Here's a quick note from Riomaggiore (part of the Cinque Terre along the Northwest coast of Italy). We got up at 5am Tuesday to catch an 8:10am flight to Pisa. With the Underground, the Gatwick Express train, and the strangeness of the British airport, we made the flight with just about 20 minutes to spare. After landing in Pisa, things got crazier. We missed a train, then spent 20 minutes looking for the next train, and struggled again at the central train stations in Pisa and La Spezia. We are getting to be experts on the Italian train system. We made it to Riomaggiore around 4pm, and found our wonderful apartment, which is at the top of about 200 steps. Wow.

Today we took a nice footpath to Manarola, then the train up to Monterosso. From there we walked for 2 hours back South to Vernazza. It was quite a hike!!! We caught a train back to Riomaggiore, and we're ready for a long rest. Tomorrow we head to Rome via the train.

Sorry we don't have any new pictures uploaded yet, but the internet cafe here doesn't have wireless for my laptop, and doesn't permit transferring pictures. It also has an Italian keyboard on the computer, which has been a challenge!