We left the hostel early, like 8:30am, but still no WiFi! I'm still not totally sure if the 24-hour ticket we bought was supposed to be good for the bus to Marco Polo Airport, but we were able to take the vaporetto to the bus station, and then the bus to the airport without incident. Since we arrived several hours before our flight (It wasn't even listed yet!), we chilled for a while and waited for it to show on the list so we'd know where to check in. Marco Polo Airport is pretty good sized, with over 60 check-in counters for dozens or airlines from Qatar to AliItalia to RyanAir. Finally, we check with a flight information desk and they told us the counter should open soon and be like number 82 or 83, so ... read more

***I have to apologize for the delay, again, but the hostel's WiFi has been down. I'm posting this one and the next from Barcelona, Spain. With another reasonably early start, we bought a 3-person, one-hour ticket to get to the main island of Venice. So far, that has been the only bummer, having to pay for each trip between the hostel on Guidecca Island and Venice proper. You can pay 6.50 Euros for an hour (which would seldom allow you more than one trip), or you can buy a 12-hour, 24-hour, 48-hour, etc. pass that lets you go wherever, whenever for that period of time. Since we were doing the Muran/Buran/Torcello Tour, we just bought single-trip tickets. Arriving on Venice, we strolled around St. Marcos Square, but since we already had a tour booked for 2:30pm ... read more

We got a fairly early start and took the bus down to the center of Genoa. We still had most of the day on our 24 hour/4 people transit ticket. I had thought of going on a quaint train ride from Genoa into the countryside, but we decided instead to check out the museums downtown. We bought a pass for about 8 Euros each that was good for 3 of the main museums, Palazzo Rosso. Palazzo Bianco, and Palazzo Turtis. We wanted to eat lunch first, and we needed to straighten out our train tickets to Verona and Venice tomorrow, so we first went to the Palazzo Principe train station. After checking with customer service on available trains and connections, we decided to be brave and try to use the ticket vending machines. It took a ... read more

We got up and took the train from Corniglia to Riomaggiore, intending to walk to Manarola from there, then from Manarola to Corniglia, then hop the train to Monterosso al Mare to take the last of the trails from there to Vernazza, returning to Corniglia by train. Confused yet? All five towns of Cinque Terre are connected by rail and by trail. Yesterday we did the Corniglia to Vernazza trail and wanted to finish them all. We got to Riomaggiore, one of the bigger towns along with Monterosso, and after shopping around, having the customary cappuccino and stocking up on water, we took the trail from there to Manarola. The trail is called the Via d'Amore and lovers/couples promise their unbreakable love by placing padlocks along the trail and throwing the key in the ocean. Fortunately, ... read more

Day 7 - Lucca Day 4: We got up in plenty of time for our taxi to the cooking class and were downstairs in front at 9:20. Unfortunately, the taxi driver the hostel called didn't arrive until 9:45, but swore he could get us there in time. After a very harrowing ride, we go there, at about 10am on the dot. Also unforunately, even though the hostel told us it would be 10 Euros, he asked for 20 Euros, and since we hadn't asked him beforehand, we didn't have much choice. Taking bus back! We found the room in the hotel where the class was being held, but they had already sort of started. To make things worse, the chef had apparently forgotten about us and I had to show him my receipt. Oh well, we ... read more