Buon giorno

6 April 2010- Buongiorno from Italy, Rome actually. We arrived in Milan, original plan to see the Last Supper but bad planning as it was full up on Good Friday. Oh well, still awesome to see the Duomo etc. We bailed on Milan early Friday morning to get to La Spezia. We found a cute little place with excellent food and with minimal Italian/English, we managed okay. Chad found a good pour of prosecco and we hung out there quite a bit. We got up early the next morning to bad weather but we pushed through. Good thing, the rain let up. We hurried to Monterosso of the Cinque Terre to start our hike along path 2 to all five villages.
I did much better getting out of Monterosso this year. Last year we parked way up on the hill and I was dying to get to the car. This year with my 90 day experiment (more on that later) I was in much better shape. We stopped for lunch and a bit of wine in Vernazza, a bit more wine in Cornigla, quick trip thru Manurola and finally up Riomaggiore. Awesome terrace bar there! We returned there the most in our Cinque Terre adventure. I will post pictures later, Chad has the card and reader currently. My kind of hiking with wine and food mixed in the middle.
I started feeling like I had been pepper-sprayed the first night in Milan. Argh, again with the illness. These old world germs have just got it out for me. I did okay trugging up the villages but it seems today on the train to Rome, it all hit me. I packed some cold meds but forgot the kleenex. I have bought these packs in London, Croatia and now Italy. Jeez Louise. I need to remember to pack this stuff along with my slippers and clothespins.
So yes, my 90 day experiment with Tony Horton's P90X. Yes I bought something from TV. You know you too have seen the infomerical. I bought it. And I brought it, kind of. I have some amazing results (biceps muscles for the first time in my life), pants that are so long now they get wet in the rain (shocking) and really good feeling about my health in general. I promise to post my before and after pictures. From my spreadsheet (once a geek, always a geek) I completed 76 workouts of 91. One week alone was sick in London. The others were mostly cardio workouts, I only missed 2 resistance training opportunities. I would give out the weight and measurements but I have no scale or tape in Italy. Needless to say, my clothes fit much better from pants, shirts and even bras. I will continue on with P90X and this time I going for the classic program. I completed the lean program as I wasn't in the best shape to start. I mean I think I lasted 34 seconds in the wall squat for the fit test in the beginning. It really is a good program with lots of variety. And the best thing for me, making me do things I am not good at: heavy lifting for arms and back, pushups, yoga and some crazy core building moves that the first time I saw I went "no way." Now more like "Yeah, I can do that." I still presently struggle with a complete touch the chest to the ground pushup but I am making good progress. I did try the Plyometrics as my cardio the last month of the program. Holy God, that works you out. It is jump training and you sweat the whole day, Costanza couldn't get the shower to take at all! Take it from me, try the lean program first then progress to get the ultimate body. You can watch the infomerical for more information, check out YouTube footage as well. All that from just pushing play.
Now I am in Italy ruining all the good work with the foccacia bread, primi et segundi, gelato and more and more wine.