Internet Free Italy

It is hard to believe that anywhere in the world (outside of Mancos, Colorado) still uses dial up access to the internet, but this place does. We left Lucca and headed up the the coastal area of Italy known as the Cinque Terre, or five lands. It is the most heavenly place- five little tiny towns perched on the edge of the world. We are in Coniglia, the center most of the five towns. We ended up in this one by chance, having spent our final night in Lucca on the mobile phone calling all of the hotels in both guide books. We started with the Lonely Planet guide because its slant towards young and poor travelers seems to fit our budget aspirations better than the Frommer guide book. After exhausting all of its possibilities, we started into Frommer. On our tenth call (as marked off in the book so that we didn,t call any twice) we found the one with a room for three nights. Our hotelier runs a restaurant, and like many of the businessmen in this town, also rents out rooms. We have a gorgeous view from our window above the restaurant of the town and the ocean. Our western facing window gets spectacular views, which once we get to internet other than the current internet cafe, I will share with you.

Our choice of Coniglia was pure chance, but one we are very appreciative to have received. The towns on each end of the Cinque Terre are the most lively, with more hotels and beaches to accommodate the crowds. Our town is the only one perched high on a hill, requiring either a bus ride or 365 steps to go from the train to the town square. Each day we travel from this town on the train to one of the other towns in order to see each of these unique little villages. Coniglia is delightfully remote and uncrowded but we have tried each of its restaurants and now can unequivocally say that it is possible to have mediocre food in Italy. This area is best known for its white wine (good- we have tried it repeatedly to verify) and its seafood. Under ideal circumstances Mike is not a seafood lover, but in a place where you don,t know what you are ordering, and where most fish and shrimp comes with unsavory identifying information like heads, tails, skins and shells, he is very reluctant to venture away from his safe spaghetti with pomodoro sauce. We had sea bass one night, as the only way to get it was to order for two, and when it arrived in its birthday suit on the table, we picked through its bones, skins, eyeballs, etc. to get our three bites each. We decided to forgo the fish for awhile. I have had spaghetti with clams, a nostalgic family favorite, and spaghetti with seafood with the rubbery calamari that brought back the nostalgic memories of my twenty-first birthday party during which I was introduced to calamari for the first time.

The only internet access available in Coniglia is in the "bar", a tiny little room full of old men playing cards. At the back of the room there are two ancient PCs set up with dial-up access to the internet. The agony of waiting for the screens to load have prevented us from doing anything on these machines. Instead, we took the train to the northernmost of the towns, Riomaggiore, today. We are sitting in the internet cafe, where between the two of us, we are using more than twenty percent of the computing capacity within a fifty square mile area. Amazing. Because I am not on my own computer I can,t update the photos. You will be happy to hear that out of every fifty shots I take without automatic focus, about twenty or so are decent enough to share. The others are so out of focus as to be relegated to the delete bucket immediately.

Today is our sixth day in Coniglia. We extended our stay once we got here and found ourselves in such a beautiful and peaceful place. We have been spending our morning walking (after breakfast of cornettos and cappachinos) and our afternoons resting, and Mike is slowly healing from his accident. The purple spot on his leg, which pretty much fills up the back side of his left leg, has started to fade as his strength returns. His knee swells up each afternoon, so we rest to recover.

Tomorrow we leave here for Verona. We were considering Como, land of George Clooney and most of the people that leave here, but others have told us that it is not as magical as the Cinque Terre, so we have decided to see it later. Verona is a convenient stop on the way to Venice, a city that we have never seen. The controversy of whether to go to Venice or not seems to be popular among the tourists, many of think it is too over priced and smelly and others who think it romantic and beautiful. We thought we would check it out and see for ourselves.

There is most definitely a traveler's sharing of information that takes place. When we hear English we frequently lean over to the table next to us or the people nearby and start up a conversation. In the Cinque Terra most of the English we hear is from Canadians rather than Americans. We met a newlywed couple from Ottawa, Brad and Melina. Like us, they stayed in Conigulia for five days, although Brad's outgoing personality made them the center of attention in town. They made friends with everyone and were invited to dinner at the home of people they met in town. We met them for wine at the Entoteca (wine bar) several nights and made friends along with them. The proprietor of the wine bar was spending his days picking grapes and Brad helped him haul the grapes down to the cellar below the wine bar for pressing, so we were able to meet the crew and hear all about the process. When Marco, the proprietor (named in the Rick Steves guide book) decided to share his television with the town in order for everyone to watch the France vs. Italy soccer finals, we were invited to sit in the alley and watch the game with everyone else.

One night we sat down for dinner in a restaurant high above the ocean alongside a table with four people speaking English. Together we were the only people in the place. They heard us and made room for us at their table and soon we were part of the group from Texas. These two couples went to college together twenty years ago and travel together every year or two. it was fun to meet them and to be part of their party. So, we have found alternative entertainment to make up for lack of Internet.

We spoke to Caitie yesterday. She and her roommates were spending their Sunday afternoon doing homework. She is recovering from tonsillitis which she thinks she has had for awhile but has just now seen a doctor. Life is good and she seems very happy with college.

Verona should have better Internet access, so we will check in again soon. Gotta go now: Mike is done and ready to hobble our way back to the train and our hammocks.

Deanne