The trains do not run on time....

Buona sera from Vernazza...

more about where we are in a minute, but I just want to note, (and apologize in advance for nationality stereotyping), than trains in Italy are VERY different than trains in Germany/Austria. Today coming in from Florence we waited, and waited, and waited, listening to delay announcements and shrugging our shoulders along with the other tourists. Ah well. We've learned to pad our itinerary for an hour or so just to account for these little delays.

So, tonight we are on the beautiful Ligurian Sea on the west coast of Italy, in a little town in the Cinque Terre called Vernazza. The internet point here will not let me upload pictures, so I'll try to describe....our room overlooks the harbor and little beach. The temp. today was about 92 degrees or so, maybe more, and with no humidity and a light breeze making the wavelets in the harbor sparkle, that's not so bad. We went down to the beach right away, laid out for a bit, and then rented a kayak for an hour. With unsure and slightly unsteady strokes at first, we made our way out of the harbor and along the coast. We could see our little village behind us, and high on the hills, the two villages on each side, which are reachable by a hike that we will do tomorrow. The villages cling to the hillside, with brightly-colored houses, usually a church tower and a ruined castle in each.

The streets here are amazing...you climb on their stairs rather than walk them....we went exploring after having dinner at a little restaurant underneath the castle overlooking the ocean. (The huge table of Rick Steve tour people only slightly took away from the ambience...it's a little deflating to hear discussion about downtown Oakland while on the Italian seaside....)

So more tomorrow about our hike! Hopefully the only other internet place in town will be open tomorrow and let me post photos...

ciao!
Erin