October 13

I really like the white background. It's simple and understated, yet efficient and exhilarating all at the same time. In the words of our friend Octavia, today was a 'zouper' day. We were casual about the whole day. We arose about 10ish this morning and I called my girlfriend Dana (Oh Love of My Life). After the usual croissants and coffee we packed up the car and made plans for our journey into Italy. It was a shame to leave Cannes. I had really enjoyed the sun and beach, no surprise right. The weather was getting slightly colder and so it was time to move on.

Here are Francois and Octavia waving goodbye. They were really happy to see us go ;-) Actually, they were probably pleased to get their living room back as it had been our bedroom. It was fun hanging out with them both.

Can't say enough good things about these two. Matthew and I have been quite lucky and blessed by all the people we keep running into. Much-oh thanks to O and F, and we will have to have that last bulot game next time :-)

We took the A10 along from Cannes to Monaco and then across the Italian border. This road has more tunnels then I've ever seen. That's The Alps for you. There's no border control anymore. We entered Italy without any need to show identity. The only time we stopped was to change our Traveler's Cheques into Lire. We were instant millionaires. The paper money here is so cute. As the denominations get smaller so do he notes, until you're left with a 1000L note that looks like toy money as it is only about 4"x2"

I think the truely difficult part of Italian money is figuring out just how many damned zeros there are in a given bill. I really get odd looks when I try to pay an 87000L bill with a 10000L note. Ah, well.

I don't think I have ever ever been thru so many tunnels in my life. Current best guess is about 40 or so, ranging in length from about 100m to nearly 2km. Also odd is entering a tunnel with everything familar, and then exiting without so much as a "Welcome To Italy" sign, and everything is completely different. We didn't see the sign above until nearly 10 km after the border :]

On a recommendation from one of Sean's friends, Jalayne, we stopped off at Verazze. This is a small seaside town. It was pure Italian and really what we had both been expecting of our visit to see. There were narrow streets flanked by tall pastel coloured windows with green shuttered windows, and a couple of town squares, one of them dominated by the facade of the obligatory town church. We ate a packed lunch / picnic that we had brought with us from Cannes. The town's promenade is behind me in this picture. If there is such a place as paradise, Verazze just might be it. No kidding. I simply must return here for a longer stay.

We drove on from Verazze to La Spezia. From there we took the coast road up into the hillside to Cinque Terre. The towns and vineyards along this coast are practically falling into the water down the hillside. It is amazing. It may sound like a cliche to say that, but in this case it is the best way to describe it. We drove up and around the hillside with a sheer vertical drop always on one side of us. I let Sean drive ;-)

Matthew gallantly skipped the part where I missed a turn on the autoroute in Genova, and we had to spend nearly 45 minutes driving thru the heart of the city trying to regain the autoroute at a later exit. I got to drive my first Italian round-about, and deal with some pretty scary traffic. Again Matthew remarks on my weird definition of fun :}

The mountain road down to Vernazza was amazing. Simply amazing.

The waterfront at Vernazza
It was getting late in the evening after we had checked into the pensione. We headed into the town centre, not very far as this place is tiny. We found a reasonably priced ristorante and I practiced my Italian, "Duo birra, per favore" and "Un alta birra". Super useful phrases to know and ones that I will now doubt use a great deal more. I'll leave you with this one, "Portrebe indicarmi la strada per la spiaggia?" ("How do I get to the beach?").

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