Day 31

Today was a travel day. We tried to get an early start but going back down the river to the sea and filling up with gas took awhile. At 11:30 a.m. we calculated that we still had about 10 hours of sailing to go.

It is actually really great having these sailing days because we get to relax on the boat after a jam packed sweaty day in the city.





As long as you look up from your book every couple of minutes to scan the horizon for boats and other obstacles you're usually fine. There was one point today, however, where out of nowhere we instantly went from 100+ meters of depth to 3 meters of depth and we stayed at 4-6 meters for quite while.

Most of the day the water was so smooth and glassy. At point we could actually see the bottom of the sea. In the afternoon we decided to take a break and jump off the boat and swim. We were a little bit scared at first since we could hardly see the land but it turned out to be so much fun! We put on our fins and masks and jumped in. We were surrounded by pure Mediterranean blue.





Then Dad decided to take the kitchen spatula and scrape off the barnacles on the bottom of the hulls. He doesn't seem to be concerned about a little "sea food" mixing with our food.

Even though today was the longest day of the year we still needed another couple of hours of daylight. Juliann and I sat up front with our eyes peeled as we sailed the last 8 knots or so in the dark. We had a couple of near misses with some booies but we eventually make to the port.

Day 30

Today was full of fun and if we were on The Amazing Race we would have come in first. Our timing was right on all day. We woke up early and caught the bus into Pisa and then the express train to Florence.







Our first stop was the Uffizi Museum. The line was about an hour long.



We saw Botocelli's Birth of Venus, and Allegory of the Spring, Michalengalo's only remaining work on canvas, a little Lenoardo Di Vinci and all of the Medici family art. "Basically the greatest collection of Renaissance art on the planet." (to quote Bec) Some of the art and the documents cataloging it all was destroyed or badly damaged in 1993 from a car bomb planted by the Mafia.

After the museum we were starving and ate at this famous, tiny cute little sandwich shop that was goooood!! We all had the procuttio, goat cheese, and arugula sandwich. Then we headed to the best gelatto in the world... or so they say and it passed the test. Very good!!





We went and checked out the Piazza del Duomo and inside the church.



Then down by the river to the Ponte Veccio, the only bridge not to be blown up by the Nazis in 1944. This is where they traditionally sell all the silver and gold.





Next we headed up to the Acadamia Museum where they have Michelangelo's David. The line was super long so Juls and I did a little exploring and shopping in the leather market.

Then Bec joined us for a little while while Dad waited in line.



When we got back the line was gone. We thought we missed our chance but then realized we could just walked right in. About an hour before closing they just let the whole line in. We had about 45 minutes to check out the museum before it closed. In line my Dad met a guy who went to school at the Athenian school (right across the street from our house in Danville) AND a family who are neighbors to Uncle Paul!! Small world.

We were pretty tired after trying to fit all of Florence into one day. We headed back to the train station and back to the boat.

Day 29

This morning we left La Spezia and headed for Pisa. The port that we were planning to stay at was a little ways up the Arno river in Pisa (which is very green and pretty shallow). Luckily we found the conspicuious entry point to the river and went up slowly to make sure that the water was deep enough for a boat our size. There were a few points on the river where wire lines run overhead (used for fishing nets) and it was quite a challenge crossing under these. For some of the lower lines we had to be in just the right spot of the river to make it under, and even then our VHF antanea had to bend to clear the wire.

We kept moving up the river and found what we thought looked like the closest thing to a guest dock area (even though it was a lot smaller than usual). We docked the boat and shortly after a man came walking down the dock to see what we were up to. He told us that we weren't exactly in the right spot. He was really nice and helped us try to find a place to stay. He called around for us and even took Bec and Dad in his car over to some other areas in the port, and finally found a private dock that his friend owned that he said we could stay at for two nights. He rode on our boat with us over to his friend's dock, and just as we were pulling into this spot one of the slime lines from a boat next to us caught on our engine and stopped the propeller. About five Italian guys quickly came out of nowhere to our rescue. They helped us keep the boat from drifing while dad got on his scuba mask and jumped into the dark green water to try to cut the line from the propeller. After a few tries dad finally cut the line free, and they helped us get the lines re-tied and out boat docked in the right place.

This little ordeal set us back a little but we decided to go into town anyway and see as much as we could in what was left of our day.

We hopped on a bus



and headed straight for the Field of Miracles where the famous leaning tower is.









These kind of photos go on all day long in front of the tower. It's pretty entertaining to watch the never ending amount of people doing similar poses.

