30 September '05, Friday.
This morning we left the Cinque Terre and headed south. Fact is, we finally found a campground just outside of Rome. Luckily we didn't take the same route out of from Levanto as we did going in. Todays trip was long, but comfortable. About 3, we started looking for a campground to spend the night, but the first 2 we stopped at were closed for the season. Now, the question comes to our mind, is this going to be a big problem...are we going to find a place to stay tonight??? Another hours driving along the coast and getting right to the door step of Rome, we find a open campground. We are the only campers here, but not the only people staying here. Apparently they rent a lot of caravans out, because there is a large number of Turks and other nationalities renting here. Lots of young families...kids everywhere, all having a good time. Seeing as it is Lou's birthday, we walked into the little village just around the corner, to see if we could find a nice dinner. HaHa, not a chance...it is a small village, and right on the beach, but nothing but one small pizza place that looked like it hadn't had any business for a while. Sorry Lou, but we will have to Barbeque something tonight... By the way, I know that we have written about the different toilets we have encountered, but let's recap a little. We had a new one at the last campground... first we have the standard toilet with a standard toilet seat...second, we have the standard without a toilet seat, then the what looks like the standard, but has a seat that rotates after you flush and completely sanitizes the seat as it goes around, the one we have heard so much about when everyone heard we were going to Europe, the European "squat" toilet...(the toughest part with one of these is your thigh muscles start to burn if your there for a while, and if there isn't any toilet paper, what do you do with the roll you brought with you while holding your pants up and out of the way, and what is that hose hanging from the wall going to do for you...you squirt it where ???...and make sure that you get ready to jump when you flush, because of the power of the flush...), finally the last one...standard toilet with seat, but the seat is raised when you walk in. The instructions that are stuck on the wall tell you that you should lower the seat, sit, and then when done, the seat will raise automatically while squirting a disinfectant. Let me tell you now, you had better get away from the toilet quickly, or else it will disinfect something else besides the air with a sweet smell...Stay tuned for any additional important information on toilets... Tomorrow...Pompei...

29 September '05, Thursday.
Boy is it good to find some more peanut butter !!! We were out of it for better than 2 weeks, and it was just about getting to us. About every 3rd morning or so we like to have toast with peanut butter (and jelly for me...) and coffee to start our day. You understand, a full nutritious start for our day... Anyway, we found a small jar in the camp grocery store for $4 Euros ($5.00 US) and we are eating well. I mention this because this was our breakfast this morning before heading back to the train station. We also had to say goodbye to a couple of Aussie's that we met here. Zack was going to Antibes to see if he could find a sail boat to crew with, that he hoped would sail to some exotic areas, and Jane had to head back to Australia. For us, it was Monterosso al Mare, our last stop in the Cinque Terre. The other 4 villages now behind us, we just couldn't leave without seeing Monterosso. Out of the 5, Monterosso is the only one that has vehicles and vespa's on their roads. The train dropped us off right between the old town and the new, and right on the beach with a great boardwalk. Well, do we go right, or do we go left? Left won, so down the boardwalk we went looking like the average tourist...shorts, backpack, umbrella (looked like it could rain), and a copy of Rick Steves "Italy 2005". Once we got to the end of the boardwalk (about 100 yards), we had to go into a tunnel that took us under the train tracks and into the old town. Wouldn't you know it, they had a "Farmers Market" going on. Not needing anything, we took a tour through it, checking out many items that we just knew we would buy if we had a larger motorhome. It is great fun to just look,think you could use it, and still walk away with out spending... Done with the market, our first stop was a 13th century church, and then we went next door and went to...church (another one next door), and then found the "yellow brick roadway" (really they were terracotta bricks, Rick called them yellow), and climbed many many steps to the top of a hill were we found another church (part of an old convent, but now the convent is a guest house). A little further up hill ???, we found an old castle where the interior was turned into a cemetary back in the late 1800's. It is still in "new" use today...not only that, but there were fresh flowers throughout, making it very attractive and fresh. We were thinking of the processions that must have taken place many years ago, where all the mourners had to climb that hill for the grave side service. Tough people... Well you know what comes next don't you ???... Lunch... In reading Rick's book, I had 2 places out of 5 in his book that I had to choose from. Finally I made my choice, "Miky".. It was the "Pizza Pasta" that did it. The choice we (I) made was ravioloi stuffed with sea bass in a "pink sauce", baked with a very thin pizza crust draped across the top of the croc, and then they cook this concoction in a wood fired oven. Boy can I choose them...it was better than good. Seeing as how Louise is having her 29th Birthday tomorrow, we had a special bottle of "Cinque Terre Blanc" wine, and a very unusual Tiramasu. We'll wait for that diet program a while longer. Not wanting to walk any more hills and stairs following that lunch, we headed back to the train and "Bumble Bee".. This has been a good stop. The rain has held off (except for a couple of drops on and off), the sun has made it's self known, and just when you might need a little shade, the clouds have come in. Tomorrow...South

