Pisa, Pista, Pasta....

June 17:
Here we were in the Italy, to see infamous leaning tower called Pisa.. it was just as what I thought it would be except that I kind of expect it to be standing in big field but it got some old buildings nearby around it. Oops, can't always assume until you see for yourself or do the research, grins.. It cost 15 € to go up the tower.. that would be about $18 just to climb up, covered in the sweat, all just to be on the top of Pisa that might topple over any minute, surprising the over-assured tourists (yes I was overly exeggarated.. I hadn't yet to go up for the next tour was at 4:40 so here I was at an internet cafe, killing some time to update you guys :) ) Lets see how it turned out...

June 16:
Bezaire, 195, and I spent the day hiking on the trail that connect between all five towns (Monterosso, Vernazza , Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore). The trail from Monterosso to Vernazza was steep and energy-draining but the view was worth it. We finally reached Vernazza after a hour and half of hiking, Bezaire decided to stay in Vernazza and catch the train to Corniglia to meet us. 195 and I continue on to Corniglia that was on top of cliff, we started to get very tired and hot.. finally we arrived there and decide to have a lunch first before meeting Bezaire at the beach for we got headaches. We ate and hiked down 341 steps down to the train station toward the beach.. We saw nothing that might be beach except for the one that had a tunnel toward naturist (other word for nudist) beach, it cost 5€ to go through the tunne to this beach even through you can leave the swimsuit on. It was not worth the money so we headed on to visit last two towns, Manarola and Riomaggiore, via train. Both were very small and not much to see except for handful of stores. 195 and I bought some food there, the cost of food was considerably cheap. Finally, we headed back to our home town, Monterosso, to relax at the beach and have our dinner before call it a day. We would be heading to see Pisa then toward Florence or Roma tomorrow (June 17).

June 15:
In the morning, 195 and I were refreshed and wanted to find an internet cafe so that we could contact Bezzaire to let him know that we were in the town and see where he was staying at. We wandered around in the town, looking for the cafe, we turned around and Bezzaire was right there at fruits and vegetables stands.. luckily for us! He showed his room where he was staying at and it turned out that he also paid 30€ for his room as well. It certainly make me feel better because it was lot to pay when I would like to save..cant alway exèpect that thro. Bezzaire offer to share his room with us to save more money so we did, dumped our backpacks there. Then head out to the beach, 195 and I took a detour on the way into the wine and herbs store, sampled their local wine as they were well known for their wines. We also sampled several home made spreads for crackers or bread such as pesto, pepper pesto, etc. It was a mouth-watering :) Finally arrived at the beach, it was bit rocky but nice enough and the water wasnt that cold (certainly not for 195 and I but it was for Bezaire as he loved hot, hot weather, warm water, etc) 195 and I went to swam out toward the rocks wavebreaker, before we started to stand on the rocks in water in order to climb up on the rocks out of water. 195 was already standing but I had the tendency to look down to see whats down there and saw that there were sea urchins. Naturally I become more careful and couldnt get out of water into jutting rocks for good few minutes. I finally did but banged and stratched my knees in the process. Guess it did me no good. Later it started to rain so we all headed to the hotel to shower and go to Vernazza for a dinner. We ate at a pizza restaurant in which was found cheaper than the rest and looked appealing. The guy waitress was very friendly and he gave me a free shirt when it start to get dark and cool (actually I got bit by an italian mosique that send me stratching crazily, making me look like I was cold). Afterward, we stopped at a bar to have a drinks while we waited for the next train back to Monterosso.

June 14:

195 and I got up 6:30 am to pack up and have our breakfast then we catch a train at 11:30 out to Ventigmilia then on another train to Cinque Terre (actually we had to transfer to local train in La Spezia, Italy) We tried to catch earlier train at 8:30am but missed it by one minute and the next one was full so we were stuck with the one at 11:30am. One thing that I definitely dislike of Italy was their trains as they went real slow and made frequent stops, some of the stops didnt even for picking up the people (grring). We finally arrived in Monterosso, the largest town of the five in Cinque Terre (the others were Vernazza , Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore (the smallest of all) ) around 11pm. Only thing that were open were the restaurants/bars.. we asked around for beds, one of locals guided us to the hotel but it was already closed and seemily to be full after the local man made the call to the number posed on the door so he guided us toward other location. He took us through real narrow alley through garden and some dirt trail, it was dark as well as he used his lighter to show us any of steps. 195 and I were uncomfy about it as we wondered if he plan to have some of other locals to come up behind us and rob us. It didn't happen as we finally arrived to the place which seem to be owned by him. The room got kitchen, dining table, washer, full bed and twin bed.. so in all it was real nice but it cost us 60€ (30€ each of us) It was little high to our standard budget but we just accepted it as we were really tired....Lights out.