Through a series of unfortunate, but oddly serendipitous events, I ended up back in Italy, instead of in the UK for 10 days, as I had planned. (I got kicked out of the UK... long story, ask me if you want to know, and I'll tell you over a glass of vino). They sent me to Perugia, which is fairly close to where Andy was staying. Lucky for me, Chris offered to pick me up.
I hadn't slept during the whole ordeal, and the stress of it all left me fighting a virus and totally exhausted. I spent the first days at Chris' recovering, but soon found myself seeped into life on the farm, enjoying the obliviousness to time and the thick, summery air. For the next week, I felt lucky to enjoy days filled with swimming in the lake, watering and weeding vegetable gardens, listening to Chris' philosophies and life stories, practicing Italian with Ruben and Bruno, and just generally letting the time melt away like butter over a hot pancake.
CINQUE TERRE
CINQUE TERRE As an added bonus to my failed UK trip, Andy and I went to Cinque Terre for a few days. We had heard so many great things about how beautiful it was. Nobody warned us adequately about the tourists, however. It was beautiful, stunning, gorgeous. The fact that it was literally crawling with people made it a little difficult to enjoy. All the same, we spent the days hiking all over the place. It is made up of 5 coastal towns, and there are trails that climb up into the hills, linking the villages. It was lovely to be outside all day, sweating and getting sun-burned. We explored all five villages, and took a swim everyday. The water was just gorgeous- so blue, so buoyant.
We had one meal that was fabulous. We had to make reservations, and the restaurant only offered one service per night. We ate: home-made pasta, grilled fish, mussels, and to top it off, panna cotta with honey. Possibly the most authentic, home-made Italian food I've ever eaten.
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