I love Italy!

Another email copied! Hope you don't mind

We
did figure out the vomit problem....I got it on my pants, probably in
the port-a-potty (which, incidentally was scarily full) and then it
transferred to a lot of my stuff. I have everything cleaned up now, but
my bags still have that lingering aroma!

We made our train last night after getting our first hot (or even warm,
for that matter) shower in days in the train station. We paid 7 Euros a
piece plus a 7 Euro deposit for our showers in this place in the train
station called McClean. It was hysterical - .60 for men to use the
urinal (trough), 1.10 for both men and women to use an actual stall,
and 7.00 for the shower. AND, the shower had a toilet in with it. I
went three times while I was in there so I didn't have to pay anyone
extra! Amazing how priorities change so quickly, isn't it? I've found
myself drinking less water than usual even though I need more b/c the
.50 here and the 1 Euro there really add up! Before our showers, we
went to the Easy Internet Cafe. It's part of the EasyJet company (think
Airline UK on A&E). They had over 400 computers there! We wanted to
call home, but didn't have enough time!

So, now we are in Italy and loving it. Tonight and tommorow night, we
are in the Cinque Terra, Vernazza to be exact. We've had a couple of
traveling mishaps, but nothing that really made a difference in the
end, and we knew it when they happened. Just chalked them up to
learning experiences - got on the milk train in  Modena, Italy
because it was there when we should have waited for the faster train;
lost our paper that the German guy who finally helped us gave us with
our 4 connections on it. Not to worry, though, we somehow ended up on
the right train to La Spezia and I was able to remember/look at the map
& figure out the last 3 connections we needed to make (and we found
the paper in our daypack where someone who shall remain nameless -
Chris - put it).

We got on the wrong train in La Spezia, and it didn't stop in Vernazza,
but no worries. The towns are like 5 mins. apart by train and we just
hopped on the next one. The train conductor was totally nice, making
sure we knew exactly where to get off and which train to get on next.
Speaking the Espanol seriously helps with understanding the Italiano. I
don't really understand alot, but the more I hear, the more it makes
sense and I can figure out the gist of things!

As we ascended from the train station, we were looking at the pages we
ripped out of Rick Steves' Italy trying to figure out where we were
going to say when this older woman came up to us. Her name is Marina
and she speaks not a word of English, but she had a room to rent
and  recognized the pages and guessed that we were american and
told us to come with her. We said, "Why not?" and followed her. We are
in an adorable little room with a full bathroom for 60 Euros per night.
Less than we had expected without the bathroom in the room! And, Marina
is a lovely woman. "No problema con Marina." She told us this over and
over. And she's right, no problems so far. We even did some laundry in
the sink and hung it out to dry on the line below her window. Too cool.
Vernazza is built in the hills and everyone has a line out their window
and always has something on it. Look, we fit in!

After having lunch on a terrace out over the ocean (there aren't words
to describe it properly, you'll have to see the pictures) with the most
amazing food we've ever had in our lives (pasta with seafood), we
explored the town and then hiked to one of the other 5 Cinque Terre
towns. It was a brutal hike, but we got some great views and we hung
out at the beach for a little while in that town before finding a place
for a 4 cheese calzone and then wasting an hour waiting for the train
back to Vernazza with Gelato and the town drunk singing the same song
over and over. When we finally got back, we had dinner at one of the
restaurants on the harbor. An appetizer of tons of different seafood
stuff from stuffed muscles and anchovies to calamari and then meals of
pesto and spaghetti with muscles and the most amazing house wine ever.
So light and perfect, we drank 2 carafes (albeit small ones) of it.
Tomorrow, we go to the other 3 towns. We LOVE it here and already know
we'll be coming back!

Well, the gal who runs the internet cafe is ready to close. More tomorrow hopefully!