I walked 500 miles

So I'm back from a little trek through Italy with the 'rents. Man do they love gelati. And walking. I think it's some sort of evil self-imposed punishment/reward regime.

I ate gelato everyday and we averaged somewhere around 8 miles per day walking -- I'll get the actuals all added up and report them here later. Which is possible because my mom has a pedometer. So in addition to actual distance traveled, I'll also be able to tell you how many steps we took and how many of those were 'aerobic' steps.

Our itinerary was:
Saturday - Genoa
Sunday - Cinque Terra; we set-up camp in Vernazza
Monday - Florence
Tuesday - Siena
Wednesday - Rome

The Cinque Terra was definitely a highlight. Do a Google image search (or just look at the pictures below) and you'll see why. I also really liked Siena. I liked Florence more than last time (in the year 2000!) and Rome less.



Most days our routine went something like this:
early - Mom & Dad wake up, take showers and get ready, eat breakfast in the hotel.
right before leaving - I wake up.
mid-morning - we drive to the new destination. Dad is unimpressed with my navigation skills, responding with passive-aggressive comments about probable faster routes and my inability to deliver perfect information when he needs it, and complete silence when he does not. Mom sits in the back seat and smiles lovingly.
early afternoon - arrival in the next town; check-in to the hotel if one was reserved or finding one if no reservation was made. In the Cinque Terra we stayed in some kind of guestroom owned by a guy named Francesco. Lunch.
afternoon - we would walk a lot.
late afternoon - Gelati (the plural of Gelato).
early evening - back to the hotel for Dad to change into jeans, a fresh embroidered logo polo, and an embroidered logo jacket; quick nap for me.
evening - dinner, coffee, desert.
still pretty early evening - Mom and Dad crash for the night. I wander around the city looking for trouble.

Hazelnut Gelato is pretty great.

So now I'm back and my folks are walking around Belgium and Holland for a few days without me. They get back on Sunday afternoon and we'll probably walk some more, and then eat some more.