Rest and Relaxation.  Recovery and Recuperation.  Red and Rover.  Rhubarb and Rutabagas.  Whatever you want to call it, during a year-long deployment, the Army is nice enough to allow soldiers like myself to get the hell out of theater for fifteen days and go enjoy life for a change.  While most folks braved a transatlantic flight to go home, I only had to fly back to Frankfurt, then catch a ride home with an Air Force ground crew guy and surprise Kelly by just showing up.  We had a great week in Italy and good times just hanging out in Germany.  It was definitely time well spent.

        Of the five towns that make up Cinque Terre, a beautiful stretch of the Ligurian coast, Manarola is #4 if you count from west to east.  When Kelly and I were looking to spend a week of my R&R leave in Cinque Terre, I actually hoped to stay in Corniglia because I was under the impression that it was the least touristy.  (This was based on my observations during the fall of 2002.)  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that (a) Manarola is relatively free of tourists and (b) what tourists there are tend to stay down on the main street towards the harbor.  Kelly and I rented a small apartment (Alla Porta Rossa) that overlooked the vineyards on the hills across the small valley from most of the town.  We also had a good ocean view - no sweeping vista, but just enough.  It was perfect.
 
 

Riomaggiore

      Riomaggiore is the fifth town at the eastern end of the national park containing Cinque Terre.  Although you can take a car, a boat, or a train from Manarola to Riomaggiore, the most scenic way is to walk the Via dell'Amore, a cliffside path above the ocean.  It's a nice walk, but it's a bit spoiled by all of the graffiti in the covered walkway right next to Riomaggiore.  We didn't spend much time in this town, so I don't feel I got much of a sense for it at all, but it seemed like a nice little place.
 
 

Corniglia and Vernazza

      #3 and #2 in the series, respectively.  (The first and most visited by tourists is Monterosso, which we avoided entirely except for a brief stint in the stazione on our way out.)  Unlike the other towns, which start out on hillsides but spill down to the sea, Corniglia is perched high above the water.  There is a small cove on the eastern side of town, accessible from a long, long staircase down from the town proper.  It's good for swimming if you take care of your feet and don't let them get cut by the barnacles on the rocks.

        I let my feet get cut by the barnacles on the rocks.

        As a result, I spent the rest of my R&R hobbling around Italy and Germany.  This was especially bad during the train strike in Milan.  But I tried not to let it ruin my trip, especially when I hiked from Corniglia to Vernazza along a much longer seaside cliff trail than the Via dell'Amore. Vernazza is worth the walk, and besides, there's a bar strategically placed between the two towns.
 

Verona

      Long before I came back for my leave, Kelly informed me that she had a surprise side trip planned for our trip to Italy.  She taunted me with this for a while until I asked her to just let me be surprised.  Turns out that she could have hit me over the head with it and I would still have been surprised.  Before we left for Cinque Terre, she had mentioned that Sigur Ros was on tour in Europe and that she had considered getting tickets and ultimately decided against it.  I told her that was probably wise, since although I like their music when the mood is right, I'm not sure what an entire concert would be like.  (If you're not familiar with their music, they are very, very mellow.)  So, when we arrived in Verona and I saw Coldplay tour T-shirts, I was confused.  (In my defense, I was pretty tired from the all-day train ride.)  I said, "Hey, Coldplay shirts," and she said nothing.  I looked closer and saw that they included a Verona date.  I said, "Hey, they're playing here."  Again, she said nothing.  I looked again and it said 12 July.  I looked at my watch and said, "Hey, that's today."  Still nothing.  "Did we talk about this?" I asked.  She said no.  I shrugged and just kept walking.  She finally had mercy on me and said, "That's the surprise."  Suddenly it was all clear.  I swear, though, she could have waited until we were walking into the arena before I would have figured it out, I was that clueless.  The show was great, especially because of the venue, a 2,000-year-old Roman arena.  It was a wonderful surprise.
 
 

Burg Eltz and the Rhein

        The last few days I spent in Germany were a bit anticlimactic after a perfect week in Italy, but our time was definitely well spent.  Kelly organized a party at Die Hutte, our favorite German restaurant in Wiesbaden (which just happens to be within stumbling distance of our apartment).  After that, we took two day trips out, one to tour Burg Eltz in the Mosel valley, and the other to tour the Louis Guntrum winery in Nierstein.  This latter trip is now forever known as the "nature bad" walk.  My wife is not the biggest fan of nature, and we spent a bit too much time in a nature park across the Rhein from Nierstein for her taste.  Fortunately they had cool swings at the end and we were able to salvage some fun out of the afternoon.  (We bought a lot of good wine, too, so that helped.)
 
 

The Cats of Cinque Terre

        I saved the best for last.  Kelly and I inherited two cats, Ciao Bello and Little Bit, from our good friends Bailey and Angie Brown, and we have grown quite attached to them.  Plus, I've always loved cats.  So it came as no surprise that we took time to pet every single cat Cinque Terre had to offer us - and they have quite a lot of cats there. Here is a sampling of the feline encounters we had on our trip, from the kitten with the gigantic eyes that lived right across the alley from our apartment (top row, middle) to the five cats who inhabit the path between Corniglia and Vernazza (middle row, right), here is a sampling of the cats we encountered during the week.