Pesto and other good things

I visited the birth place of pesto, I know you are jealous. Cinque Terre is the area of 5 fishing villages on the side of the cliffs inthe Italian Riviera. Half of the town consists of beautiful, old, colorful buldings on top of each other piled on the side of the cliff. The other half of the each of the five towns and the space between them are terraced hill sides growing tons of produce; grapes, basil, lemons, tomates, etc. I had booked a room above a restaurant in the 2nd town of Manarola. When we arrived we went to the restaurant where we then followed a woman to our room. it was definitely ABOVE the restarant, we hiked up to nearly the top of the town where she lead us into a beautiful room with an amazing view!!!!!! (pictures eventually) That night we ate at the restaurant way down below. It was fantastic! Raviolo Pesto, grilled calamari and local wine that was okay. But the dessert wine a sweet raisin wine was superb but cost about $40 for a small thin bottle. so we only got the glass which was actually compliments of the restaurant i guess cause we were staying there. The big thing to do in Cinque Terre is the hike. we woke up early the next morning to start the trek to each of the other 4 towns. They say it takes about 5 hours to do the whole hike with little stopping. It was an all day adventure and it was so worth it. The trail at times was no wider the width of my foot with a hill on one side and a four foot drop on the left. 4 feet does seem like much but it is not an easy trail.. but it is a fun one!

Eating our way through Europe

Yay, we made it to Europe and are enjoying the food! Paris had the best bread! Ed indulged in steak tartare and we enjoyed a delicous picnic under the Eiffel tower with procuitto, cheeses, wine and our good friend Keving who arrived on the same day as us. We also had a fun time eating at the cafe where Amelie was filmed, Le Deux Moulin. Ed fell in love with the 3 cheese quiche, one of the cheeses was bleu! On to Avignon where we wandered the old walled city and toured the Pope's palace and has some pretty good tapas. Now we are in Nice where the weather is gorgeous (it rained in Paris, but not bad and the wind was crzy in Avignon). Last night we stumbled upon a delicous and inexpensive Tunisian restourant. it is great what you can find by accident! Today a quick trip to monaco and tomorrow off to Cinque Terre Italy ( where we stay above a retaurant).