Leaving Recco today

Ok, since a lot has happened since we left Santorini (literally an entire country has been explored) but we haven't had time to write about it, I'm going to just post emails that were sent.

I am very happy to say that we have figured out how we're getting to Barcelona...Genova! Ok, so we leave Recco (a small town outside of Cinque Terre) this afternoon (of course we have to get some more beach time in) and head to Genova. We spend tonight and tomorrow day there. Then tomorrow night we have to catch an 18-hour ferry to Barcelona. We're both getting very excited about Spain. We have 3 nights booked (up until Thursday night), which means that I'm still not sure where we'll be partying for my birthday (on Friday). That's always exciting.

Italy has been great. I will say my broken Italian isn't really much better, but it has helped quite a bit since we've been here. I can say that we have gotten rooms for cheaper and talked ourselves out of very expensive fines (yes, always validate your train tickets!). I do recommend if anyone wants to come here they take some crash course/tape-study to learn the basics.

Anyway, we're off to start packing and lubing up the sunscreen for some beach time. Hope everyone is doing well! Talk to everyone soon. We have about a month left, which I'm sure will be a blurr so we'll try to fill everyone in while we begin our new chapter in Spain.

Love,

Justin

Sent May 14,
So we just made up our minds. After spending 4 nights in Chianti region, we're leaving tomorrow to Pisa for the afternoon and then to a town outside of Cinque Terre. We plan on staying there for a couple of nights, then somehow making it to Barcelona (plane, train, ship...still up for discussion.)

Still waiting for real internet access. Within a couple of stops hopefully.

Sent May 11,
We're packing up this morning and heading out...to Chianti! Yup, our time in Firenze was nice but now we're ready to head back to the country side. Our new hostel advertises free breakfast and a pool...yeah! Some more water time. Our last time in water was in Sorrento, which was breathtaking. There's nothing like swimming in the sea, floating on your back, taking in the amazing view of the Amalfi coast and cliffs. It's not too bad having the opportunity to swim where Odysseus got stuck (Sorrento is the land of the Sirene. We actually got to see the 2 islands that the sirens °lived° on). Anyway, now we're off to wine country and pool time.

Sent May 9,
So, we've officially made it to Firenze. I'll have to write about it later, but let's just say after our last 42-hour hell adventure to Sorrento from Santorini, we needed an easy, somewhat direct train experience to Firenze (Florence) from Sorrento. We got that. We left our little bungelow heaven in Santorini this morning not knowing exactly where we were going. We stopped at an Internet Cafe, checked out some hostel options in Florence and just went for it. The train left 2 hours later and arrived in Florence (no train swapping, thankfully) 5 hours after that. We found our hostel quite easily, changed clothes, and enjoyed our first pizza and gelato in Firenze. Now it's really late here and we want to explore the entire city tomorrow.

Sent May 3,
We made it to Italy. It was a 24 hour day from hell...still really hasn't ended yet. We are still looking for a place to stay. Hilarious story, but at 3 euro for a 1-2 hour, will have to explain it later. Hope everyone is doing well. Our adventure continues, but we are healthy and will be happy (once we sleep).

Sent April 25,
Can't really talk, we only have 5 mins before we have to go. We met about 5 other people in our hostel, so today we're all going on a ATV-caravan around the island. It should be amazing! The weather is a little cool, but the sun feels great. We plan on watching a sunset at IA beach. We'll be filling everyone in when we have more time.