The Riviera

So after our Moroccan adventure, we're now back in Europe, taking one final spin along the southern coast.

From the ferry, we continued along the coast of Spain to France.  We stopped at some random beaches along the way to catch a little sun as we traveled.

The highway followed the coast so we had some amazing views

Suddenly we were seeing greenhouses everywhere.  Turns out this is a "thing"--The Greenhouses of Almeria.  Since the 1980s, these greenhouses have been built in an area that is arid and didn't provide much industry.  Now this area provides half of all Europe's fruits and vegetables.

They traveled down the mountains right to the coast, some at crazy angles.  I kept thinking how this might possibly be an industry for Haiti??

More and more this is becoming a picture of this year.  Four independent travelers telling their parents to keep up :)

And, after finding the cooler, we finally found the actual beverage!

We made a stop in Barcelona, mostly to visit Sagrada Familia--the cathedral that's been under construction since 1882. 

The cathedral got mixed reviews.  It combined a lot of different styles and incorporated color, which was unusual. The little spires to the left are topped by different fruits which were brightly colored and sparkly.  Some have referred to it as a melting birthday cake.

Across the street was a little Barcelona football shop and museum.  Trina once did a report on Argentina and its football players and became a fan of Lionel Messi, who is Argentinian but plays for Barcelona.  She had fun reading up on him and finding his jersey.

Then we crossed the border and traveled along the French Riviera.  We felt a little out of our league as our big white van filled with six travelers wearing their same old unlaundered clothes traveled among Jaguars and Rolls-Royces and toy poodles and botox through Cannes and Nice and Monaco.

Then it was on to the Italian Riviera which was so beautiful and a little more low key.

We stayed in this apartment tucked in the hills with a distant view of the ocean

This is Paolo's dad, Julie, and Paolo, our hosts.  They lived in one side of the house.  Paolo is from Milan but moved here to get away from the rat race.  His parents followed.  And Paolo's partner, Julia, is Romanian.

Julia made breakfast for us each morning with homemade breads and Italian coffee, along with fresh figs and grapes from their yard.

 

The view from our balcony.  Way in the back you can see the water.

So Mike is fascinated by the vehicles and machines and materials.  I, on the other hand, love to see the different foods and housewares and ways of living.  Here are a couple from this area of the world:

Many of the kitchens in France and Italy have these drying racks.  They just look like a cupboard over the sink but the bottom has holes so the water drips into the sink as the dishes dry.

It's hard to find a coffeemaker or french press here, but we've gotten used to using a Moka pot, like a mini percolator.  Coffee grounds and water are put in the bottom and the coffee perks up into the top as it heats up on the stove.

And then it was Sunday and we can add this to our list of interesting church experiences.  There was a little Catholic church up the hill where mass supposedly started at 11.  But we sat for a half hour with a couple of other people and watched the priests and others prepare everything.  In the meantime, Faith looked at the bulletin and, using her best Italian translation skills, said "I think it's a baptism today".  Then the church began to fill up to overflowing with people who obviously knew each other well.  Things were starting to feel a little awkward, especially as we were taking up prime seating.  Mike insisted it was still a normal mass meant just as much for other people.  But it did appear that the entire service was directed at little Paolo.  When the service ended, we exited as quickly as possible before anyone could ask whose side of the family we were on.  So, those of you from the Catholic background--was it appropriate for us to be there?

We feel as if little Paolo now holds a special place in our hearts as we greeted him along with the priests and the rest of "our" family :)

It amazes me to find all these ornate churches tucked away in tiny little towns.

Before leaving, Julia suggested we walk to their little town of Velva.  This area was filled with all these little towns built on the hillsides.  The town was built along steep cobblestone streets and alleys and staircases.  So quaint and historic.

 We spent a day hiking the Cinque Terre (Five Lands).  This trail follows the coastline and connects five small towns (hence the name).  Because of ongoing flooding, the trail to the 4th and 5th towns was closed, but we hiked between the first three.

