In the land of young Love

It is best to start today's entry with a great big thanks to everyone that sent us e-mails thanking us for finally getting off our comfortable bottoms to find an Internet cafe and update the blog. We are sorry to cause any of you worry, but after our past few accidents we certainly understand why you envisioned us in a double room at the Pisa Generali Oespital. Given our new understanding that there is no charge for hospitals, and our strong desire to beat our 100 Euro per night budget, a hospital stay does not sound all that bad.

We're doing fine. The camera is taking photos, but technical issues with the Internet cafes make it easier not to post them until we get to somewhere with wifi, so you'll have to wait to see for yourselves that we are alive and well. Mike's purple leg is healing, although the bruise looks like gravity is doing a number on the purple spot, that now stretches from the top of his leg and down below the knee. Who would have thought that bruises sag just like the rest of our aging bodies.

Last night was one of those occasional nights we have when one or both us us can't sleep. This isn't unique to this trip, but we notice it a lot more when there is no where to go to sit up and read while the other sleeps. So, last night I sat in the tiny bathroom reading for several hours until Mike woke up so that we could keep each other company in our wakefulness. We were attacked by mosquitoes for some reason and they were relentless. They did a number on me in Florence too, but they hadn't been too bad in Cinque Terre until last night when they feasted on us both. The biggest problem was the sate of alert you stay in waiting for the next attack so that you can cream those little puppies. In any event, after only a few hours sleep we got up, showered and took off for the bus down the hill to the train station. We were without our normal two cappuccino breakfast, as town doesn't open up until 9:00 am. Even the bus driver doesn't make any runs that early, so we ended up dragging our wheelie bags and our backpacks down the switch backed road, through the grape vineyards, above the 180 degree view of the ocean and down to the train station. Kind of makes you feel sorry for us having to make that walk at 8:00 doesn't it?

The train to La Spezia went fine, but when it came time to board the train to Milano we found ourselves locked out of the train. A nice conductor took pity on us when they announced that our train was delayed for an hour and tried to help us find an alternative. But, while we was looking at his hand held computer trying to figure it out the engine started up and it was decided we really didn't need to delay an hour, we could take off. Getting on a train that has mechanical problems is a lot less scary than an airplane. This train was configured in sets of six seats. Our seatmates included a couple from Golden, Colorado, Mike and Vicki who we spent the entire two hours talking to about our travels. The poor Italian businessman sitting in the fifth seat with his computer out trying to work!

We are experts at doing the on/off trains. We can hike our bags up and down the stairs and onto the overhead rack like nothing. We remind ourselves that this is taking the place of the gym time we spent lifting weights. Today we had three trains to load and unload, but the speed with which we handle the bags now is much better than when we started the trip.

There are numerous drawbacks to cheap hotels but the most obvious one is that they are ALWAYS up lots of stairs. That makes them particularly nasty after carrying the luggage on and off the train and across a new town in which you don't know where you're going. When you get to the hotel, like we did today, and there is only a sign on the door and a set of stairs facing you, it is daunting. Sometimes we lose our sense of humor and adventure, although today, even without sleep we climbed them without complaint.

The proprietor of this hotel was not a day under 85 years old and it was clear from our communication that she spoke less English than we speak Italian. She made lots of attempts to explain her Italian to us with more Italian, but it was like a Laurel and Hardy to do business with her. She had us worried that we were not going to get the room we had reserved earlier, but it turns out that she was actually lamenting the fact that there were no more rooms with en suite bathrooms (we already knew this sad fact). She took a shine to me, and took my hand to walk me around the place and show me how the locks work (we have four keys to use to get safely to our room) and where the facilities are. This tiny little old lady was explaining to me something about Mike not using the same shower as me. I finally figured out that she wanted him to use the shower reserved for extra tall people rather than the other one for the rest of us. After checking in and giving her our passports as required in most of the hotels we have stayed in, we asked her about an hour later for our passports back. The answer was no, but it took us major interpretations to figure out why. At first we thought we wouldn't get them back until we paid her the money, but it turns out the English word for money is similar to the Italian word for Wednesday or tomorrow or whenever we think she is going to give them back to us. We'll see.

We saw a poster advertising a production of Romeo and Guiliette(their spelling)at the ancient Roman arena in Verona. So, here we are staying in a hotel on Via Cappoletto, home of the Capulets and we may have a chance to see the play in a thousand year old arena. We haven't tried to buy tickets yet. A task for tomorrow.

The Internet cafe closes early here in Verona, so we will sign off and go get some dinner. Our love to all of you. Thanks for the notes. Gerry, we are still laughing at your comments. And Maryann, thanks for the advice on Venice.

Love, Deanne (and Mike)