6/22/14. The post where we start the final leg of our journey.

6/22/14: up early this morning to pack up the car and leave the Cinque Terre for the final leg of our trip.  We drove to Milan, turned in our rental car, and took the train to northern Italy.  Milan would have signaled the end of our trip, but my patient, long-suffering husband's parents had graciously invited us to join them for the final week of a European trip they've been on for a month.  The last portion of the trip will be more fast-paced than the last two weeks, with several different destinations.  I'm hoping this will help to ease us back into the real world.

We met them and some of their old family friends from Germany in Lake Garda.  (Even in this day of technological marvels, I'm still amazed that it is possible to find someone halfway around the world.  How people did it hundreds of years ago is beyond me.)  I thought I would never be hungry again, but after a marathon travel day which resulted in a skipped lunch, we were famished, so drinks and a late afternoon snack with our new travel companions on the hotel's terrace facing the lake were a nice welcome.

They took us to a restaurant on the beach for dinner.  We all had adventures to discuss and stayed late into the evening.  Which meant that we were the only patrons still there when the thunderstorm hit.  Although our table was under a large canvas pergola, the staff whisked us inside for safety.  While we waited out the storm, they brought us complimentary after-dinner drinks, and then more food.  Not a bad way to wait out a storm.  When the weather finally cleared enough for us to get out, they called us a taxi and we rolled ourselves into the hotel, once again stuffed beyond belief.  Good thing we skipped lunch.