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It's not yet 7:00pm. I've got awhile until dinner. The girls are happily listening to the new One Direction cd for the 3rd time today and AG is hanging out. Perfect time to check in on the blog.
Last night we arrived in Cinque Terre, a trail system that connects five villages along the Mediterranean Sea in Italy. The homes are all brightly colored and built into the hillside. It is spectacular. We headed to our hostel. The girls love to stay in hostels because they like being with all the young travelers and having a bit of a break from just mom and dad. We have been to two hostels so far and both have been wonderful. We just make sure we choose ones that have no age limit (in either direction) and that we get our own room and bath. So we went with a Rick Steve's recommendation (his name is now mud) and chose another hostel. What a disaster. We got in our room and found that it was already inhabited, by ants. We all freaked out and immediately got our money back and hit the road. Actually we ate first in their restaurant because it was 9:00 pm. There was hair in two of our meals. Everybody have the willies?
So now what? Well Cinque Terre villages do not allow cars and as mentioned are built into the hillsides. We hauled our gear up the hill to the car and set out on the crazy windy roads, to a B&B that I had just called, with very sketchy directions and an address that did not show up in the GPS (insert a wee bit of stress).
10 minutes later we arrived and were warmly welcomed, even given two rooms instead of one for the price because they had plenty of space as it is the off-season. The girls were amazing. Just lugging those bags and not complaining at all, hence the new One Direction download today. They probably would have gotten it anyway, but it was nice to say they earned it. After all that stress, including the day starting out with me breaking the violin at the museum, we collapsed into bed. This morning we woke up to the most glorious views of the sea and all is good in our world again.
When we weren't listening to 1D today we checked out Riomaggiore and Manarola, two of the five towns on the trail route. Unfortunately the trails are closed for the season. We can't quite tell if this happens every year for the entire off-season or not. Our research didn't mention closing for multiple months and we were told by some other travelers that there was an accident of some sort last week. Who knows? We enjoyed the towns themselves with no hiking in between. We had an amazing lunch and gelato at sunset. Ants? Trails? Who cares? Tomorrow? Get up, repeat!
Amy
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