We began in this beach town of Monterosso al Mare.  The trail began as a walkway to cute hotels and suddenly we were climbing steep steps and narrow paths up and up and up.  The girls were quite grumpy with me that I had called it a "walk"--"this is definitely a hike!"

You can see the path along the left as we began our descent into Vernazza, the next town.

Lunch in Vernazza.

Then we began the second half of our hike to this hilltop town of Corniglia.

From Corniglia we had views of the next town of Manarola.

These poor girls gave us some sad story of never having gelato before.  

Near the train station for our return trip, ol' Eagle Eye Ella spotted a little reminder of home.  Small world!

We were driving right by on our way to Florence, so of course we had to stop.  And of course we had to do dumb poses just like everyone else around us.

As an example of how weird this adventure gets sometimes, we had planned to stop in Florence, but when we got there no one really knew why or what.  Of course, we hoped to see David while there, but the line was crazy.  So we walked around the town and visited the cathedral.

Ya kinda forget how many good foods Italy is known for.  Couldn't leave without trying an authentic cannoli.

And then it was on to Rome:

Colosseum

Roman Forum

Pantheon

 We had a great day walking around Rome.  We've done a lot of things wrong on this trip, namely trying to see too much too quickly (but our motto continues to be "better quickly than not at all"), but one thing I realize we've done right is walking around the cities.  It's so much fun to walk through little neighborhoods and do lots of people watching.  And in between that, we stopped to tour the historic hot spots.  I'll probably get the facts all twisted up, so feel free to google them yourselves or think back to all you learned in Ancient History class :)

Our host highly recommended we visit Castel Sant'Angelo, also called the Mausoleum of Hadrian.  Hadrian, the emperor of Rome, had this built around 135 AD as a mausoleum for him and his family.  Later the building was used by the popes as a fortress and castle.  At one time, this was the tallest building in Rome.

 

We also visited St. Peter's Square in Vatican City.  We had hoped to visit the Vatican Museums (Sistine Chapel!), but once again the lines were hours long.  Even the line to walk through St. Peter's Basilica wrapped all the way around the square (you can see these people in the forefront of the picture are in line).  So we just did a look-see and moved on.

On the outskirts of Rome, we visited the Catacombs of  St. Callixtus, dating back to the second century.  (Not a great picture, but at least Mike got one before he was reminded that there was no photography!).  This network is 12 miles long and 20 meters deep. It was not allowed for bodies to be buried within Rome city limits so these were built to bury mostly Christians.  This one is also the burial place for 16 popes.  There were 4 levels of chambers carved into the walls, either individual sized or family sized.  

The catacombs were located along the Appian Way, one of the earliest Roman roads, built in 312 BC.  We followed the road for a few bumpy kilometers (although it's said when it was built, it was so smooth you couldn't even feel the joints).  All along the road were old ruins...and old goats.

The morning routine--we've got quite a suitcase system going.

Our final stop in Italy was Pompeii.  We'll talk about those little old ruins in a minute, but first things first.  The Pasta!  We had dinner at a restaurant that was just "so Italian".  Friendly, lively servers and boisterous groups of diners.  And now I understand the importance of pasta "al dente"--so good!

But the ruins of Pompeii were pretty amazing too.  I struggle with ancient history--give me Civil War and WWII any day--but Pompeii was surprisingly interesting to me.  I had no idea just how well preserved it was, so instead of just a pile of ruins, I could see the houses and town and really imagine people living here.

Look at the marble and the statues--still in amazing condition.

The original roads.  Many areas were fenced off for ongoing work.

The amphitheater.  Those bottom seats are marble.

In a large amphitheater near the exit was an exhibit with photos and these plaster casts of bodies found.  The one in the middle is of an adult with a child.

This was our final stop in Italy.  From here we drove to the east coast where we "ferried" from Italy to Greece--our final European country.