Dear Italy: We love you.

Good morning everyone! Katy here. Matt is back at the room showering up before we head to Monterosso for our beach day. Yesterday we completed a loooooooong hike that stretched across all of the five lands of the Cinque Terre. BEAUTIFUL. Parts of it were like walking through the jungle, and other parts were through true Italian countryside: with little bridges and stone pathways high above the sea. I can't even descibe it. Amazing. The hike took most of the day, because we stopped in a couple of the towns for lunch and, you guessed it, more gelato. :) Yummm! We love the town of Vernazza, it's my favorite for sure. There is a little cove with boats docked in it, and there are tons of bright buildings and colorful umbrellas that line the streets. It's exactly what I pictured Italy to look like! (I guess you can just look at the picture and see what I'm talking about.) Parts of the hike were challenging because it was stairs straight up for MILES (okay. exaggeration.) But it sure felt like it! Otherwise, it wasn't a super difficult hike, but it was so rewarding to look at the views!

This is me in Vernazza. This was our first stop on the hike, about two hours into the hike. Here is Matt at a local wine bar. All of their products are made right in the Cinque Terre!

This is us on our hike, looking down on the town below.

We took the train back to Levanto at around 7:30 last night, showered up then bought some pizza and had dinner on the beach. We both plugged into our iPods and nearly fell asleep on the beach for a good 2.5 hours just listening to music after the sun went down. So today we are going to lay on the beach all day. Yes. All day. We have no other plans. Have a good day everyone, love you all!

Here are a couple more pictures from the day before yesterday. We went into the neighboring town of Bonassola for dinner. It was so beautiful!!

Matt and I found out pretty quickly that Katy and tequila don't mix well...

Matt and his pina colada. :) Happy camper.

We love you all!! Miss you!