(L) No blog yesterday as we had a complete and utter nothing day. I was up, showered and dressed fairly early and the whole fever, cold thing seemed gone but had a killer headache and Deb was still feeling pretty bad so we decided we should just stay home, sleep, rest and get better so that we can enjoy the rest of our trip. We made a quick trip out to the supermarket for some potatoes because I had a craving for my "go to comfort food" of fried potato squares tossed in garlic, salt, pepper and chilli - just what we needed!! 

Today we both woke feeling much much better and though I still seem to have a cough occasionally I'm feeling fine. Packing up is always a chore, making sure you haven't forgotten anything, doing all the dishes etc but we managed to get away by 9am. We're both a little disappointed in our time here in Bagni - we had been so looking forward to it as "the place" of the trip but unfortunately being sick really changed our whole perception. 

Now most people, I guess, would go back to Lucca and take the highway up to Monterosso but we had decided we wanted to see Barga and all the other little mountain towns that we missed out on yesterday. Not 5 minutes out of Bagni we took a wrong turn and ended up winding our way up, and up, and up and goodness knows where we were but it was on top of the world with teeny tiny streets.... Deb did take photos though so we'd know where we'd been. We turned around and on the way down took another turn that we thought we might have missed the first time and ended up in another town on top of a mountain with a street so skinny that we had a builder guy directing us through the minuscule gap into the town square - unfortunately it looked like we'd get wedged halfway in so I had to reverse back out and we made a humble retreat with the locals looking on in disdain!! We really regret that we didn't get photos but at the time we were too busy trying to work out what the Italian worker was yelling at us and making sure we didn't scratch the sides of the car.... he even came and pushed up our rearview mirrors so they didn't get ripped off!!

We did finally make it to Barga in an hour and a half ( Jane said it would take 23 minutes as is only 20 something kms! ). We had a wander and stopped for a coffee and one thing we noticed is how friendly everyone was. 

The rest of the trip to Monterosso was driving up and down mountains, switchbacks, tiny streets that we'd say "is this one way"? ..... crazy Italian drivers that seem to all drive in the middle of the road and don't make an effort to get out of your way and a few more wrong or missed turns that led us on more adventures and discoveries. Needless to say the trip that Jane told us would take 2 and a half hours took us just over 6 hours!! 

Driving down into Monterosso Al Mare was a gorgeous sight and I had to work very hard at keeping my eyes on the road! 

We have rented an apartment through Air BnB for the 2 nights we're here and we were met by the owner's daughters who were absolutely fabulous in helping us park the car and giving us all the information we could possibly need for our stay.

We had a quick wander around - a glass of wine - a stop at the supermarket then home for and hour before heading out for dinner at Barabba Restaurant which is just at the end of the street. 

Tomorrow we "do" the Cinque Terre!!

(D) I think our "day off" the day before was both necessary and wonderful as we both felt so much better the next one - which was good given it was a travel day. As Liane said we did get a little 'lost" a few times but never in a worried kind of way - unlike our feelings towards some of the roads...... they were somewhat worrying, especially the one Liane mentioned where the builder guy was so helpful, if ultimately unsuccessful, in guiding us through the narrowest gap. I hadn't thought our car was particularly large, in fact I would have said it was small, but it's obviously not small enough for the "roads" through some of the hill villages. As the houses are built straight off the road, no footpaths or shoulders in sight, there isn't much leeway given so our retreat was definitely one of discretion being the better part of valour!

We made it to Barga where we parked the car in a one hour spot, again with a handwritten note saying the time since we didn't have the proper time clock. I had found out though that you can purchase them in Tabbachi's so as there was one directly inside the gate we popped in and I asked the man if I could buy one. "Ahhhh finito" he says, and waves at the empty box on the counter - typical! As our first example though of how friendly the people in Barga are, he proceeded to collect a piece of paper and a red texta and write a note out, which he signed, saying the time we arrived which we duly took back to our car..... so nice of him. As we walked around Barga, and stopped for coffee, we had more smiles and Buon Giornos than we've had in all of Italy put together so far. Lovely place - and good coffee!

We stopped for lunch "on the way" at Rimessa di Agliano, a place with a beautiful green lake, and enjoyed a lovely lunch with a very friendly and helpful proprietress. Her English was only slightly better than our Italian, but we managed to order and to converse (a little!) about the warmth of the sun and the beautiful day.

Considering it was "just" a travel day, we really had a nice day out with side adventures of getting "lost" and friendly interactions with charming Italian people, so all in all it was a very good day - especially ending with the arrival here at Antonella's in Monterosso and being greeted by the ever so friendly, chatty and helpful Giulia and Mariana. They gave us lots of fab info about the area with helpful tips that will no doubt be great when we explore tmw..... looking forward to it!

We popped down the road to a restaurant Giulia had mentioned would be open for dinner and enjoyed a thoroughly yummy wood fired pizza and a bottle of wine..... well the bottle of wine was our second go at wine buying as originally we requested a carafe of the house rosso (red) which we have done just about everywhere and whilst some has been better than others this one was DIRE! Liane tasted it first and made a comment about nail polish remover which I kind of heard her say but it didn't really register - until I lifted my glass to my lips. Before I even sipped it I was overcome by the fumes of..... yes nail polish remover - that's EXACTLY what it smelt like!!! Because we are idiots we both had a sip to confirm it really tasted like it smelt - and then another because we didn't believe our tastebuds..... but then we were, no this is just not happening. The girl, who didn't speak English at all, and with whom we placed our order came over to the table so I indicated the wine and sort of shook my head and waved my hand towards it whilst saying "scusi". She got the point instantly and removed it, brought us the wine list again and all was good. As Liane said maybe she was expecting it as she didn't seem at all shocked, disturbed, insulted or perturbed by it, instead she smiled at my continued apologies and assured us it was all fine. Another lovely Italian!