Ciao da Riomaggiore!

Buongiorno!

Well here we are in beautiful Riomaggiore, one of the Cinque Terre. For the second hiccup in our travel plans, we are staying one more night in this majestic village thanks to a national Italian train strike. Yes, as of 9pm last night until 9pm tonight, there are absolutely no trains running in Italy. It just so happened to be the day that we were scheduled to travel to Siena, so those plans had to be scratched. We are all completely devastated (not really) that we have to stay another night in this dreadful town (as its been our favorite town of the entire trip thus far) and eat their less than spectacular cuisine (the pesto and foccacia are amazing). No, in all reality, this should work out very well and thus far has given us a much needed day to sleep in (at least Eric and I, that is). We will take the train out tomorrow morning to Pisa to see the leaning tower and then head on to spend two nights in Siena (Monday and Tuesday). We had to eliminate our stay in Civita so that we could accommodate a stop in Assisi. Now that you are caught up on our new itinerary, lets catch you up on where we've been in the last few days.

Day 8: When we last spoke, we were leaving Venice on our way to Florence. We arrived in Firenze and made our way over to the Academia Gallery to see Michelangelo's David. Its fourteen feet of pure sculpting perfection. Really quite amazing... After that, we took a stroll through town on our way to our lodging for the night, The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary Convent. Matt was cracking jokes with the nun at the reception desk. We dragged him away and hit the town for the night. We hit up an all-you-can-eat Italian buffet that was run by pirates (don't ask questions) and then watched a neat street performer while enjoying our gelato.

Day 9: The next day was quite busy. We started off touring the 13th Century Duomo which was decorated with beautiful green and white Italian marble. Next was a stop at the Duomo Museum followed by paninis for lunch. After that we had a little time to kill so we people watched near Palazzo Vecchio, home of the famous Medici Family. We laughed at the old guy that who was the acting decorum police and was way too in love with his whistle. Next was the Uffizi Gallery and the greatest collection of Renaissance paintings anywhere in the world. We saw works by three of the Ninja Turtles including Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael (we saw Donatello earlier that day) as well as other masters such as Botticelli and Titian 'The Venetian'. Rick had a pretty good audio guide that we all listened to as we perused the museum. Last but certainly not least, we climbed the Duomo Bell Tower and enjoyed sweeping views of the Tuscan country side. Eric almost gave his new hat to the security guard at the top, have him tell you the story. We had an excellent dinner at an out of the way trattoria near the old city walls that was topped off by an excellent dessert called zuppa inglese (English soup).

Day 10: The next day we hopped the train to Cinque Terre and arrived here in beautiful Riomaggiore, the southern-most of the five villages. We dropped our bags and headed out to lunch. Let me preface this by saying that this region (Ligurian) is the birthplace of pesto ( a sauce made from basil leaves, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic and Parmesan cheese) and of foccacia bread. (pesto is also the love of Justin's life) Our first meal included both and it was absolutely spectacular. We finished our meal, checked into the hotel, changed and went for a dip off the rocky coast in the Ligurian Sea. Eric was very happy... We explored the coast line for a bit and found a neat park set on the side of a hill where we simply sat and looked out over the breathtaking vistas before us. Next was a much needed shower and then we headed out for dinner. At dinner we encountered a very friendly cat who seems to own this place. We've seen him several times since then and everyone knows and loves him. He goes were he pleases, sits or sleeps and no one bothers him except to give him food. We are all envious. We ended the night watching a little concert on an open deck. We were all surprised when we heard them playing all English songs including All Along the Watchtower, Come Together and We Will Rock You. It was a lot of fun.

Day 11: This day marked the official half way point of our trip and we decided to start it off with a bang... we decided to go on a long hike. There is a trail along the water that connects all five villages. At 9km long, with some serious elevation changes, it did not mess around. But it was the most scenic hike that I have ever done. The trail paralleled the coast and we had spectacular views of the jagged rocky coast and crystal blue water. Incredibly beautiful! We got to explore all of the villages of the Cinque Terre, each having their own unique personality and charm, but decided that the one we were staying in (Riomaggiore) was the best, hands down. When we got to the end of our hike in Monterrosso, it was not 3 minutes before Eric was in the water. We took a little breather and hopped the ferry back to Riomaggiore so we could shower up for dinner. We went to a little ristorante on the main drag and had the best meal of the trip (at least according to Matt and I; it was high on the charts for Eric but he could not say definitively whether it was his best). We all had amazing pasta dishes and topped the meal off with a plate of freshly prepared calamari fritti. Easily the best calamari any of us have had. Bellisimo! While we were at dinner we overheard the couple next to us discussing the train strike. It was after hearing this that we did more investigation (with our friend at the gelato shop who wore a Texas hat, but was not from Texas). He told us that there was no chance of us getting a train out the next day. Oh well... we discussed the changes in our plans over gelato and called it a night.

Day 12: Today is still young. Eric and I slept in and Matt was gracious enough to handle arranging for us to stay in our hotel room another night before the maid came to clean it. We finally woke up around 11am (Matt woke up much earlier, after being accused of having his alarm go off at 7 am--it was Justin's ) and had a nice meal of foccacia, which we enjoyed down by the water. We're not sure what the rest of the day will involve but it will surely involve a lot of relaxation in one form or another.

Tomorrow we are off to Pisa and then Siena which should be lots of fun. Sorry again that we have not been able to post pictures. The places where we have been connecting do not give us access to USB ports, so sadly we cannot share our wonderful pictures with you. But I assure you, we are taking plenty ( I would say over 1000 between the three of us so far) and we will be sharing them with you as soon as we can!

Lots of love to all! Ciao!
EJM