Venice!.....June 30th and Canada Day, Eh !.

June 30th and we were off  for a short side trip, staying overnight and celebrating our Canada Day in Venice.......

The girls all had their picture take with Adam Rodriguez at the Venice train station. Adam Rodriguez is best known for his role as Eric Delco on CSI: Miami.

                              The vaporetto is the best way to get around the city and the islands.........

                        The Grand Canal as seen from the Rialto Bridge.

We stayed the night at the Hotel Al Gazzettino. Venice can be quite expensive the Al Gazzettino was 260 Euros for an average price boutique hotel.

                              Bottom right is the cafe we ate dinner at...............pasta and pizza washed down with red wine....rose wine for the teenagers.

                                                       Megan and Maya

                                                      Marisa and Aline

           ......the Rialto fish market.      Megan gives this former swordfish the thumbs up....Aline not so much.

                               ♪ ♪   Here's pinocchio, oh what a happy lad since the day he lost his strings ♪ he can walk and talk and fly ♪ ♪ do anything I try ♪♪♪  ♪ .....

                                      celebrating Canada Day at the Rialto Bridge !

                                              toute la gang

                  Alta Velocità back to Genova and Moneglia......................

Cinque Terre, June 27th

                                                               Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore is the southernmost of the five Cinque Terre towns.

The Cinque Terre is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. It is in the Liguria region to the west of the city of La Spezia. "The Five Lands" is composed of five villages: Monterosso al Maree, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Over centuries, people have carefully built terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the cliffs that overlook the sea. Part of its charm is the lack of visible corporate development. Paths, trains and boats connect the villages, and cars cannot reach them from the outside.

                                       
                                                                 Manarola

                                 ........ a graveyard

                                     .....the girls went swimming at Manarola harbourfront

                             Corniglia is the middle of the five villages.

                                           Vernazza harbour......

              We were rewarded with this view looking back to Vernazza. Onward and more uphill climbing from this point, though, our two and half hour hike to the last Cinque Terre village of Monterosso.

          .......from this vineyard we could see our target of Monterosso below.

                          ......two hours into our hike, with Monterosso in view we were all exhausted.
We bought freshly squeezed lemonade from a farmer (strategically placed) along the trail. And a bottle of his wine, which he told us was his own limited production 500 bottles. 10 euros total for our lemonade and a bottle of red wine. He said that his rosso was meant to be drank young, ideally within six months.

            .....back to our villa.... and I could've sworn the farmer said to drink the rosso within six hours.

Moneglia !

Arrival on Saturday at the Moneglia train station. Moneglia is the location of the first of three villas that we rented.

.......five of six ladies patiently wait for Antonio to meet us at the stazione. Antonio is owner of our villa, an ultra cool Italian fiftysomething,,,,,for those that know Lambo try to picture the Italian version 15 years from now.....

......view from the terrace of our villa.

Aline looks out over the Mediterranean (Tyrrhenian Sea)

                                                        ................... figs

This unknown fruit is separate from but always grows alongside the cacti.
Antonio says :  ..."is poison fruit.....one time a crazy-like Americano eat this yellow-bad fruit. Crazy Americano not even get sick, I dunno why....is very poison, not even the birds eat"

                                                 ......the Sunday morning market in Moneglia.

                                              Moneglia beach.

                                     Santa Croce church, dating back to the year 1130.

                                                  

                                     Karen, Maya and Megan.

Leaving Moneglia for our car rentals in La Spezia and then on to our second villa in Chianti, Tuscany.  For all of us, there's a tiny touch of sadness to be leaving the sweet town of Moneglia.......