Cinque Terre

Today we said "Arrivederci" to Tuscany and headed to Cinque Terre on
Italy's west coast. First, we drove to Pisa to drop off the BMW (no
dings or scratches, phew!) and caught the train. Actually getting on
the train was an adventure though. We missed the first and second
trains and nearly missed the third. Let's just say that getting on a
train in a foreign country with 3 kids, 3 suitcases, 2 carseats, 2
backpacks, and 1 stroller is no easy feat. By the time we got settled
J and I were both sweating. The train ride was fine though and things
went much more smoothly during the transition between trains. The
second train ride was amazing. One minute we were at the La Spezia
station, the next minute we were in a pitch black tunnel and then all
of the sudden we were looking out at the Mediterainean sea from the
cliff side tracks. The the train slipped back into the tunnel for a
few minutes at a time, popping out just long enough for each of the 5
train stations of the 5 Cinque Terre cities. Once we arrived at
Monterroso we basked in the sun for a while and waited to meet our
apartment owner. We waited a long time (apparently there was some
miscommunication. Suprise! Suprise!), but after a few telephone
calls we got it worked out. We're still struggling with a few small
issues, like we can't turn on the heat, and the washer is locked, but
I'm sure we'll get those details worked out soon!
The weather was warm, even hot, and after we regrouped (and caught our
breath after lugging all our stuff up many, many stairs), we headed
down to the beach. What a gorgeous evening!
We had dinner at our apartment (more tortellini) and then went out for
some night time gelato.
Ciao!