Day 8 - Florence to Cinque Terre

Our bags are packed. We'll be training to the Cinque Terre later this morning. But first we walk over to the Caffe Conti for a caffe latte and pastry. Yum, I can get used to this! We stop back briefly at the hotel, to freshen up, and then head over to the Duomo. We're a little early for entry, so we head down the street to Lorenzo's Market were we do a little shopping. Then we head back to the Duomo for a 10 am entry. I would love to climb to the top, but we really don't have time and I would have to do it alone. So after viewing the interior of the church we head back to the hotel to check out and then head toward the train station.
The train station in Florence and the train ride to Cinque Terre is uneventful. We left Florence around noon, and arrived in Vernazza around 3:30. The train station is packed and we exit the train in a tunnel and work our way to the center of town. Wow, what a mob of people. We're approached by a man asking if we're looking for a room. We refuse is offer because we had a particular boarding house in mind. We walked over to what we thought was the right building, but couldn't find the place. I knocked on one door and entered. Two ladies at the top of the steps offered a room. So after an exhausting hike up the alley steps of Vernazza we settled in. The rooms looks new. And the shower is the best we've had in Italy. Our view consists of the hillside between Monterosso and it's quiet.
We freshen up and head out in search of a cold beer. We only had to go a few yards to the waterfront to find the beer and one of the best views in the world. By now it's late afternoon - 5ish and we're getting hungry so we order some bruschetta, pizza and pesto lasagna, 2 more beers and a caraf of the local white wine.This will be our home for the next two nights.