Italy

I think today is the laziest vacation day I have had since getting to Europe. Pretty much it amounts to eating and working on my tan. We spent all day next to the pool.

Observations being that Italians seem obsessed with throwing and pushing each other into the pool. That seemed to be their main activity. There was even a wedding party that took place at the hotel and by the end half the party had been pushed in the pool.
Dinner was my last chance to have my berberino wine and pizza – yes we did have the same dinner 3 nights in a row!
After dinner we took a walk to the water where the moon was reflecting beautifully off the water. Sardinia turned out to be a gorgeous place and a great way to spend the 4th of July weekend. Unfortunately tomorrow we have to go back to home, gloomy, home.

Flag of Sardinia

Day 2 in Sardinia was terrifying and thrilling all at once. Our hotel is not too close to anything so we rented scooters for the day. I pictured a nice casual ride along the coast – well we did ride along the coast! The traffic was pretty heavy and the roads were curvy and up and downhill. As my first time driving a scooter I was less than comfortable. I was amazing to drive along the coast though.

We found a nice place to stop and rest of the rocks after a swim. Too bad we hadn’t packed our snorkel gear
After some more curvy roads we decided to stop for lunch at Van Goghs café.

The outdoor seating area was perfect and the food was amazing. I got spinach pasta with shrimp and pesto sauce while Curt had ravioli. Have I said I love Italy!!!!

I had delayed long enough though, it was time to get back on the scooters!
This time we passed the hotel and I became a scooter rider on the back of Curts. We went to see the flamingos that are famous for hanging out in the bog outside the city.

They are pink and white but kind of elusive. Every time I got near them they gracefully walked away from us. Since they weren’t interested in letting me get a good photo we crossed the road and hung out at the beach for awhile.

By the time we got home I was exhausted and happy to sit by the beach before another dinner of Berberino wine and pizza.

I basically came up with Sardinia as a destination by going on Ryan Air and seeing where it would go that would be cheap and warm. Cagliari which is the city on the Italian Island of Sardinia that won the contest.
So today we found ourselves on the way to Karlsruhl to catch our flight. The two hour flight was without incident and next thing we knew we were on a hot, busy bus on our way to downtown Cagliari. Hotel Setar is no where near the center of the city so we had to get on another sweaty, busy bus for 20 minutes. Oh wait, that’s just what the bus driver said, it turned out to be an hour ride.

Eventually we found the place and the magnificent pool. Here you need to have a swim cap on to go in the pool but we didn’t do much swimming anyway. We spent the rest of the day relaxing by the pool.
None of the restaurants at the hotel opened until 8:00 so I was pretty starving by the time we made it to dinner.
The pizzeria won our hearts because we got to eat outside and the pizza and berberino wine was awesome.

We headed back to Bar centrale which was advertised to have breakfast but apparently not on Mondays. So we got a seat at Giammi Café and snack bar. I got peach tea, a donut and we shared “spinach quiche”. The quiche was more like a quesadilla of spinach. On the way out of town we grabbed some more grapes, strawberries and a scone for the trip. We were headed to Pisa Centrale on the train but ended up eating all the strawberries while we waited.
After about an hour ride we got to Pisa and set off for the tower. We didn’t have a map but heard other people talking about it so “followed” them.
After about 20 minutes we were snapping photos of each other “holding up the tower”. We made our rounds and I snapped off like 50 photos.
Hungry once again we headed for a pizza shop we passed on the way in. We got another margarita pizza and sodas al fresco – our last one in Italy! A five minute train ride had us at the airport where we checked in, went thru security and promptly had our pesto confiscated.

We called today Curts day since the day before I had run us ragged. Of course we couldn’t leave vernazza without more panzerotto at the Pirates Café. They had promised peach smoothie but didn’t have it so I got another blackberry one. We even got some to go.
I wanted to take a few more photos before leaving town. The castel at the end of town supposedly had good views and the low trail we missed yesterday another area for photos.
However the castel wasn’t open yet (we found this out after walking all the way to the top) and we couldn’t find the trail. So we staged some photos on the rocks by the beach and ate our other pastry. While walking to the beach Curt found a hat and became Indiana Jones! After a rest we found the trail and hiked up and up until we got some great views of Vernazza. It really is spectacular.
We headed back down and I went to the castle for 1.50 euro. The views were alright but it wasn’t that much different than what you see from below.
On the way to the train station we stopped in a few shops and got our ceramic wine stoppers (one for me and one for mom) and the ceramic numbers for our new house. We took the train to Riomaggiore where our apartment wasn’t ready but we were able to drop our bags and change clothes. The place was basic with bed, small kitchen bathroom and living area. We hardly did anything but sleep and shower in the rooms so these were just fine for us. We put on our bathing suits and took stuff for a picnic on the rocks.
At the grocery shops we bought grapes, a small bottle of cinque terra white wine, pesto and sliced bread and cheese. We went to the marina and spread ourselves out on the rocks by the water. It was one of my favorite times of the whole trip – it was very relaxing and the food was great….and it only cost us 15 euro as apposed to the 43 and 50 euro we spent for restaurant food.
We saw people kayaking from our perch and decided to do that rather than snorkel. We got a two person kayak and headed out of the inlet. The views from the water are also gorgeous…and the water felt great. The weather had to have been in the 80’s for the weekend. First thing out we saw a purple and white jellyfish!
So the woman at the rental place said go 30 minutes to the right for a secluded beach with waterfall (well, except for the other kayakers she told about it.) It turns out to be a rocky beach with a trickle of a waterfall. But we were able to get out of the kayak and go for a swim. On the rocks it was hard to get your footing and the waves kept knocking me down.
After the swim it was a great ordeal to get our kayak back in the water because on our first attempt it filled up with water. So we had to figure out how to flip it over and dump the water which was difficult on the rocks. Eventually we did though and we fought the currant and crag back to home! We were gone 2 hours so it was 20 euros. Well worth the money though and another favorite.
The water was very salty so we went to wash all that off at the room. After a nap we headed for dinner. This was our first attempt without recommendations from Rick and we ended up going on the Via Del Amorre back to Manarola. We tried to have more pizza but the place we sat down wasn’t serving food anymore. At Cocina ….. we were able to get a seat outdoors and were treated to the same great bread. The waiters always looked at us like we were crazy when we ordered soda instead of wine but it tasted so good! I got ravioli with the famous pesto and curt got gnocchi. After dinner we had a romantic walk back to Riomaggiore on the Via Del Amorre.
Rick Steves recommended mojitos at Bar Centrale run by a guy from San Francisco. He wasn’t lying – they were great by 10 euros for two. It was fun to sit outside, listen to salsa music of all things, and enjoy the drink. A perfect ending to another great traveling day!