Italy!! Beautiful country and coast, but the beach has got nothing on Florida. It's a rock beach. Weird, right? We were in the Cinque Terre, which is a national park and 5 little coastal villages that have kept their small town size while still greatly catering to every tourist within 96 miles. Anyway, I added a lot of pictures because it was beautiful.

But, the landscape was absolutely stunning. We walked some of the trails connecting the coastal villages, and through hot and sweaty, the views from the peaks into these little streets was well worth it. Really, you have to see it to feel how quaint it is.(Read: stucco falling off of buildings, laundry drying above the streets and neighbors yelling to each other out their doors.)

It needs to be said, though, that Italy needs Jesus. There is absolutely no moral compass. Women on the beach without all their swimsuit, little kids running around without all their clothes, and lots of PDA. Italy just needs Jesus. And it makes me wonder: the personality of their culture is amazingly similiar to Spain's. So, did the ultra-conservative/ restrictive Franco regime actually prevent the morality of the Spanish culture from collapsing altogether? And in 15, 25, 35 years, are they going to look just like Italy? Once you go there, once these things are so prevelant, there is no going back. Pandora's box does not close.

<--- one of the towns, Manarola, maybe?

Specifics: we stayed in Vernazza, which is really touristy but adorable. Our B&B was in a back street, with a babbling brook out our window and some really noisy ducks. (: It was peaceful and very refreshing. It was really nice to be able to leave the window ajar and not be awakened by street noise at 5am. I had lots of amazing pizza, and gelato every day, of course. We hiked the trails part of one day, and swam in the Mediterranean and then took the boat back from Monterosso to Vernazza, very short, but very relaxing and scenic. I'll let the pictures do their work to show you what it looked like.

<-- I think you can actually see three of the towns if you look closely.

<--This was the lady who let us into our hotel. Her daughter actually runs it, but she was out of town, so the mama fixed us up. No English. Nice lady, though.

We also did the Chateau de Chillon in Montreux, Switz before leaving. This was probably one of my favorite things we did, because the castle is in such good shape. It's about 900 years old, has always been maintained, and it's really cool. It's on Lake Geneva with the French Alps in the background.

All these wonderful things being said, I was not entirely at ease in Italy, to put it mildly. Perhaps it’s not fair to put this down, but 80% of the Italians we met were unkind. Maybe it’s because we were in the tourist part, and they all hate their jobs, which is probable, so let's give them the benefit of the doubt. We met a few nice people, but it was surprising how brusque most of them were. So many people I know who have been there have gushed over the friendliness and warmth of the Italians, so it must be there, but we didn't see much of that. So, at any rate, Switzerland was a huge contrast to Italy, between the pristine, on time, silent Swiss trains and the late, dirty, loud Italian trains, there was a lot to compare. For me, Switzerland won every time. But I'm so glad we went. And if you ever have the chance to visit Italy, you should definitely go.