So We Meet Again

Like I said, Vanessa and I talked about going to a whole bunch of places but we ended up deciding on the Cinque Terre. Our plan was to spent one or two nights there and then take an overnight train to Rome. I e-mailed the Roma Inn (our accomodations in Rome) about canceling for two out of the three nights and they said it would be fine. Then I called Hotel Souvenir in Monterosso al Monte to see if they had any rooms available for the next two nights. The woman who answered did not speak one word of English which made things difficult. I got one of the hostel workers to translate for me. Apparently, the hotel was closed but the woman had an apartment with a kitchen available for €50 a night. I'LL TAKE IT!! That's the same price we paid for that itty bitty hotel room in Venice. So we went to the train station and bought our tickets. They were only €10 or so which was good.

Before we left, I had one thing that I really wanted to do (more like 10 but I only had time for one) which was climb up the Dome. There were 463 steps to the top. That's a lot by the way. About halfway up, there is a viewing platform of the painting on the inside of the ceiling of the dome called the Last Judgment. Needless to say, it did not paint a very happy picture for the people going to hell. There was one part with a dragon biting a person in half (picture 1). The painting went from Hell on the bottom, to Purgatory, and up to to Heaven. I didn't like it much but I don't really like the Apocalypse so that would make sense. Also on the way up, I saw the herringbone brick laying scheme Brunelleschi used to create the dome. Very impressive. There were a few tight spots but I made it to the top. As soon as I poked my head out, someone headed me a camera and asked me to take a picture for them. Lo and behold!!! It was the same Canadian family as the day before. What a crazy coincidence! We talked for awhile and they took my picture again (picture 2 of me at the top with the bell tower behind). The dad told me that when I was traveling I had to go to Crete and hike in the gorges on the southern coast. He said its his favorite place in all of Europe. We said goodbye and I went into the actual church. The views from the top of the dome were far reaching and amazing to see (picture 3).

The church was just massive (4th biggest in the world, picture 4). The part of the church under the dome was blocked off because they were having some kind of event in there so I couldn't walk under the dome which was a major disappointment. I walked around and looked at the stuff I could. Then I left and went back to the hostel. I really enjoyed Florence, Vanessa not as much. I want to come back some day and visit all the art galleries we didn't go to. We got off the train in La Spezia and bought panini sandwiches at a McDonald's. The sandwiches were actually really good. Next we hopped on a train to Monterosso. It is just fantastically beautiful there.

The Cinque Terre are five small towns along the cliffs of the Italian Riviera (the towns are along the cliffs you see behind me in picture 6). They are major tourist hot spots in the summer. February, not so much which is fine by me. Monterosso is divided into two parts, the New Town and the Old Town. They are separated by a cliff with a tunnel through it. We waited at the Hotel Souvenir for Pay (the boss of the place) but she didn't show up for a while. While we waited, Vanessa practiced (I suck at Italian but it was hilarious listening to her try). One of the workers who was doing repairs (this was happening all over the city, gearing up for the big tourist season) could hear us and probably got fed up by the poor Italian so he called the boss and she brought us to the apartment. It was so cool. A kitchen, dining table, big bed, bunk beds, bathroom, towel rack with warmer, dishes, and a tv. We were so excited. The wife left for a minute but sort of communicated that she would be back soon. Her husband came and showed me how to turn on the hot water for the kitchen sink and some other stuff. He didn't speak any English either so it was interesting trying to communicate. There was a LOT of hand signals and showing. He would say OK? all the time. They were both extremely nice.

They left and Vanessa and I walked down to the beaches. We walked along the beach of the Old Town (have to pay in summer) and the beach of the New Town (from the Old Town to the New is picture 5 and from the other side of the New Town is picture 7). Very pretty. It was cloudy so there was no sunset but that was ok. We stopped and got groceries which were cheap and a nice change of pace from eating out all the time. I had my usual spaghetti with sauce and Vanessa had lentils and mixed vegetables (I still say that's weird). I read and had some Almond Apricot Cookies which were out of this world. I slept in the big bed which I must say was the best sleep I have had in a long time.