From Germany to Italy

After a long train journey through the Swiss Alps and into northern Italy, we arrived in La Spezia, Italy, a small city on the Italian Mediterranean coast about 90 miles east of Genoa. La Spezia has a beautiful location tucked between coastal mountains and the sea. A few miles to the west lies a rugged coastal area called Cinque Terre, a UNESCO protected area in which there are five medieval-looking villages perched along cliffs overlooking the sea. We took the train to the beginning of the trail that connects the villages (there is no road)and hiked the 6 miles along the coastal mountains. It is a wonderful area combining wilderness with some family farms with gardens and fruit trees (oranges, lemons, grapes, etc.) The weather was hot and there were many people from different countries hiking along the trail. In the afternoon, we diverged along a path down to the rocky shore, and Ana had a nice swim (I refrained because of my cold). In the evening we shared a delicious dinner at a restaurant near our hotel that included different kinds of seafood, especially clams, a mixed salad and clam and tomato sauce linguine.

Afer two days in La Spezia, we took the train down to Salerno, in the south past Rome and Naples. Salerno has a stunning seaside location at the foot of a high mountain ridge (the Amalfi coast). Arriving at the train station in the early evening, we walked along the beach promenade for a few kilometers to our hotel. Unfortunately, there is a lot of garbage along the beach. We passed many bars and pizzerias, the main businesses in this part of town. We had a great view of the sea and the mountainous coastline from our hotel room. Here we rested a day while I tried to recover from a bad cold. Nevertheless, I spent much of the morning trying to find a bank where I could change some t-checks into Euros. I had to go to four different banks before finding the bank that would change my travelers checks.