Cinque Terre, Italy back to Lugano Switzerland (Oct 9-19, 2015)

Excuse the delay between reports, I had carpal tunnel surgery 2 weeks ago and I haven't felt much like typing! Still relying pretty much on my off hand, this report may be shorter than my usual ;-)

We had to catch the noon train out of charming Monterosso to Milan, there we would change trains to get us back to Lugano, Switzerland. We unfortunately only spent two nights in Cinque Terre, but the weather cooperated nicely and we really packed a lot into our short stay. We awoke at o-dark early as usual and waited for the coffee shop to open at 0630. It was obvious that the seas were picking up a bit, the lone sailboat in the bay was heading out after a rolly night at anchor I'm sure, wonder what beautiful spot they were heading to next? After a nice breakfast at the Hotel Baia we took advantage of the few remaining hours and walked back to Old Monterosso.







Old Monterosso turned out to be exactly what I had envisioned when we planned this trip. A beautiful mixture of well preserved medieval ruins and well stacked colorful buildings built into the steep mountainside accessed by narrow cobblestone alleys, so perfect. Earlier in the weekend we walked around the Church of San Giovanni Battista ca. 1244, this morning we were smart enough to walk inside, absolutely incredible. I made an offering and was able to bring a candle back to my mom who loves Italy!
















We didn't have long to wander, but we slowly shuffled our feet along the smooth cobble stones soaking it all in. The village was just waking up, shops were starting to open their doors, streets were being swept as usual, cafe tables were being set for lunch, which unfortunately we would not be able to attend. It was going to be another perfectly warm and sunny day in Cinque Terre.










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Check out was at 1100 and all we had to do was throw a couple things into our small backpacks, it was so nice to travel light! Walking out onto our balcony overlooking the deep blue Mediterranean left a bitter sweet feeling in the two of us, bitter because it honestly doesn't get any better than this, but sweet because we would soon be reunited with our daughter in Lugano. We will be back, this I am sure.

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Our train was on time which is the norm in these parts. From our window seats we watched the Italian countryside fly by. We passed the time by discussing how we would spend our next trip to Italy, which is somewhat in the works as I type this one handed. We caught our connecting train in Milan without issue and our conversation quickly turned to our daughter, "do you think she's out of class yet? hurry up conductor get this thing moving!

My hand is tired so I'll make this last part short. We texted our daughter as soon as we arrived at our hotel in Lugano, her dorm is located just a minute walk through a palm tree lined path. We agreed to meet in the middle. I'm so glad I had the camera on my shoulder to capture my favorite shot of the trip, moms and daughters.

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To be continued........Ciao!