Italy Update: By Matt :)

Ok, where to start. Some events of the last couple days are beyond any explnation! It has been an absolutly amazing time since our last blog. So on Friday we did it all. We must have walked at least 10 miles, basically circling rome and hitting all the major sites. We hit the treve fountain, pantheon, as well as many new ruins, all the way to the vatican city and more. We decided to just walk it out rather than take a bus and we had a really good time doing it, although at the end of the day we were absolutly beat. We had a great break down by the river and just sat and looked around at all the beauty around us. We then went back to our part of the city, got Gelato and passed out, we had an early Saturday morning wake up for the train to Cinque Terre. We woke up Saturday morning at 7:01 sharp for our ride up to Cinque Terre. After a quick check out and a cappaucino out of a machine we were on our way to the station. Our train left about 10:00 after a short delay and a great time hanging out in the station. We then got on our train only to find out that It was completely full and our tickets were valid for standing room only! We found some seats for a short time, but were then forced to find another place to go. We set up camp in a stariway entrace to one of the cars. Katy displays our accomadations here:

However with our ipods, and books we made the most of our trip through the beautiful Italy countryside. We eventually found some seat for the last hour of our trip and they were terrific! We then arricved in La Speiza where we had to catch a small connecting local train in order to get to Cinque Terre and monte rosso. For this train we had our own car! and It was a beautiful ride through the 5 lands until we arrived 20 mintues later in monte rosso.It was as beautiful as ever, all the colors combinded with the beach and the ocean cannot be done justice by a postcard. This is where the story gets crazy...Unfortunatly for us, this beautiful place is no secret and it is the Italian independence day this weekend. Everything was full, we tried every hotel in town and it was all packed. So we hopped back on the train over to a little bigger town called Levanto, this place is not as much as a tourist attraction but is just as beautiful if not mroe beautiful than the other 5 towns. We wakled into town with no idea what to expect and things were looking pretty bad. Then Matt randomly saw some people in a drug store and decided to go ask where we could find a place to stay. They all looked him and shook thier heads as everything in town was full as well. One man with dark hair tried to make a quick call to a friend but had no good news. Then another man in the store, who looked to be about 65+ took us on a 20 minute journey all through town to try and find us a palce to stay. He tried 2 friends who both had no rooms available. At the second palce we went, his friend Marco phoned his good friend who was just opening up a bed and breakfast that was not quite open yet but he told Andrea (male) that it must open tonight for us! We then followed the old man to teh other side of town covered in huge houses and beautiful landscapes, we could not believe where he was leading us. We then met Andrea who was a terrific guy who runs this bed and breakfast with his mother and they were both so sweet. He moved us and in and showed us to our beautiful room with our own bathroom and all for a very decent price. He then pointed us where to go for dinner and drinks all around town. We went for a walk on the beach and had a great callzone dinner it a palce of paradise. It was the adventure of a lifetime and we are still going storng!

A picture from the beach in Levanto!