The Cinque Terre

Back in the beginning of June, we rented a villa with some friends in the Cinque Terre. The Cinque Terre is a stretch of coastline along the Mediterranean in the Northern part of Italy. It is also called the Italian Riviera and it is beautiful. Most of the coastline is mountains with only small sections beach. Although the beaches are great and the water is teal blue, the biggest draw to this area are the 5 towns the make up the Cinque Terre: Monterosso, Vernazza, Riomaggiore, Corniglia and Manarola.

The villa we rented was up on the hillside of the town Levanto. It had an amazing view and more importantly, we didn't have be concerned about the kids making too much noise. Colin loved it because he could explore the yard and look for bugs and lizards (or as he calls them, mini beasts). One night we even had lizards in the house! We spend a day as a group exploring a couple of towns. We then traded off the kids and were able to hike from the first town to the last on a path that ran through the mountains. The views were amazing and what started as an easy trail turned tough at times. The entire trail is a little over 7 miles in length.


View from the trail

We spent 2 days on the beach in Monterosso. There were some free beaches, but we found it was worth the money to rent a spot with an umbrella and 2 chairs. Our spot was along side a rock jetty where we found lots of snails, crabs and sea urchins. This is where Craig got a little too close to a sea urchin and ended up with several urchin spines in his toe. This is also where I saw a Asian tourist smash open a sea urchin and eat it with a fork. I think I was more shocked that she was carrying a metal fork with her than the fact that she was picking them out of the sea and eating them.

A couple of weeks earlier, Colin lost his first tooth. It happened quick; it was wobbly one day and came out the next. I don't think knew what to expect and played with it a bit too much. When it came out, it bleed and it hurt him a little bit. Within days, the second one was loose and he let it hang in there. Finally, he lost his second tooth while we were on the beach. So cute!

LOVE this picture!

Zomer Vakantie

Summer vacation has started off with a bang. We have been trying to keep the kids busy and have so far had them at the zoo, the Natural History Museum and the carnival.

On Saturday, we celebrated the Fourth of July by hosting a BBQ complete with hot dogs, hamburgers and potato salad. We had a house full of people that included the Dutch, British, Irish and Germans. The American were completely out numbered!

On Friday, we will be driving to the UK for a long weekend in Bath. We will drive to France where we pick up a ferry to take us (and the car) across the channel. I am a little nervous about driving in the UK, I am sure we will have plenty of stories when we get back.


Natural History Museum



At the Carnival



Goin' Fishin'



With the Penguins



Sketching using real life models