Day 4 Amsterdam to the Cinque Terre; June 19, 2008

Tonight during dinner we watched the sun set over the Mediterranean Sea. The bright umbrellas over our table and a handsome Italian waiter were the finishing touches. What a life!
We are in Vernazza, which is a tiny little town in the Cinque Terra, on the Northern coast of Italy. The buildings are quaint and colorful. The painted stucco is peeling in a charming way.

The day began at 5:00 am in Haarlem, when I woke up to take a shower before Shelley knew the world was turning. We left our hotel at 6:30 am to drag our bags one kilometer over cobblestones to the main station. We got back onto our friendly red bus 300 for the forty minute ride to the airport. The bus has a special lane the whole way or it would take a lot longer. We checked in with plenty of time for our flight from Amsterdam to Milan. The sky was threatening rain and we were glad to leave for sunny Italy.
In Milan we decided to stop and go see the cathedral. It's huge! It's twice as wide as a normal cathedral. It looks like a spiky, flamboyant pink monolith. We toured the inside in about ten minutes flat. It is dark and grand with pillars the size of giant sequoias.

The most amazing part, though is the roof. For 7 euros, we took the elevator up to the roof (you can save a couple of euro by taking the stairs... no thanks). I've never seen so many ornate spires. Not even in Oxford. Every one is different. There are over 2000 statues, all unique. We stayed on the roof until we absolutely had to split for the train to Vernazza.

We figured out that the guy who sold us the train ticket took a bit off the top for himself. The route he sent us on was shorter, and he reserved seats for us which made our trip MUCH easier. So as it turns out, we would have tipped him anyway and we weren't upset a bit that he did it for us.

Four hours later, we were in Vernazza, met at the station by a friend of our landlady. That could have been a real bomb, but it turned out just fine. She showed us to our quaint room overlooking the main street of Vernazza.

Shelley is looking forward to a relaxing time. So far it's been delightful.