Never trust the villa photos on the internet

We have moved on from Lake Como and covered much ground since then.  We are now in the cinque terre and while the villa doesn't have internet access (as it said!) cold water (when everyone has a shower once a day) and electricity fails (when you use the dishwasher and washing machine at once) it does put us in the heart of some of the most spectacular  parts of Italy I have ever seen.  We have covered the cinque terre - done some hiking, swam at more pebble beaches and have been once again the freak show at the beach in our sun-shirts.  A lady next to me at the beach was very curious and couldn't understand why I would not want to tan my skin.  How could I tell her that her leathery look wasn't something I desired in years to come.  We have been to Portofino and Santa Margherita both towns we had been to some fifteen years earlier - it was nice to visit a familiar place.  Yesterday we discovered Portovenere, a beautiful seaside town which was 10 times the size of Portofino but with 10 times less people.  Today we went to Forte dei Marmi - the outdoor markets where supposed to have discount prada, gucci and armani neither of which I saw, but enjoyed still the same.  We travelled on to pisa and the youngest bambini was a bit disappointed at the leaning tower of pizza.  To finish the day we ended in Lucca which once again was a lovely city which we wished we could spend more time at.  Ciao for now.

hodges blog - blah, blah, blah

Cinque Terre great hike 3 hrs thought I would have to resuscitate American tourists going in opposite direction
Portofino -good gelati great view as you sail into harbour but overcrowded
Saint Marghuerita - nice town with worst beach in the world.
Portovenere. - best harbour town I have been to, great seafood, fantastic castle ( kids loved it).
Forte dei marme - glad I missed the market and opted to take the kids, sneak in to the beautiful private beaches and a peaceful gelati at a wonderful cafe.
Pisa - tower is still leaning!
Lucca - beautiful walled city but Gaspar crew ( including senior Gaspars) had enough so visit cut short

back to farm house not as bad as hodge describes , baka cooked great dinner, bottle of red, Georgie made us all laugh. ( I would be funnier but Louise keeps editing my comments - apparently Mrs Hodge and Aunty Kate read this Blog).
see you all in few weeks
zoran

Zoran - get your own blog - forgot to mention - thanks for the text Moll about Julia we wouldn't have known otherwise except for a tiny bit on world news.  Don't know what we are more disappointed about the fact that Julia is PM or that Bob Katter aligned himself with the Libs! Now its definitely ciao for now

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