The Weekend in Black and White

I took this picture of my brother David in 2008,
when we were hiking in Italy's Cinque Terre; we took
the trip two years after he'd been diagnosed
with Stage 4 cancer.  He managed to hang with us until
April 2011 and stayed in character—energetic, positive, and
gregarious—until the end.  Missing you, David. 

[To see more b/w photos, visit Dragonstar's meme.]

Thursday Challenge—"trail"

Hiking in Italy's Cinque Terre:
The trail from Monterosso al Mare to Vernazza
is not the easiest one I've ever hiked and I 

was usually bringing up the rear, as you can see.

(I'm more of a NYC-concrete walker than an 

"uphill rugged terrain" kind of girl).
If you want to see the reward at the top of

this trail, look at yesterday's post.

[To see more of the Thursday Photo Challenge, visit Dale's meme.]

ABC Wednesday—W is for "Waterlogue"

My pal Virginia at Paris Through My Lens introduced
me to this app called Waterlogue that can
make your photo look like a watercolor painting.
It's tons of fun, but (in this case anyway) . . .

to be completely honest, I
think I prefer my original photo
of the beautiful village of Vernazza,
in Italy's Cinque Terre.

[To see more ABC posts, go here.]

Thursday Challenge—"outdoors"

To be perfectly honest, I'm mostly an indoors
kind of girl.  However, I am more than willing and able
to pull on a pair of sturdy shoes and make the uphill
effort for a payoff like this.  I took this shot from a
hiking trail in Italy's Cinque Terre and our destination—the
beautiful village of Vernazza—had just come into view.

[To see more of the Thursday Photo Challenge, go here.]

Thursday Challenge—"stairs"

I counted these stairs as I climbed them—there are
386, from the trail we were hiking up to the town of
Corniglia, in the Cinque Terre.  (There is a shuttle bus
that will bring you up from the train station down
there, but somehow that seemed like cheating.)


[To see more of the Thursday Photo Challenge, go here.]

Thursday Challenge — "thankful"

Impossible to choose one photo to show all the things I'm thankful for.
But I should be thankful for every new day that dawns—and
especially when I get to greet the dawn in a place like this.
It was the view from my window when I got up to record
the 7 a.m. church bells in Vernazza, in the Cinque Terre.


To see more thankfulness, visit the Thursday Photo Challenge:
http://www.spunwithtears.com/thursday.html

Traveling Tuesdays—the Cinque Terre

In honor of our host Sandi's upcoming trip, here's
the picture everyone takes when they hike from
Monterosso al Mare and get this view of Vernazza.
With an incredible vista at every turn, I
"OMG"ed my way along the entire length of this trail!


To see more Tuesday Travels, visit Sandi's blog:
http://whistlestopcooking.blogspot.com/

Skywatch Friday

Took this of the Mediterranean from one
of the hiking trails in the Cinque Terre,
in Italy. The not-too-tough trail got
treacherous when the skies finally
opened up—those rocks are definitely
slippery when wet!

hiking in the Cinque Terre

We did hikes at all levels—mostly easy and intermediate

in my case, but one day my brother David and his friend Cory

took off on a straight up, straight down killer (imho) hike. Cory's

wife, Lori (yes, that's right, Cory and Lori—great people)

and I took the (sort of) low road—thank you, Lori!

lock up your love

They're trying to stop couples from doing this

on the Ponte Vecchio, so the lovers have moved

a bit upstream to the Ponte alla Grazie to keep

the tradition going (you write your names on the

lock and toss the key in the water). 

Of course, in the Cinque Terre, on the Via dell'Amore,

 they're all for the lucchetti d'amore—and 

have set up a special place for them.

that room (with a view)

I showed you this room (on 10/7), from an

old issue of Conde Nast Traveler.  But I did

manage to book this very room (no mean

feat), and here it is—more or less as captured

by the CNT photog (who was, I now 

know, standing on the bed)

 . . . and seen from the trail (after a

1- to 2-hour hike from Monterosso

al Mare, the next village up the coast).

hiking in Paradise

Here's our base camp for hiking the

Cinque Terre. (Sorry for the soft photo, but

I had to take this off the computer screen.)

Am seriously hoping for decent weather

for today!