Day 7 - Greve-in-Chianti and Lerici

Got up feeling abit rough, but not bad. Had breakie and then we jumped in the car early enough adn headed for the coast. WE went (i drove), through the outskirts of Florence and then west to just north of Pisa, and then north along the coast. The driving was fine; on teh back roads through the mountains from Greve to Firenze (Florence) adn then on the highway the rest of the way. The highway is alot like the 401 between T.O. and Ottawa, but I spent most of the time in the slow lane, but still averaged between 130 and 140. Got passed by more Ferrari's today than in my whole life to this point. The fast lane is FAST.
It was pretty cool as we got closer to the Cinque Terre region and the coast because of the huge mountains, the views, and the bridges adn tunnels. At one point, we came out of a tunnel going through a mountain, onto a very narrow bridge with no walls, so you could see straight down the 100 foot + drop pretty much, and then drove straight into another tunnel in a mountain. Was pretty cool. If anyone didn't know, again, Faye is afraid of heights. I didn't know she was a very spiritual person, but i heard her say 'Jesus Christ' more today than i've maybe heard anyone say it in one day. At one point she was so terrified that she grabbed my arm as i was shifting to pass someone and simply looked at me and said 'No.'. This was as we were on one of these very high land bridges adn the look on her face told me she wasn't joking around.
Based on advice from a few people, we decided that instead of staying right in the Cinque Terre, we would stay in the sea-side town of Lerici instead, just a few km south of the Cinque Terre.
So we made our way into Lerici where theyre's a ferry running to the Cinque Terre and we found a B&B through the tourist information office. The place is really just a families ground floor, but we have the whole thing and even have our own rooms with king sized beds for only 30 euro each a night. the house is maybe 100m from the sea, but of course, straight up a hill and on the narrowest streets i've EVER seen. I had to make this one lafter hand turn after dropping off our luggage and had to turn up a hill with walls on either side of me and 'maybe' one foot of clearance on either side of me and at a T junction. To make things even worse, i had a car and a motorbike behind me waiting. Itìs impossible to try and describe, but it was rediculous and i was convinced that I was going to scrape the bumper on the wall, but then i stalled the stupid thing, going straight uphill, while half turned and by now the bike was right between me adn wall (idiot), adn he couldnn't move, so i tried going up without scraping the car and without rolling into bikerboy. Not sure how, but somehow it worked out. I'm pretty sure i'm a manual transmission pro now. I've never driven one regularly at home, but all this experience through the mountain zigzags adn the steep, narrow hills through towns force you to get good in a hurry.
From our home for the next few nights, we headed along the coast into the heart of Lerici (about a 1 km walk). This place is rediculously nice. Stretches along the coast with beaches and a large marina, with mountains all around and a large castle at one end sticking out from the point. We sat down at a restaurant along the water and drank local vino and watched the sun set over the mountain islands just off the point adn over the Mediteranean Sea. We explored the town abit and then ate alone one of the side streets at a restaurant and we sat at a table literally 'on the road' (there are no sidewalks in any of these small towns). After dinner and some more vino, we headed for home. One the way home we stopped and watched a live band playing in teh main square along the water. They were all Italian adn they did a 10 minute version of 'Twist and Shout' that was rediculously funny.
Up early tomorrow and catching teh first ferry into the Cinque Terre.