Jane and Betsy's Excellent Italian Adventure

Another month...Another Trip. This time to Italy. First on the itinerary - Cinque Terre.

My friend, Jane, whom I met at Truman State University decided that she wanted to join me for my Italian Expedition. Jane arrived in Bonn on Friday, May 19th. After a few jet-lagged hours, a hot shower, good dinner and a decent nights sleep, Jane and I headed for Italy. We flew into Milan and from there enjoyed the train ride through the hills of Cinque Terre.

Jane and I didn't have a place to sleep in the coastal area of Cinque Teerre..and we decided just to wing it when we got there. Following advice from my Rick Steve's Travel book, we went to the Internet Cafe in Monterosso and asked for assistance in finding accommodations. Apparently, the guy was having a bit of trouble finding places for people. He did manage to find a 2 Bedroom apartment for rent for 2 nights. The funny thing was it was for 4 people. So, we ended up sharing the apartment with a very nice married couple from South Carolina. Sight unseen, the owner came to meet us at the cafe and took us to the aparmtnet which was up a very long flight of stairs - The place was was perfect. We couldn't have been happier or found a similar place for the same price.

This was the view from our window.


















We cleaned up after an already long day of travelling and went to town to let the water wash our cares away. It's funny how the rhythmic sounds of the sea can really put you at ease and let your mind wander.
We found a cute little cafe and tried some local white wine, bruchetta with pesto and another with Anchovies (another delicacy) and washed it down wiht the regional lemon liquer - which both of us sipped on and neither of us finished.

We ended the evening with more sea gazing and gelatto ice cream - Janes first and favorite. Then we headed to dream land to prepare for our hike into the 5 villages known as the Cinque Terre.