Is Nice nice?

Ciao/Bonjour!

Since Casey is hacking away beside me at the impossible layout of the French keyboard to tell you about Florence, I figured I would use this time to give a little update about our time on the Italian and French Rivieras.

First stop - Cinque Terre. This amazing place, literally meaning "Five Lands", is the very picture of quaint-ness. (That's a word, right?) I should warn you now that this part of the trip went pretty smoothly so all I can do is gush about how perfect it was. This is your cue to skip to the next entry if you're the kind of person who only watches sports to see someone mess up and fall.

Our train ride was amazing not only because it was clean and quiet, but because the scenery was unbelievable. There had been thunderstorms all morning, so my first glimpse of the Mediterranean as we emerged from the train tunnel was bright blue churning water under a darkened, stormy sky. Wow. Our campsite in Levanto was gorgeous too -- we had our own little shady terrace surrounded by olive trees. Since this was the part of the trip where nothing was to go wrong, the skies cleared up just as we finished setting up the tent and we spent the afternoon lounging on the beach. Rough life, huh?

The next morning we embarked on what would ultimately be a 12 hour day of hiking between six towns. Because we camped in Levanto, which is not technically one of the 5 Cinque Terre cities, we added an extra leg of hiking to our trip. This part, our first hike of the day, turned out to be not only the most difficult, but the most beautiful. We wound along cliffside paths with panoramic views of the Mediterranean and the surrounding coastline. We went through vineyards, found secluded beaches, and hiked to the top of several small peaks. Not bad for a day's "work". And of course, we got something to eat in each of the towns -- both to give us a literal taste of the local culture, and to keep us going on the next leg of our trip.

An early morning train ride out of Levanto was when we bid farewell to Italy (or so we thought). Our connecting train was booked so we sat in a local Italian train station for a couple of hours until the next one came along.

There isn't too much else to report on the last couple of days in Biot (a small town on the French Riviera). We have been spending the majority of our time eating picnics and drinking cheap wine on the beach. Last night we ventured to Antibes for dinner and to explore the little downtown area. We ate an authentic French meal of garlic naan and chicken tikka masala, got a bit lost, did some window shopping, then meandered back to Biot. (Which, incidentally, is not prounounced "B.O." like body odor but "bee-ot". Way not as funny.)

Right now we are in the midst of a day trip to Nice which I am told is nice, but I wouldn't know yet because the only things I've seen have been the train station and this internet cafe. We are planning to grab some lunch and head to the Chagal and Matisse museums, climb a hill of some sort, and likely do some more lounging on a beach.

Miss you all!