Sunday lunch and a picnic on the beach, Italian style.

After my hike to Portovenere, (see previous post for some great images I captured) I did some editing and then had a shoot. I ended the evening with a movie and wine, needing a quiet night having done over 13 miles, over 9 of it hiking. :) 

I had a day of resting after that since I did so much that day and then I planned to get out there for more hikes the end of that week. Wednesday was nice with a trip into La Spezia to the market and organic food store and a quick walk around the marina. After that, I edited, cooked and joined Jen and little Chloe for un aperitivo. I have to say I'm going to miss that little sassy girl!

Unfortunately, there was a stomach bug making it's way around the village and I caught it. I was horribly nauseas and so exhausted I could barely keep my eyes open for more than 40 hours straight. I was in bed all day that Thursday and got up to go get some medicine from Amy Friday and then back to bed. Saturday, I took it easy by editing and going to beach. I was still pretty drained. I was getting very frustrated considering I only had a few days left and wanted to make the most of it. I rallied that night after an afternoon shakerato with a fab presentation in a martini glass, a little amusement from my buddy Chloe and a 20 minute rest on the couch. I had two photo shoots in the marina and afterwards, headed to meet some of the girls in the marina for a drink. Here are pics from that day, the shoots and the gorgeous sunset and a couple pics I got while having drinks. 

Can you stand this? I am going to miss my littlest friends a lot too. :) I can't for the life of me get this to be the right way, so sorry it's sideways. 

The week before, Kelly had informed me that her husband's parents wanted to have me over for Sunday lunch. This is apparently a big deal because they definitely do not invite just anyone. Apparently, I'd made an impression. It was either working my butt off harvesting grapes or acting like a complete goofball doing things like trying to lift a container of grapes over my head. Either way, I was happy to accept the invite. Unfortunately, I woke up horribly nauseas again Sunday morning with a combination of the lingering bug and what I think may have been a sinus infection (or close to it). I went back to bed until I absolutely had to get ready. I did not want to cancel. I went to meet Kelly, her dad (who was also visiting) and Yuri to head over. Yuri's mom made separate dishes for me for some of the courses and left the sauce off of the meat so I could have some. I have to stop and say that every single person along my trip was unbelievably accommodating to my dietary needs and also so welcoming to make me feel at home and comfortable in every situation. It was just awesome. 

Yuri's parents do not speak English but we luckily had some translators. I was bummed I could not enjoy the delicious pesto lasagna and the to die for dessert that Anna made, but I assured her that when I can eat those things again, I will be back for lunch. We enjoyed all of our courses: First- pasta for them, a plate of smoked meat, a little fresh parmesan and arugula for me; Second - a roast with potatoes and a good looking sauce (I had just the meat but Anna made me eggplant and a little salad as well); Third- cheese (yum) and Fourth- Dessert. And of course, wine, prosecco and sciacchetra (a specialty in Cinque Terre: a sweet wine eaten with the cheese and/or dessert). I only had a small bit of red wine but had trouble even eating all my food since I was still nauseas. UGH. 

Next was to go home and rest because we had plans for a big picnic on the beach that night and I refused to feel crappy and miss that. I managed to lay down for a bit and grab some coffee and finally felt a bit better. A bunch of the girls and their families came to the picnic and it was so much fun. It's these little, simple things that truly made this trip as amazing as it was. Here are some pics. Amy even made meatballs that I could eat using parmesan instead of bread crumbs to keep them together. They were delicious! :) 

I'll leave that as the end today and share what I thought was my last few days and then my actual last few days thanks to  a cancelled flight) and the additional fun I had in my next post :)