Managing Butterflies

Thursday in Volterra

I'm continuing the trip update with Tuesday on the Cinque Terre...A truly, magnificant place.....Tuesday morning somebody said that there was a market at Vernazza so that helped me to decide what to do....train to Vernazza, market not so big...but, heh, ya never know....went to my favorite little crazy mixed media art shop...(he uses cardboard in his paintings among other things) and hopped back on the train and went on up to Riomaggiore.....timed the train thing very well....At Rio I managed to get a royal, Italian butt chewing in the little COOP grocery store...I had my umbrella in my bag and she thought I was going to knock something over and she let me have it....At first I didn't quite understand what was going on but then I realized she was talking to me....the check out girl just kind of shook her head and said not to worry and then I got tickled....I tried not to laugh 'cause I knew that it would really tick her off......after the grocery store fiasco....I decided to get away from humanity and I hit the trail going from Rio towards Monterosso.....Arkansas hot and humid, but ok.....so pretty, so wonderful...got to Corniglia around 2:30....pretty toasty.....got a strawberry double gelato and sat out on the step of the little main drag alley, people watched, and sketched....3:30ish hiked the corniglia to vernazza stretch...got there at 4:45....was not very dry.....but that view is so worth it!

Caught the train back to M. cleaned up and went to the group dinner with the pesto making lesson...more later.....JW 

more from Volterra.....

.....Just a quick review of where i've been so far....the picture is from the window of the Uffizi Museum in Florence.....great renaissance artists....we had sunday morning with the group and the rest of the day free....I crossed the ponti bridge to the other side and spent most of the early afternoon in the Pitti Palace and gardens.....in the album that's where the garden pics were taken...I had the smaller garden to myself....I walked back through more a more residential area and made my way back to the hotel...rested for a bit .....and went to the little outdoor market just down the street....met the Oregon girls and they were in shopping mode.....great fun!.....I went back to the hotel and sketched in the little garden and then went out with the others for a bit.....visited a couple of churches and did a little people watching.....hmmmmmm.

Monday, we bused to Lucca north of Florence.  It absolutley poured!  We had a local guide but he did part of the talk on the bus.....It cleared up after a bit and we made our way to the top of the wall.  Lucca still has its renaissance wall standing....Napolean gave "Lucca" to his sister and she protected and made a park out of the wall....I think it is 3 miles around the city and you can walk it or rent a bike.   After the talk, we were given more free time to eat and site see.....the oregon bunch wanted to know where I was eating.....well, Pizziaria de Felicia of course!  Made contact with that great pizza....you tell them how much you want and they cut it off and weigh it ....pretty good lunch for 1.80 euro!  We really didn't have time for bikes so we walked by the main sites and window shopped....shops are closed monday till 3:30...at 2:30 back to the bus and on to the Cinque Terre...

We were put off the bus in Levanto and caught the train to Monterosso....arrived 4:30ISH...Very hot and very beautiful....stayed in the newer part of Monterosso...but it was still very nice.....went for a short orientation walk with our guide and we were free for the evening.....ate with the Oregon people....I had spinich gnocci .....yum...till later, jen....sorry some of the pics are sideways ...it takes forever for them to upload let alone adjust them.....

In Volterra....

Free internet access in Voterra ...yipee!!!....I'm working on adding pictures today....Flew into Milan with no problems, just a long day...they've redone the Milan train station ...very modern and easy to navigate....got my train ticket to Florence Friday night and made my way to the hotel...Saturday took the train to Florence , about a 2 and half hour ride....went fine....started to walk to the hotel....but after 10 minutes, hot weather, and a wrong turn I backtracked and took a cab....a very good call...as easy as the walking directions seemed....in actuality they weren't.....anyway, hotel was down the street from the museum that contains David and in the other direction you can see the church....great spot....roomate, Judy has been wonderful.  She's from Oregon, here with three other couples,  they are not quite used to the heat and humidity...(thank you, Arkansas!)  Saturday evening we went to see Michealangelo's "David"...I got busted for taking pictures which the guys from Oregon found amusing and even more so when I replied that the guard would "get over it"....giggle!  Went on an evening Renaissance walk and had a wonderful dinner that included gnocci, a wonderful fish dish, and some very chocolate cake.....more later today....sorry for any typos!    Ciao! Jenny