Clique Terre

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Today was basically a travel day. We left our hotel early and while waiting for the vaporetto watched the MSC Musica being towed out of the Grand Canal. The ship is 92,000 tons, carries 2,500 passengers and is 16 stories tall. Clearly it dwarfs anything in Venice. Our guide, Cristina, explained the environmental damage ships like this cause. I would agree that ships like this have no business in the Grand Canal and it won't be too far in the future until they have no Venice to destroys.<br style="color:𶐎 font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;" />Our first train was to Milan where we able to get a nice lunch to take with us. We arrived in Monterosso at about 3. The area around the train station was so congested that we had to fight our way onto the sidewalk. The main part of the village was teeming with tourists. It wasn't very far to the B&B where we were staying, but schlepping a 30 pound suitcase over cobblestones and stairs was challenging. Jack graciously carried my suitcase the last flight of stairs. We went out to stroll around, but the concentration of tourists and shops selling schlock was pretty daunting. We ended up having dinner in a restaurant around the corner from the hotel. Walking in I spotted a man eating an attractive seafood stew, so I ordered the same. It was as good as it looked. As we were about to leave, a couple celebrating their 25th anniversary and his birthday sat down next to us. The husband eyed my stew and ordered it for himself. When the wife took a picture of her her husband's meal, she commented that a friend had told her it is always a good idea to take picture of food since it helps you remember the experience of the trip. I decided that was good advice and took a picture of her husband's meal since mine was almost gone.

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