28 September '05, Wednesday.
After finishing an American breakfast of sausage and eggs, we headed out to catch the train. For $2.75 we bought train tickets that would take both of us to visit the 5 Cinque Terre villages and return, as long as it would take less than 6 hours...for today, it did. We will have to go back to the last village tomorrow, as we just wore ourselves out doing the first 4. Levanto sits north of the Cinque Terre, so we decided to catch the train and ride it to the furthest village of Riomaggiore and make our way back. Most of the train ride was inside a tunnel, so it wasn't the view that you ride this train for. Arriving in Riomaggiore, we immediately climbed the hill to reach the center of the village and then work our way down to the sea. I'm glad we are making this trip to the Cinque Terre in the off season. There is enough tourist traffic as it is, once you get into the village. These villages really don't offer the tourist anything but a chance to kick back and do nothing but relax, pester the fishermen, walk the hills that surround the towns, or walk between the villages through the trail system that the state has put together. We did a little bit of it all in Riomaggiore and then headed out on the hike around the hill to the next village, Manarola...about 30-40 minutes walking the trail above the crashing waves of the Mediterranean. It was like walking down the sidewalk of any street in any town in America, except for the view and the fresh air. Arriving at Manaroloa was again like before, very picturesque and a joy to walk the streets. A little people watching, having lunch at one of the outdoor waterfront restaurants, and testing our leg musles by walking the stairs that are at every corner (why is they all go up higher than they go down???). Having settled our minds that we had taken in just about every little nook and cranny, we found the next leg of our hike and headed out to Corniglia. This trail wasn't quite as "polished" as the last one, but besides being 15 to 20 minutes longer, it was a wonderful walk...that was until we got to the end of the trail and then we had 400 stairs waiting for us to walk up to see Corniglia...OUCH !!! We did have another option beside walking the stairs, like taking a shuttle bus to the top..."Who Us???" That wasn't a picnic in the park, but we took it like the "Champions We Are"... Once we got to the top, we felt we had earned a treat, so we found the gelloto shop and had a double scoop on a cone...well, we are deserving once in a while... Besides, we had to walk a lot more stairs once we got into Corniglia...these people must be stair climbing champions at an early age. These staircases that they have to travel day in and day out are not only very steep, but extremely narrow. Impressed as we were with the locals, and ourselves, we headed back down the 400 steps that we climbed in the beginning and went to meet the train for the next leg of our village tour...Vernazza. We had read that Vernazza was the most picturesque of the villages, and it really is. Located right at the waters edge, and then climbing directly up the side of the mountain, it just seemed to have all the photo opts a person might want...It was very nice. A beautiful little harbor, a nitch formed between the mountains coming down to the sea, the village built to follow the slight twist upward, a small castle on the top of one of the crags coming right out of the sea, multi colored buildings with laundry hanging from the lines or from their windows, the hidden steps going here and sometimes no-where, a little door left open a jar lets us peek and see the grapes that have been cut from the vine and hung from the ceiling of these rooms to dry for another 2 more months...they are for a special desert wine called Sciacchetra. 10 kelos of the grapes only make up 1 liter of Sciacchetra where the same 10 kelos of fresh grapes will make up 7 liters of local wine. We found a place that sold Sciacchetra, and it sold between $38 and $85 Euros a bottle...but no tastings... Disheartend, we left...we left for the train to take us home ("Bumble Bee"). We still have another day to be here, so maybe, possibly, we will find a tasting somewhere. Back home, we still have one more Cinque Terre village to see...Monterossa al Mare, and that will be our first stop on the train tomorrow...

