Amazingly...towards the end of this train ride, the ocean popped into view! beautiful! we got off the train in the village of Riomaggiore, which is the southernmost village in Cinque Terre. our directions were pretty random: walk through a tunnel and then up the street. ok. so we did it! and ran into the office where we gave them some money, and then got walked UP to our room. and i do mean up...the building itself was up two small flights of stairs from the street, and around little alleys and through little cave looking things. then when we got into the building we were on the 5th floor! yikes...and our room really was just a room. there were two tiny bathrooms, one with a shower and a sink you could barely fit past and the other with a toilet and a giant bidet that you literally had to climb over to get past it! fun

BUT! we had an amazing little patio thing with chairs and a view of the village! and then the ocean on the other side! it was a little breathtaking...tiff got a little veklempt (sp?). so we took advantage of having an ocean and walked out onto the cliffs overlooking the water. we ran into a group of guys on a bachelor party trip type thing who insisted we jump into a picture with them. sure why not! it made them happy...and then we found the ocean! we decided to go get some food and wine and find a good rock to sit on while the sun went down (how romantic!).

we sat on a rock that was literally right on the edge...its in the bottom right of the picture for this entry! and had an unobstructed view of the sun going down over the ocean...amazing! then made it back to the room (ive really started to detest stairs) and then played some cards before passing out. tiff taught me gin rummy...im horrible, but just you wait (henry higgins)...i'll get the hang of it soon...

nina