Woke up to sunshine and a spectacular little town on the coast. Nice to see the ocean, I didn't realize how much I missed it. We wandered back to the place where we had dinner last night for breakfast this morning. The girls had cappuccinos, I had my tea and Keith went for his usual, aqua frizzante (sparkling water). The specialties were Sicilian pastries and I didn't need any convincing to try them. The owner was a nice guy from Sicily and he told us about the food there and some sights to see. We're looking forward to going there later in our trip.

After breaky we went up a whole bunch of stairs to see the town's cemetery, perched up high in the hills. I'm kind of an old cemetery buff, plus the views were supposed to be good. Keith opted to watch the scenery in the main piazza at the waterfront. Yesterday was a blustery day and all the fishermen had moved their boats up into the town, so they seemed eager to get back out for the catch of the day. We decided to hop the train that runs between the 5 towns and check out Monterosso al Mare. It is the largest of the 5 towns with a nice beach and a little different style of buildings, like a mini Riviera. Gaye found a nice out the way spot for lunch on Tripadvisor. Later the sky darkened unfortunately and we had to take cover in the tunnel linking the the "new" town with the "old" town, both of which look like they've been around for quite some time to me. But soon there was a break and now that we are train experts, we easily got our tickets from the machine and were soon riding the rails back to Vernazza.

Back in our room for a siesta, Beth and I soon got hungry again. There are a number of small shops right around the small piazza by our room, so we stopped off into a little bakery/deli and the shopkeeper made us up some fresh paninis. I can't get enough of the proscuito and mozzarella, Beth opted for fresh pesto and tomatoes. A little while later I stuck out on a gelato run. Even in a little town like this, with all the tourists, the few gelaterias do not gouge the tourists. Just 2.50 Euro each for a cup of frozen heaven. As we were savouring it in our room, the skies opened up again with booming thunder and lightning. Now I'm hunkered back down into our room. We're planning to hike one of the trails tomorrow. More to follow then.

Ciao