27 September '05, Tuesday.
"What do you think, should we take the autostrada or the smaller roads(while leaving Florence to the Cinque Terra)?"... (me) "Let's take the back roads, that way we will see more sites"... I don't think I will ever say that again !!! We only had about 1 1/2 hours drive at most if we had taken the autostrada, but taking the "back roads, well it took us about 7 hours and a heck of a lot more fuel. Not only more time and fuel, it took just about every ounce of energy out of me. The roads were so slow because of the tremendous amount of towns and villages, and the slow traffic. I doubt of we actually got higher than 15 miles an hour average for the whole day. Then once we got to the last of the days driving, it turned out to be the most winding and twisting up and down roads we have experienced anywhere. I wasn't good company in the front seat of "Bumble Bee". Once we found our campground in Levanto and had a short breather, I settled down into the stream of things...it was a TOUGH day !!! Just prior to dinner we walked down into the village just to see where we are. Levanto is really quite a beautiful little town. We were delightfully surprised. I'll give you more on this later. It was time to head back and fire up the barbie...salmon tonight... Tomorrow...The Cinque Terra villages

26 September, '05, Monday.
Catching the bus into Florence was easy, but understanding just where you were going on it was the challenge. We knew that it would take us to the trainstation (our destination), but the ride getting there was something else. We could have walked the distance in about 35 to 40 minutes, but it took the bus close to an hour and 15 minutes...talk about the long route... I know, I should just sit back and enjoy the ride, especially since it only cost one Euro...Finally arriving at the trainstation, we started our walking tour of the sights and sounds of Firenze (Florence). As you can see by the date on the top of this page, it is a Monday, and in Italy, there are a lot of sites that the "tourist" would like to see, but will just have to come back too. Most of the churches are open and a few of the museums as well, but those with the top draw items are closed. We did get into one church/convent that was only opened one Monday a month between 1 and 3 in the afternoon, and we just happened to walk up to the door on the right Monday and time. It was very plain compared to a lot of churches we have seen, but they did have quite a number of frescoes from the 13th century that we could enjoy. Over all we enjoyed 4 churches of different styles that were full of 13th to 17th century art by some of the outstanding masters of christian paintings. Then we stood in line for a short time to enter Florence's Gothic Santa Croce. Fortunately we were able to get handsets to give us all the information we might want as we walked throughout this cathedral. It has the tombs of some of the most recognized names in Italian history inside it's walls...like Galileo Galilei, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Dante, Machiavelli, Rossini and others... It was quite a walk through history. One of the sites we wanted to see was the Uffizi Gallery. This is the gallery where the original "David" is shown, but being a Monday...CLOSED !!! We did see a copy up by the campground. There is a large over-look next door to the campground that has the David copy standing tall and proad, so I took a picture to kind of keep in mind what we missed... It was another full day outing, and included a very good lunch break at the large "Farmers Market". This is a large permant structure that has had the market there since the 16th century. With the day finally coming to a close and we had walked our way through the "old town" and finally ending at the famous Ponte Vecchio Bridge. This bridge is the one where the lovers take their "locket key" to the center of the bridge and with a small ceremony, toss the key into the Arno River below indicating love for ever. Tomorrow...Cinque Terre

