From Cinque Terre to Polignano A Mare!

Today is our last day in Italy.  We started our trip in Cinque Terre, a recommendation made to us by our son-in-law several years ago.  Thanks Marc for the hot tip - it was amazing.  We swam and walked and hiked and drank wine by the sea.  Each of the five towns had its own flavour and we enjoyed all of them, including the 382 steps up to Corniglia and the amazing hike between Vernazza and Monterosso.  The dip in the sea following the hike will be a highlight as was the hike itself.  Our cooking class (okay, we made pesto so no real 'cooking' involved) at the Nessun Dorma restaurant in Manarola.  This also came highly recommended to thanks to those people who tipped us off.  We will be hard pressed to find another such beautiful collection of villages along the Italian coast.

From Riamaggiore it was on to the old town of Siena.  We spent 6 nights here exploring old Siena itself and heading out to the castles and forts all around us.  We could have spent a few months here and not seen all there was to see.  What will stick with me from this area are the rolling hills full of grape vines, olive trees and the hilltop castles which appear everywhere.  We explored as many as we could and often caught glimpses of Robin Hood or Braveheart or history lessons from our middle school years of peasants, landowners and lords.  Stone walls, cobblestone streets and it seemed a "Museum of Torture" in every one of them.  Each village had its own 'town square' anchored by an enormous church.  Men ruled the day in the public squares and the language of Italy surrounded us everywhere, even in the most touristy of areas.

From the city of Sienna to the countryside of Ripostena.  Sienna was busy with much to see and experience so we were happy to get off the beaten track deep out in the rolling hills at a beautiful villa.  Casa Vecchio was our home and it was set amongst olive orchards and vineyards.

We walked up and down the hillsides, enjoyed amazing sunsets and swam, read and relaxed.  It was perfect!

We made our way from the countryside back to the airport at Pisa, boarded the train and headed to the east coast and the much less touristy area of Puglia.  We were so impressed with our trullo, both inside and out.  The pool was cold but we were in and out of it constantly during our time there.

We were pleasantly surprised to find such a wonderful town here as we had thought we were out in the country.  Locorotondo was so beautiful and was just the right size to explore a little bit every day. We walked up through the olive trees and then took the stairs (so many stairs!) through the vineyards up to the village.  The piazza was the place to be and there were plenty of small restaurants, gift shops and a couple of grocery stores.  We were definitely out of the touristy area and found fewer people who spoke English in this area.