and still continued

The fellow is trying to help me to get the card reader to work on this computer. The drive is not reading apparently.

Anyway...long story s hort. Jill was a trooper, ever so patient with her gasping wheezing old auntie! I have never, short of maybe Mount Carleton, and not even that I dont think, expended so much energy on such a hot day. You cannot imagine my joy when we started, finally, to go downhill! Though even that was tricky. We are not talking a groomed path here, for the most part! What a view. Google "Corniglia", since my camera card seems to not work on either of the computers duly equipped to read it. bleahhh.

We messed around Corniglia for a bit, then Jill decided she would walk the last two trails, from Corniglia to Manarola, and from Manarola to Riomaggiore. I took the train and waited comfortably in the shade! Wouldn't you know it, the biggest obstacles on these paths were not the width, or stairs up or down, but hordes of tourists in large tour groups!

A wonderful weekend, spent on the Mediterranean. Had it only been warmer water! But THIS is Italy!!

We are both glad this is the last week in Firenze. We have toured the Duomo, Uffizi museum, the Palantina Gallery in Pitti Palace, the Medici-Riccardo palazzo, and Santa Croce Church. One can only look at so many representations of Madonna and all things biblical. We have bought our souvenirs, mandatory leather items of course!, and likely are both well over our $750 Can dollar limits for Customs.

Jill has moved downstairs out of the spider nest and into the huge double room on the main floor with me. We cannot believe that our roomie firmly closed her door and did not share either the TV or the freakin' couch, or even pillows on the unused bed. She did not take her garbage out, and didn't even throw out her uneaten food. Dirty towels left on the rack, and dirty sheets left on the floor (I had asked her to throw them into the washer before she left so we could at least change our beds!) A weird woman indeed. Not entirely unpleasant, but she certainly practices "it's all about me!".

Insofar as being able to speak Italian...well...not so much! But we understand considerably more than when we got here. And we are both good grammar students. It is just putting it all together in the most basic of sentences that is very difficult. I think if it is possible that there are even more "exceptions to the rule" than in French! But it's a good classroom of students, and good profs. Today our after school event was a lecture, in Italian of course, about Pinocchio. Regrettably, I can hardly remember the story, but apparently it is so much more than about a cute little kitty and cricket! And can be read on many levels, including from a Freudian perspective....a big growing nose....let your imaginations go wild!

That's it, that's all. Will try to get back mid-week for an update, but our lives will be more quiet than the early hustle and bustle. Been there, done that! And have the leather to prove it!!