Italian pharmacy runs, Monterosso new town and frisbee dinner

Up early again for another breakfast, brought to us by Mama the amazing. She cooked eggs for us and we enjoyed them along with pastries and fruit on the terrace. Unfortunately, several bees were attempting to enjoy with us. Since we planned a slow day today, we lingered on the terrace and watched the clouds drift by, each of us coughing and shooing flies. Mama and a friend of hers came upstairs to us, concerned about our health. Mama speaks no English, so it was up to me to understand her Italian, which  I did about 75 percent of the time. She wanted us to see the town doctor to get antibiotics. It was so kind of her to be concerned. I believe I'm for real on the tail end of this monsterous cold, coughing less and experiencing less sore throat pain. Alex, sadly, has just begun, but his cold appears to be much less severe than mine was. So, we wound up not taking her advice and going to see the doctor (sorry mom), but instead headed the the new town part of Monterosso to visit the pharmacy. 

There's this Italian cough medicine called Bisolvon that has been incredibly helpful during my illness, and since we are leaving for France tomorrow, I wanted to stock up. Monterosso's new town is kind of plain, but it does have great amenities. After the past few weeks, I consider myself an Italian pharmacy expert. I've been to at least two pharmacies in every Italian town we've visited. Did you know that Italians dispense ibuprofen in 10 pack sizes? They don't have the 300, 500 or even 1,000 pills per bottle that we have in America. We ran out of what I thought was an ample supply of the drug in Rome, I think. I was taking it for my cold and Alex was on a high dose for his leg pain. So now we go to the pharmacy a lot. Anyways, this Monterosso pharmacy was the best one I've seen. It had the coveted Bisolvon and ibuprofen in gel pill format! Score.

After stocking up, Alex and I had wandered back to old town for lunch. We ate at this beautiful restaurant on overlooking the beach and had pesto, of course. We were early for the lunch crowd and wound up being seated at the best table in the place, with a panoramic view of the town and the sea. It was a fitting way to say goodbye to the exquisite Italian food and country. Tomorrow will be a sad day as we leave this beautiful country behind.

We planned another rest day for the remainer of our stay in Cincqe Terre. The original plan was to visit each city by train today, but we was them by sea yesterday and we both agreed that we needed to take care of our bodies in order to get the most out of the back third of our trip. So, before heading up the 103 stairs, we bought prosciutto, cheese, bread and olive oil for dinner. But I realized that, since were were staying in a B&B instead of an Airbnb, we didn't have plates at our disposal. I didn't want to make a mess in our room, especially with olive oil, so we needed a plan. And, of course, since I'm brilliant, I thought of using frisbees as plates. Genius! We were right by the beach, so heading over to a vendor and procuring two plate-sized frisbees was easy. 

The rest of the day was spent listening to music, napping, packing and of course having dinner on frisbees. I recommend it. Traps the olive oil right in the  'plate' and they can be used as gifts when we return home. Win - win.