The clouds still hung over Vernazza today as we woke and walked down the hill to Vernazza's main road, to enjoy our second consecutive breakfast at La Pirata, which consisted of Americano coffee, fresh-squeezed juice from blood oranges, and the flakiest pastries known to man. We walked back up the hill to get our things together in our backpack and pay for our lodging. We met a nice retired couple from Massachusetts and visited with them and Guili for awhile, then said our goodbyes and “Gracies” to Guili, got back in our Fiat Panda, and headed South toward our “beach house.” By the time we left, wouldn't you know the sun was out, the waters in the sea were calm for the first time since we'd been here, and it was gorgeous. If the hiking trains had been open, we would've stayed another day. But the trails were still closed and would probably not open for several days, to allow time for cleaning up falling rock and let things dry out. So we decided to keep to our own schedule and go back to the house, to re-group and get ready to head to the southern part of Tuscan tomorrow.
On the way back south, we decided to stop at Porto Venere, where ferry boats come and go from the Cinque Terre. We grabbed a quick lunch there. Since the weather was sunny and fabulous by the time we got there, we decided to take a 40-minute boat tour of three nearby islands, and that was really nice! It was so nice to see and feel the sun again! We then got on the autostrade, Italy's interstate highway, and made our way back to the house via Camairore. I wanted to get a haircut, and there was a barber shop on the main drag with two veteran barbers. I put my trust in the one who was available, and got a little nervous when he started out with the electric sheers. By the time he was done, I had a nice, if not short, haircut.
We stopped at our favorite pizzeria for some "take away" pizza on the way back to the house. While waiting for our pizza, we noticed photos of the owner on the wall, who was waiting on us, with several of his buddies, sitting aboard Harleys. He doesn't speak much better English than we speak Italian, so as Bev and I were heading to the door, I pointed at the pictures and said, “Do you know Sturgis?” His face lit up like a Christmas tree and he nodded and tried to say something. Then he quickly gave up, took out a pen and wrote on a napkin, “2011” and handed it to me with a championship smile on his face. I said, “You are going to Sturgis in 2011?” He nodded and smiled, and I held up 5 fingers and said, “We live about 5 hours from Sturgis.” By this time his early-20-something son was in on the conversation, interested and amused like the rest of us. As we left, in the best Italian I could muster on the spot, I said, “Tu amore,” which in my mind was saying, “You will love it [the bike rally at Sturgis]." The owner and his son laughed and waved goodbye. As we were driving back to the house, I said to Bev, “I just realized that I might have told that owner of the pizzeria that I love him.”
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