25 September '05, Sunday.
By 10:30am we were underway. Heading south from Venice to Bologna was flat, flat...then we hit the mountains. In the flat areas the farmlands were either being plowed for the next crop, or in a lot of the cases, the grape vines were being picked for the crushing. We even saw a small family doing their own picking and thought as we went by, we should stop and see if we could help...I know, some help we would be... The sun was out bright, and seeing as how it was Sunday, the traffic was light. There must be a law in some of the European countries that the "lorries", the big trucks, can't travel the roads on Sundays because we saw very few of them. Just after we passed Bologna we were into the foot hills and then steadily climbing to the higher peaks. I really don't remember just what the grades are in the states, but we are constantly finding them at 10 Plus degrees in just about every pass. Some of them go as high as 25 degrees...poor "Bumble Bee" has to go into 1st gear a lot when it gets that high. Another thing, the tunnels. I know we don't have the quanity of tunnels that we have found in Europe. This is a big thing here...tunnel after tunnel after tunnel...from the short one to some running miles. Arriving in Firenze (Florence) about 3, we set up and headed out for a look see of the town. We are close enough to walk into town quite easily, because it is all down hill from the campground. Now saying that, let's remember that what goes down has to come back up...and a steep up... Well, we did both quite easily (we're trying to get in shape for Rome), but for tomorrow we will grab the city bus for a Euro each. This will give us the opportunity to see some things we most likely wouldn't see by walking. We spent a couple of hours walking around and then it was time to head back. We had no sooner opened the door to "Bumble Bee" and I saw OB and Kris (one of the American couples we met in Antebes France)walking towards us. They left France the same day we did, but headed south into Italy while we headed north and east. They still have about 2 weeks with their motor home, and then they will be continuing their trip by flying the rest of the way around the world and back to Denver. It sounded like they had a good time on their venture south, so we picked up some tips. While catching up with the last 2 weeks, they shared a couple of glasses of an Italian lemon liqueur...2 very small glasses was plenty...very tasty, but potent. They had also just finished 2 days here in Florence, and in the morning are heading out to Venice. Just we separated with plans to see each other off in the morning. Tomorrow (for us), Firenze (Florence)...

24 September '05, Saturday.
New Picture Gallery Added...Italy...
The only "must see" sight that was left was the prime goal for this morning...St. Mark's Basilica. It was built in the 11th century ro replace an earlier church. Built in Eastern Byzantine style, which is the reason it looked to familiar to us as we walked in. It has some of the same characteristics of a Muslem Mosque and Christian Church built as one. In 830AD, the bones of St. Mark were moved to this site and are still interned here. The whole church is covered with some 43,000 square feet of Byzantine mosaic tiles. Now, these tiles are small, I mean SMALL... The pictures that they have made with these tiles are unbelieveable. No wonder the lines are so long to get in to see them... What a masterpiece this whole building is. It kind of glows gold...a little dirty now, but still gold. Where they have used the tiles to make a figure, they have even sculptured the base material so that the tiles are given a shape of say, the face. The different shades, shapes, and sizes of the tiles all to make a small...eye for example...incredible !!! 43,000 square feet of mosaic tiles... incredible !!! Now also in this basilica, is a large "booty". This was brought in by sea captains that were on long voyages, from their "trophy chests". After reaching the galleria, we found the well traveled bronze horses that were made in the days of Alexander the Great (4th Century BC). They were once in Rome when Nero was there, and then went to Constantinople with Constantine, to Venice with the Crusaders, to Paris by Napoleon and then back to Venice for good when Nepoleon fell. Speaking of falling...lunch time...it kind of sounds like we eat all the time doesn't it? Ya, I know...I think we do sometimes. Well, we did it, we hit all the "Big" sites, and a lot of the small ones too. One that we hadn't given much thought of seeing, was the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, but off we went. It was a collection of 20th century popular art. The building was one of her personal homes, and right on the Grand Canal. The art, well, it was interesting...the house...Frank Lloyd Wright, but with a touch of Venice Italian, and fantastic. It's been a full 3 days and 3 nights of none stop Venice, and it has come to an end...That's all folks...Tomorrow...onto Firenze (Florence)

