Socks Are Washed....

Thursday 18, September: Jim doesn't even know what to say about this day! We trudged several blocks, up and down several sets of stairs to locate the "Self-Serve Laundry"...the one that ended up being located in the alley right next door to our hotel. With help from the nice Italian lady with all the change we started a load of wash and pulled up a chair...so far, so good. Four hours later we took our wet jeans up to our room to dry! End of day!


Friday 19, September: It is really raining, hmm.... it would be a great day to stay in and do wash...oh, that's right we already did that!! We grabbed ponchos and a train and headed to La Spezia....where there just happens to be a knitting store, very little else, but a knitting store! We found the knit store (with the help of three Italian men!!!) and 11 skeins later we set out to find the covered market and the weekly outdoor market. It was really fun despite the rain! When in Rome...we noticed all the La Spezia women carrying these zip-up rain bags and 1.40 euro later...we have one too (really good for keeping yarn dry!!)! During lunch, the rain cleared so we set out for the harbor and ended up taking a boat to Portovenere. Porovenere is the poor man's Portofino, so we were right at home. Just before reaching Portovenere we saw the most beautiful house...perfect for us. Now we just need to figure out the name of the town (tough to contact a realtor if you don't know the name of where you want to buy)!! Portovenere was beautiful and we had an amazing boat ride back home.

Saturday 20, September: One week anniversary!!! Jim is still trying to contact his attorney...where is Giacomo Simonelli when you need him? We had boxed up stuff and headed to the post office to mail them home. Let's just say, post office employees here are much the same as those in the states (no offense Elaine). The gentleman that helped us looked and acted exactly like Medavoy from NYPD Blue...what we really needed was Cliffy from Cheers....someone a little less by the book. Oh the mistakes we made...let's just say 2 hours and 140 euros later the packages are on their way...we hope! Had an espresso to calm ourselves and headed to Monterosso for....get ready for this...the annual Sagra delle Acciughe (the Anchovy Fesitval !) It was great! Acciughe everywhere! We met up with Berny (an Italian who lives here, near the Cinque Terre and I contacted through Ravelry). She had a yarn and knitting booth at the festival. She was wonderful and we made a new friend. She gave me some hand-dyed yarn and Jim a hand knitted, purple acciuga. We ate (too much!) at the fesitval and then took the boat back to Vernazza. Soon after returning the 5 o'clock church bells sounded, but this time they played an entire song...I think in celebration of our wedding one week earlier...to the minute.