of success. 

Heathrow's Terminal 5 was a very busy place on Monday morning and their security line-ups seemed long and inefficient (despite getting chosen to go through a shorter queue).  The gate number for the next flight wasn't available until 50 minutes before take off and I wondered how I was going to connect with my friends. From the second floor, I scanned dozens of rows of people and much to my surprise and delight, Sue and Amy were waving at me from below! 

The next leg of the journey was a 2 1/4 hour jaunt to Pisa, Italy. And finally, we boarded a bus for an hour long ride to Lerici to the north. The scenery was interesting and we saw many small farms, towns, greenhouses, and marble quarries. There are lovely mountains here which is where the marble quarries are.

Our hotel is perfectly located on the Gulf of Poets - a bay protected from the Atlantic Ocean by means of a narrow opening. There are quite possibly over a hundred small boats peacefully anchored in the water right in front of the hotel. And if that's not enough, a castle stands high on a hill a little ways off. 

They were ready to serve our lunch right away, so we checked in afterwards.  Our room isn't overly big but we have a balcony facing the bay! Oh my!! After a shower and a change of clothes into something more suitable for the hot weather, Amy and I headed off along the promenade, stopping every 60 seconds or so to shoot a picture. 

There were many locals out and about and lots of moms with their children. There is a park nearby where they play. The beach is very rocky but a few kids (and adults) were out of the giant rocks. Despite how tired we were, we kept on walking until we got to the base of the castle, leaving it to explore another day. The walk back to the hotel seemed to take much longer and I was completely exhausted when we returned to the hotel.

We had an hour long briefing in the lobby as well as appetizers and a wonderful local sparkling wine (tasted like a champagne to me). Then we walked to a local restaurant tucked away in a very ancient passage way. Supper was course after course of wonderful food. Just when you thought you were done, along came another dish. Dessert was a creamy delicious concoction made from Nutella and other good (bad) stuff.

I could hardly keep awake and was glad when we were done so I could get back to the hotel to write this.  I could describe so much more, but my bed is calling me!!