Italia & Espana

We made it to Barcelona! We have had spotty internet connection, so that's why we haven't been posting. Here's an update:

Rome is not flat! I think they say there are 7 or so hills in Rome and I think we walked up them all 3 times...(in the snow, with one glove Dad just like you! Haha!) Rome is not cheap either. I think we got charged extra for everything just because we are not Italians! We saw some pretty cool things in Rome!

Florence was amazing! We had such a good time. We rented a car and drove to Pisa, San Gimignano, and Siena, which are all in Tuscany, and spent the next day roaming around Florence. We had some very good wine here! We love this city!

The Cinque Terre was fun. This is a group of 5 villages along the coast of Italy. You are supposed to be able to "walk" between each one. We traveled to the village furthest to the West and worked our way back (because we were staying in a city closest to the most eastern city) We decided to walk the first trail and see how it was and then decide if we wanted to do the rest. Well, it ends up that we were hiking up and down a large mountain and were on the ocean side the whole time, so when it started to rain, we got drenched! It is supposed to take about 2 hours to hike the path we did, but it took us almost 3 because of the rain and treacherous terrain! When we finally got to the next city, we saw they had closed all the paths except the last one because of the weather! We took a train to each village and then walked the last path, which is a paved, flat path, called the Via dell' Amore.

Then we visited Monte Carlo and Cannes! If we had lots of money, I would love to live in Monte Carlo! It was so nice! Cannes was pretty too! There is a beach and a walkway right along the beach.

Then on to Bordeaux! We tasted some great wine in Bordeaux and figured out our "wine sign"! The city reminds us of a less crowded, smaller Paris!

Now we are in Barcelona. We are spending all day here tomorrow (Tuesday) and leaving for Madrid tomorrow night. We leave Madrid around lunch time for Atlanta!

We are having fun, but we are exhausted! Can't wait to see everyone when we get back!