Exploring...

On Saturday, we went exploring! It was a pretty fun day! A bit overcast, but it never really rained...perfect for sightseeing though it was pretty humid by the water.

If you are somewhat familiar with a map of Italy, or where Montalto is...go here for map, you might have to zoom out once or twice...just to the north of us there is an island that is connected to the mainland by 3 ithmus' (I know that really doesn't make it an island, but you understand what I am talking about...well you would if you checked out the map ;). The town of Orbetello is actually on the ithmus with the lagoon on each side. It is pretty cool! I was there earlier in the week but it had been raining and I totally missed the water!

We drove through Orbetello to the Comune di Argentario (that would be the island that isn't really an island because it is actually connected to the mainland...I know that is redundant but I think it is really cool). To the south is a port town...Porto Ercole...it is a neat small town on the Sea! What a great picture I took of it! The building literally look like they are clinging to the mountains!


And just to prove that we were there and it isn't just a postcard or something...

We tried to drive around the island but on the backside it just goes to a dirt road (which us Montanans are NOT afraid of, but it had rained and we have the tiniest car with NO clearance what so ever) we just didn't make it...so we back-tracked and headed to Porto Sto Stefano...quite a bigger town with tons of stuff going on! Again, it is just clinging to the mountains, so there are many stairways leading to streets on different levels...

A nice pic of the town/harbor...

We parked our car and walked around for a bit. Another thing that the italians do well is paid parking...no parking meters all over the place...they have one ticket (biglietti) things you put your money into and get a ticket for your dash...pretty convienent, even for those of us who don't speak italian. We even found doughnuts! One has to find a bakery (forno) in every small town, you know! Now these italians know how to do a boardwalk...marble mosaic sidewalks lined with palm trees!

So that was the beginning of our adventure on Saturday. I will hopefully post more tomorrow on the second half of the day!