Greetings from Vernazza!

We have had an incredible past 3 days. The first day was fairly uneventful with 8 hours of train rides. The ride from Switzerland to Italy was beatuiful. A large portion of the ride was along the italian coast. We did not miss any of our connections! The day was not without excitement however. Once we arrived in Cinque Terre, we went to check into our hotel (it was 8 pm) for some reason I had written down the wrong hotel, and the only information I had was an email address named Annamaria. Fortunately the town is not very big, so people were pointing us in the direction of an Annamaria that rents rooms. Well apparently thats a very popular name because we ended up going to 4 different places!!!! Finally we found the right place, but Annamaria was gone and only her mom was there who speaks solo italiano. It was hilarious watching Ben try to bust out his italian from college. He managed to confirm the price & check out time.

Yesterday was an incredible day, besides the fact that Ben's cold that he has been figthing since before the wedding set in full force. We ate breakfast at this cute little shop and got custard filled croissonts and fresh squeezed oj. We checked out of our hotel and headed 3 towns away to Riomaggorie where we spent last night and tonight. The hotel is absolutely incredible. It has a huge balcony that is aimed directly at the medeateranean sea. There was a cool breeze all day. We spent a large portion of the day reading & playing cards on the balcony. We also managed to head into town and do a town walk, eat gelato (twice) and have some tasty italian food.

Today was a very rewarding day. We hiked the coastal town from our town to town #4 (vernazza) The first part of the trail was very smooth, wide and easy. Each town got more difficult. The last part had a large portion uphill, which was pretty difficult. The weather was absolutely gorgeous (around 75-80) Once we got to Vernazza we were really warm so ben decided to go for a dip! The water took his breath away, but he said it was very refreshing. We then took a boat back to our town and was able to see all that we hiked. For dinner we headed back in to Vernazza after long showers and had a tasty meal on the waterfront. Have no fear about us working off too many calories on our hikes and walks, we have been eating so much pasta, pesto, and gelato!!!

We are actually really sad to leave tomorrow. We both agree we could stay here at least another week! But it is time to head to Florence. We leave bright and early and will be in the city by 10:30 tomorrow. We'll be there for the next 2 days. It's hard to believe our trip is over 1/2 way over, it has been so incredible!!

ps- our photographer posted two "teaser" pictures from our wedding. Check them out at www.kaceyluvi.blogspot.com