23 September '05, Friday.
Another FULL day in Venice...this place is going to wear me out !!! Not only is this city beautiful to look at, but challenging to find your way around (even when you have a map in your hand). Rick Steves says in his guide book to "Soak all day in this puddle of elegant decay..". The first day here, we saw many places that we could have "soaked" in, but it was because of the rain and high tide levels...water was at the surface and bubbling at the man-hole covers. It was interesting to find stacked through-out the city, portable raised sidewalks that could be put together in just a minutes notice. We saw a few of these made up and being used to enter the basilica. It is amazing that this town was born over 1500 years ago right out of a lagoon. They were fleeing from the barbarians. Today, they aren't fleeing from anything but the possibility of high water getting too high. They have a MAJOR project going on now right at the opening of the lagoon from the Adriatic. It's not the usual breakwater, but one that has gates built in to control the height of the water levels. When it is completed sometime in the next couple years, it will be something the world will have to look at for the possibly to solve their rising water problems. The population of Venice has been dropping for a number of years, but the tourists have been coming in larger groups to off set that decline. The population has dropped from around 200,000 at it's peak, to less than 45,000 now, for the island of Venice...want to buy some property cheap??? One of the problems that they have, is the decaying of the buildings. Now it isn't easy to get a permit to fix the buildings, no matter how little or how much you are willing to spend on the repairs. The exterior of the buildings MUST look just as it does now after the "repair" has been completed...not an easy thing to do. Well, we planned our day around seeing the "Doge's Palace". This was the seat of the ruling government of Venice. It was also the residence of the Doge. The palace was built to show off the huge wealth and power of the Doge and his republic. We picked up tickets to explore all the incredible rooms and grounds of the palace. The art work through out was unbelieveable. From the paintings, frescos, woodcarvings, flooring, and all, it was absolutely extravagent, but wonderful to have the opportunity to see. We have been in palaces, castles, and other wonderful buildings on this trip, but this one had the largest rooms and the most true, fine art than any we have seen yet. We then had walk across the bridge of "Sighs", which connects the palace with the prison. When justice was dealt, it was dealt swiftly and cruelly. This was another 2 plus hour tour, and by the time we were through, we were through...we had to find lunch or... Finding another Italian lunch spot, we ordered another "picnic" lunch and then found a bench along side the Grand Canal to enjoy it in style. We are not doing a good job of hiding from those "no picnicing cops". Not wanting to get too much culture mixed into one day, we grabbed another one of the vaporatto's and went sightseeing on the water once more. This time we headed across to one of the islands that stands by it's self. A little exploring of a church and some of the shops and we were back on another vaporatto and heading to one of the cities that is tied to the mainland and has cars on it...Lido. Lido kind of reminded us of a small town in Hawaii...nice shops, great beach, and lots of tourists... Sun beginning to set, so back to camp and dinner...tomorrow we'll take in more of Venice

