Venice, Verona, and the Cinque Terre

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Hello,

9/30 - We spent the morning wrapping up things on Santorini. One of owners of our hotel (the husband, grumpy greek Nikos) had promised that someone would take us back to port at 2:30pm. His wife showed up a little late and in a blazed up state...we detected from the car scent. So she proceeded to slowly wind all over the road down to the port while talking on the phone. We made it though, whew. An 8 hour ferry ride later and we arrived in Athens at 12am. We decided not to pay for accommodation and tough it out at the train station. It was closed, but a cafe was open next door. So we chilled with the randos and wild packs of dogs. Two trains and one bus later, we were back in the western port city of Patras, Greece. After a 36 hour ferry, we were in Venice, Italy. But it was way too crowded and one star rooms were going for 100 euros! So we decided to come back later during the week.

We went to Verona, checked in, and walked around. This is where Romeo and Juliet was set. This was the most charming city I have seen so far. Despite being a decidedly tourist location, Verona is a perfect example of a city that has managed not to lose the charm that made it one. We noticed that the city management was superb and it was extremely clean. However, I'll easily admit that this may be more a function of numbers than management; Verona doesn't have as many visitors as Rome, does it 😊.

The next day we went to Genoa as a jumping off point for the Cinque Terre. It's a protected park containing some of Italy's "most dramatic coastline." It's true, it was very nice. It connects a bunch of small towns built into the cliffs. This diamond does not lay in the rough, however, and so they are crowded. Some of the hikes are a little tough so that kept people off of them, which was nice.

Venice. I could see how Venice would be very enjoyable if you had the funds. Internet is 8 euros/hour and we told you about the hotel rooms. Want a ride in those gondolas from the man in a black and white striped shirt? That'll be 70ish euro for 50 minutes. Coffee in San Marco square is 12 euros. It was much less crowded than last Saturday, but that's relative because it was still packed with tourists.´ We still managed to have a nice lamp light dinner along the grand canal, listening to the pleasant man on the piano accordion.

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