Cavo, Elba

Elba was amazing! Although it took us 7 hours to get there, with some minor mishaps on the way, it was definately worth it. The town we stayed in, Cavo, was amazing. It is teensy-tiny, though, consisting of a few bars (cafes), restaurants, and hotels. There was a huge castle there, which I guess was a private residence, and some amazing, huge villas right on the water. Gorgeous. The island itself was huge, a lot bigger than I had imagined. I guess I was thinking that Napoleon was exiled to a tiny little rock in the middle of the Mediterannean, but it was so beautiful and awesome. There were tons of little towns that we passed through, and lots of orchards and vineyards. Cavo, and I guess the rest of the island, was overrun with tons of ferral cats. We came across tons of little kittens, which were SO cute. I loved them, and wanted to take them home. It reminded me of when Claire and I used to "socialize" the kittens at mom's vet. clinic.
While we were sitting on the beach, enjoying the sun and atmosphere, an old man came up and started talking to us, first in Italian, and then in French! I was so excited to have a language that I actually understood, and could speak in. We talked for a while, I guess he was from Cavo, and then moved to France when he was little. He was telling me all about what he did, etc., and although he was kind of creepy, it was so nice to speak French again. He was taking a walk that night, as we were eating dinner, and kind of stalked us, waiting until we finished dinner so that he could sit down with us. He was just a nice old man, but it creeped us out, so we had to slink back to the hotel, in covert-op. style, of course, to get our wine, and then back along the pier. We just sat and talked on the pier that night, and there were so many stars overhead. It was perfect. It was so nice to get away from the big, dirty city of Florence... Very refreshing...
Ciao!
Galen

Song of the Moment:
That Girl, Marques Houston