22 September '05, Thursday.
If we've said it once, we said a thousand times to each other..."we just can't do it all, now matter how much time we have..."..and this time it is seeing Venice. Today was our first full day in Venice, and I do mean a full day. Now, getting everything in line, we didn't leave the campground until just after 10am, but then we didn't get back until after 9pm either. The ferry ride into town is about 45 minutes long, and then when you jump off, you have but a small idea of where you are. Our ferry docks at the San Marco landing, which I took to mean we were right in front of the Piazza San Marco...Nooo, not quite. It turned out to be about 2 bridges away. Something we have learned, is just about everything is measured in "how many bridges" you may be away from your destination. Let me also say, there is a very large American identity in tourists here. Just as we stepped off the ferry, we ran into a couple that have been in Italy for 3 weeks and this is going to be there last stop before heading home. Anyway, in talking with them we just happened to take a couple of turns we hadn't expected to take, so we ended up in front of a church in a small piazza, and we also found a hotel that really caught our attention...Hotel Paganelli... Of course a couple of pictures, asking for a brochure and price list and we were off again. This time on our own, and back looking for the Piazza San Marco. Before we found the Piazza San Marco, we found a little bakery that sold soft drinks and sandwiches. Rick Steves said in his book, that "picknicing just isn't done in Venice, so if you should want to picnic, do it on the sly". Remembering this, we went looking for a dark alley. Well we didn't find a dark alley, but we did find a small piazza with about 7 or 8 benches in it and all were taken with "picnicers"... We quit looking over our shoulders for the "Picnic Cop"... Finally, just around a couple more corners and a bridge of two and we were right in the middle of Piazza San Marco. Boy, we weren't the only tourists there, there were hundreds of us and thousands of hungry pigions looking for their handout. Now's the time to settle down, so we went into one of the museums. The Correr Museum houses mostly Venetian history and art. It gave us a great over-view of both, and was well worth the time. I have no idea why, but there was hardly anyone there. We gave a quick thought of going through the Basilica San Marco after finishing the museum, but one look at the line and we changed our minds. This morning we purchased 72 hour tickets for the boats, so we decided to put our tickets in use. We had already ridden the big ferry into town and now we were going to try out these "vaporetto's". The vaporetto is what you use to ride from one side of the "Grand Canal" to the other, or from one end to the other and one island to the other. Some stop at every stop and others are express...all are CROWDED !!! The challenge is to get a seat and the best of challenges is to get a seat in the front...highly sought after. Our first vaporetto ride took us to the end of the line, which was a stop beyond the trainstation (the only modern building in Venice). We saw all the "Palaces" that line the Grand Canal, and the other important buildings that are called out as "must see". I think we all know that over the centuries, Venice has been sinking. They tell us that all that has stopped, but the buildings that have sunk are still in and out of the water. It is amazing to see doorways with the water about 3 inches higher than the bottom of the door...it diffinately has a wet floor. Another interesting thing is the high-end hotels on the Grand Canal. To see them from the outside they leave a lot to be desired, but from what we have heard, they are incredible on the inside. Some are just as fine as they were in the "Golden Times", and much more expensive to stay a night. The Grand Canal has only 3 bridges that cross over it, and the best known is the "Rialto Bridge", and the others are Scalzi Bridge and the Accademia Gallery Bridge. After going all the way one way, and then turning right around and going back, we finally jumped off at the Rialto Bridge. The Rialto Bridge is a beautiful structure that has a series of stores all across it on both sides of the main walkway. Then on the waterside of the stores there is another walkway (for 3 different walkways on the bridge). After walking the bridge a couple of times, we wondered around lost in a maze of sidestreets and little bridges for another 2 or 3 hours, just having fun. Now I don't know who said it, but you can get real tired by just "having fun"...it was time to head home, besides, it is dark !!! Tomorrow...more Venice

21 September '05, Wednesday.
Even though Padua was only a few miles east of Venice, it took us about 3 hours to get there. We had heard over and over that the best campgrounds for easy access to Venice was out on the end of the Cavallino peninsula. Well, to get to this campground we had to continue on the highway past Venice by another 20 miles and then make an about turn and head back down this peninsula for another 15 miles. The drive was very nice, and the roadway was holding us down to 40km an hour, but we still were enjoying the trip knowing that once we got there we were in for a special treat...Venice. The campground was also a wonderful surprise, as it was only rated 2 stars out of 5 possible, we found it to be more than we had hoped by a long ways...it was great. The boat that we will have to catch to Venice is about 1/2 mile down the road, so that will really be nice. Instead of running right out to explore Venice, we decided to take another day off to finish our laundry. The sun was out and we had a nice wind that will help us dry the clothes very quickly. So after finishing with the wash and getting it all hung out, we went out the gate and walked the beach and the surrounding area to get a feel of where we were. Just down the road a little to the south, is the beaches of the Adriatic Sea and right in front of the campground is their private beach that fronts on the "Laguna di Venezia". Back at "home", we got the barbeque out and got dinner started. We had earlier picked up some hamburger steaks and baker potatoes...it was really just what the doctor ordered... Next a good nights sleep and...in the morning, Venice