Greece and Italy

It has been a red hot minute since I attempted to tell ya'll what has been going on and right now it is rather late and I am sleepy so this is a rough summary of the past few weeks.
After 2 days of travel home from Africa I had 4 short days to get ready for Europe. In short, I tried to cram too much into too little time. I got to fancy Europe with a bunch of gross, dirty-backpacking clothes that I took to Africa and have been feeling fairly grungy ever since my arrival. I have been traveling with Ms. Ashley and we make a flippin' awesome team. We like to hike and run (morning runs and walks are part of our regular routine) eat healthy food and explore. Oh and we like wine too.
Our first stop was Athens where we hit all the major tourist spots (yes, we saw all the old rocks) then we took an overnight ferry with 1209834720897 nineteen-year olds who were wasted and yelling until the wee hours of the morn (but really, who was the dumb one for thinking they could sleep on the deck of an extra slow ferry?). We spent 5 days on the black beaches of Santorini, exploring ancient ruins, sampling local Greek food and trying to get accustomed to the lifestyle of going out at midnight and staying out until the sun rose over the water. I guess we aren't as young as we used to be because we could only hold out for about 1.5 nights of this silly sauce. We stayed in the most charming location owned by a lovely Greek couple who we loved. After Santorini we hopped on another ferry to the isle of Paros for 3 wonderful days. We had a quaint three story apartment all to ourselves (a bit excessive but why not?). Then back to Athens for another day/night before we nearly missed our flight to Rome.
Jenny met up with us in Rome where we stayed in the MOST incredible apartment owned and rented out by an old Italian lady who didn't know a lick of English. Our location couldn't have been better; we were right across from the Vatican. If you walked out of our beautiful apartment complex you were facing the Vatican wall (it didn't hurt that one of the best gelato places was right next to our front door). We saw the sights of Rome and all with very little tourist traffic. We pretty much had the perfect days in Rome... ahh, I am falling in love with Italy... Chinque Terre followed and WOW was this amazing! It is a series of 5 hilltop villages who are obsessed with recycling, growing organic produce in the tiered fields on their vast hills and keeping track of all the tourists who choose to hike the trails between the 5 villages. Most of the towns are very over-crowded with foreigners but we stayed in a tiny village whose primary population exceeded the age of 70. I loved it! And the food - be still my heart! Fresh seafood and organic fresh veggies - not to mention there are some pretty tasty wines one can purchase for about 3 Euro. Now that fits into the budget nicely. :) We were sad to leave our tiny paradise but jumped on a sweaty train to Florence where we did a tiny bit of shopping, scoped out the hostel we'd use when we returned in a week then picked up our sweet rental car. We have been driving the damn cutest little crayon box of a car called a Fiat, Panda. It is the colour of soft butter, or wait better yet, the colour of half-melted lemon gelato. Whatever, it is flipping cute and feels about the same as driving a Matchbox car. By far the best part of the trip began the minute we opened the door to our charming little villa on a hilltop peaking out between the vineyards in the Chianti Classico region of Tuscany. We were so fortunate to have Jenny's family friend allow us to come stay in their beautiful home for the past 5 most perfect days. We have morning runs, afternoons at the pool, cook healthy dinners of fish and produce from the farmer's market and drink wine and wine and wine while we watch the sunset from our porch. We also have had several day trips, one to Pisa (yes, the tower is still leaning and yes, we took plenty of stupid pics of us appearing to push it over- ha ha ha lame I know but we are still tourists...). Oh speaking of pictures, the first night we were in Tuscany I set up my camera to take a sweet shot of us 3 ladies and our masterpiece of dinner when a mighty gust of wind blew my perfectly (or no so perfectly) perched camera off the table onto the soft brick floor. Yah, you may have guessed that the camera didn't fare so well... I am REALLY sorry, Dad. At least for now I have Ash and Jenny to take pics while I figure out what to do about replacing my camera for the rest of my journey. Given that we are in wine country it would only be fitting that we did a bit of tasting while in the area. We have had the opportunity to make a few friends and had a couple private tastings and tours of the facilities which have been awesome.
Tomorrow I may cry as we pile in the Panda and leave this place that truly became our home... I think I will have to watch Under the Tuscan Sun or something when I get home... yah probably not. It is late and I have to get some rest because tomorrow we are going back to Florence!