May 15, 2005 - Cinque Terre, Italy

We are in a very beautiful part of Italy, and just arrived last night from the south of France by train; it  was about a 3 hour ride, which went by quickly as we met a couple of girls from Oklahoma -- chatting in English was great!

So here we are in Italy! The train ride was great coming into La Spezia. We were actually headed for Cinque Terre, but there were no hostels for last night. BUT the hostel in La Spezia was very welcomed, especially coming from Nice and Paris, being such big bustling, busy cities. It was really quiet in this hostel and nestled in the mountains of Northern Italy, but just 25 minutes from where we are today at the KRISS Residence, in Cinque Terre! It is so very beautiful here!

Cinque Terre means Five Lands.  They are nestled into the mountain sides and meet the sea at the same time. We hiked all 5 of them...  total of about 12km, up and down treturous (spelling ?) mountain sides...

We will be here for about 3  to 7 days, then on to Pisa, Florence, Rimini, Naples, Rome and down to where John's father is from -- Palermo, Sicily!

Having access to the internet has NOT been easy. It is usually expensive and really hard to find! Wish the laptop was here!  This one is the easiest we have had so far.

This hotel is small, but there is a free internet access and there aren't 20 people waiting to get on! We are having difficulty in transferring pictures from our memory card to disc, so we have to find an internet cafe where someone who works there can do it for us, and that is rare!

Getting used to the backpacks -- wish we would have thought of it earlier as it has been a pain in the... (you know what) just to try and remember where we put simple things like toothpaste! Backpacking is very challenging when you are used to the comforts of home. It is a good way for us to practice being very very patient. We are getting better at this and just letting things slide off our backs, which is what you have to do or you will go crazy!

Language barriers and getting directions is almost impossible here in Europe.

Well, we have only been gone 2 weeks, sometimes it feels like 3 months, but most times, we can't wait to see the rest !

We wish there were more time to send postcards, but sorry there isn't, thus, this website...

Marc and John :-)

Ciao