Italy and Croatia

Ciao!
I returned recently to sticky New York after a month in Europe, which was excellent. I'll start off the recounts of our odyssey from day one. We (Peter, Alessandra, Nora, Tanya, and I) arrived in Genova and were greeted by my friend Chiara and her parents. That first week we hung around Genova, swimming and eating and re-exploring the center. Being with both my old Italian friend and Nora and Tanya was at times difficult, but we all managed all right. After Genova we left for Trieste and stayed with a friend of Alessandra's. Castles and beaches were plentiful, and we saw one of each. After Trieste we embarked to Croatia and travelled down south to Dubrovnik. Croatia is beautiful and at one point we stopped by an outstanding and breathtaking national park with wooden pathways and bridges overlooking clear ponds and waterfalls (one which you could swim in). Dubrovnik was nice to travel through for a day, but then I became very overwhelmed by the tourism. Dubrovnik is built off tourism, but at least they do a good job preserving most of the old city. We were able to walk around it on top of the city walls looking down, and saw a couple of nice museums. We then departed to Lecce where we stayed a week, mostly eating and swimming, with the exceptions of shopping and sightseeing in Lecce. The trip was fun, and I hope everyone is having a good vacation too. Here in NY it's gross and hot, so movie theaters are a bit hit-- they take away a couple hours of the day, amuse at the same time, and provide really good air conditioning. I miss you all,
Sophie