Liguria (thursday)

We left the haze of grenoble today and drove (map here)through the fantastically over-priced Frejus tunnel into Italy. We continued past the signs for Sestriere (site of next years winter Olympics), down past Torino, over the aerial highways surrounding Genova, and finally down the winding road that leads to the Vernazza parking lot. Along the waym I was chomping on a bread chip and broke a chunk out of one of my teeth, so I get to go back to the dentist AGAIN. Our hotel (Gianni Franzi) was at the top of picturesque widing staircases

and had a private patio hewn into the rock with lemon trees and a shady trellis which overlooked the water.


We explored the town a little, and after watching a pack of Shirtless Canadianswho were jumping into the harbor, found a restaurant. Chloe shared a seafood risotto with Amy, and I shared an amazing grigliata mixti (sp?!) with Mark.

The meal was accompanied by a locally produced light white wine. Because we ate early (7 pm or so), the restaurant was filled with americans and I heard Rick Steves' name mentioned about twenty times.

We had no evidence that cheap Italian white wines were different from any other place in the world, but we risked it anyway and bought a 3 euro bottle to enjoy on the patio. After a few failed attempts to chill the bottle in the ocean which left mark with a wet sleeve and almost wineless, we walked up the stairs to the patio. The wine proved to have a remarkable hangover inducing quality, but at the time, looking out over the Med, lounging on chairs on a patio in the cliffside, life was good.

We had originally planned just one night in Vernazza, but quickly decided to book another room to have time to hike around the next day and relax.