Day 28

We woke up this morning to dark storm clouds. (Although the temperature was still about 70 degrees.)



We packed up our swimming and snorkel gear anyway and took the train back to Monterroso. By the time we got there the sun was out!



We got a spot on a private beach with our own umbrellas and soaked up the sun.



Dad and I used our snorkel masks to search for my sun glasses that I stupidly lost in the sea. I'm sure we looked funny swimming in circles. After a very relaxing afternoon in the sun we walked around the little town of Monterosso.





And got our daily gelato.



Dad decided to take the train back to La Spezia and Juls, Linds, and I walked along the scenic trail between Manarola and Riomaggiore.



We found the elevator that takes you to the top of the Riomaggiore. We found a beautiful shaded viewpoint and later watched some kids playing soccer in the church courtyard.



On our way back to La Spezia we found a market and stocked up on groceries.



We wanted to shop that evening in La Spezia but we were too late again, the stores were closed.

Day 27

Today is Father's Day. What a great way to spend it with our Dad!!

We finally made it to church too! We had the help of the GPS but ended up at a Honda Dealership about 2 miles down the road in the industrial part of town. It didn't quite seem like the right spot so we asked this old man who was crossing the street if he knew where it was. He took us right to it, down the block a little. It was in an office type building. We never would have found it.

The meeting was really good. There were actually quite a few visitors there so they had one of the missionaries translate all the talks which were really good. The youth speaker talked about the importance of families, then there was a talk by the relief society president about sisterhood and being there for each other, and the final talk was by this older man who talked about overcoming adversity after his wife had passed away. One thing I've noticed about Italians is that they are very passionate when they speak and very animated. Church was great and it's always amazing to me that no matter where you go in the world the gospel is the same everywhere.

After church we walked back to the boat and met two American girls that were at church with us who asked us directions to the train. It was nice to be the one giving directions for once. They were sisters and one was from Lafayette and one was from Palo Alto, they were staying in the Cinque Terre.

We changed and headed to the train to see the Cinque Terre. We saw this statue on the way to the train.



This is something you just have to experience in person I can't even describe how great it its.



We stopped in Riomaggiore for some lunch at Te La Do lo La Merenda "Let me give you a snack".



It was delicious!! Juls and I split some canaloni and fried fish. Bec got a whole fish (head and eyeballs still in tact) with rosemary and garlic. Dad got chicken.

Then we hiked the coastal trail all the way through Manarola, Corniglia, and ended up in Vernazza. It was quite a hike, (went from easy to hard) sooo beautiful, and the towns are right out of a movie.



















We spent some time walking around and got some drinks and watched these kids pull in on their sailboat.



and then headed back to La Spezia on the train.

Day 26

Today we left Genoa and set sail in the morning for the Cinque Terre! Linds, Bec, and I were just starting a nice breakfast outside on the "patio" of the boat when the waves started to pick up. By the time breakfast was wrapping up, the waves were a little rougher than usual for some reason. Instead of the usual reading and lounging on the boat that we usually do when we're at sea, we had to stay in one place and concentrate a lot on not getting seasick. After about two hours of this Becca threw up a few times over the back of the boat.



Luckily she felt a lot better after. We felt kind of bad about this since it was really her first time out at sea with us, and we tried to tell her that the waves are not usually rough like this. Usually they are really calm. We've even seen people waterski behind their boats. But that was in France. Maybe Italy is different.

On our way to the Cinque Terre we decided to stop by Portifino which was highly recommended to us by a few people that we've talked to in Italy.



Portifino is a small fancy port that was made famous in the 50's when National geographic did a story on it.



Since then famous people have been buying houses there and it's become a popular and expensive place to stop. We decided just to stop for a few hours for lunch, so we pulled up to this fancy place...with throw up in the back of our boat.

Portifino was beautiful.





We walked around a little while and then were sitting down to lunch when a man walked over and told us that had to move our boat because it was in a reserved spot. But he was pretty nice about and said that we could finish our lunch and look around since we weren't planning to stay long anyway.



After lunch we walked around through the streets and up to the top of the hill where there is a little yellow church and a graveyard behind it.







We wanted to stay longer but we still had a long ways to go. When we finally arrived at the Cinque Terre we were thinking about docking in Vernazza but when we got closer we could see that the entrance to the port looked narrow and shallow and with this rough water it probably wouldn't be a good idea.



So instead we headed to a bigger port just south of the Cinque Terre in La Spezia.