Missing Those Salted Anchovies...

Cinque Terre was amazing!

Herewith, my Top Ten Great Things about a Trip to Cinque Terre, Italy:

10. No schedule, nothing to do all day except anything you want to do.

9. Marscapone and Nutella gelato.

8. Sunsets over the harbor at 9:30.

7. Watching the older locals sit and soak up the evening sun while watching all us foreigners wander around, admiring their city.

6. A good day's hike (thereby giving you justification for the huge portion of gelato you'll eat later).

5. House wine: You cannot get a bad liter (!) of house wine at any restaurant in Italy. It's cheap and it's good.

4. Changing into your swimsuit on a secluded part of the trail because it's just too hot and you need to swim immediately.

3. Sicilian pastries for breakfast, accompanied by delicious Italian coffee.

2. Dinners with your mom (well, in this case, my mom).

1. Thinking you're going to miss your flight because you got caught by Security trying to smuggle a large bottle of lotion in your carry-on (what? it's Italy, they probably won't care...), then had to stand in line at the post office trying to mail it home (what? it was nice lotion!) and one lady took 25 minutes to send a fax or something, then deciding you'll just pay to check your bag with the lotion in it and having to stand in another line to pay someone, run back to the check-in desk to get your ticket, and then discover the Security line is about a mile long. So, you cut in front of some people (totally against your rule-following personality- it hurts!) because you really want to get home, only then realizing that your flight is delayed anyway and all those people in the line were probably headed to Frankfurt, too. Ohs, well.