Cinque Terre

It took months for me to figure out how to pronounce this quaint area that consists of five viliages off the West coast of Italy. Cink tear, Cink tear-uh, CinkQ tear-uh...I had no clue. Turns out, I was way off (Swammy...Swommy...Sampsonite!). It is pronounced Cheen Kway Ter Ray (thank you washingtonpost.com). Good to know, folks.

The more I researched this area, the more I fell in love with it. It is absolutely beautiful! The colorfull buildings are set on a hillside that drops into the ocean. There are very few roads but mostly narrow walkways between the tall villas (if you can call them that). After falling in love with the pictures, we decided instead of making Cinque Terre a day trip, we would stay the night there. I began looking for accommodations and found that it is a lot harder than most places. Hostelworld.com was of little help. This area has very few hotels and hostels but instead, bed and breakfasts. Most of these are actually a room that is rented out of an Italian household. I've heard before that if you contact one place and they do not have accommodations, they will refer you to "cousin Tony." And that they do. I have probably corresponded with over 30 people about a place to stay. Each one regretfully informs me that there is no vacancy but I can "contact _______ and ask refer my name _______. Maybe discount?" (Their broken English is quite amusing) I have finally struck gold in a few places. One hostel, one B&B (traditional), and one travel agent with several places to offer. Progress!

We now think we might want to stay for two nights, but by doing this will have to cut out another stop. How do you say, "We will skip _______(insert any place in Europe)." Right now, it looks like Heidelberg is on the chopping block. We both want to see it, but think we mmight rather spend an extra night in Cinque Terre. This may all depend on whether there are accommodations for an extra night in Cinque Terre.

So I will await another email using broken English telling me "this is my web for check the room" and requesting my surname.

PS-This is also a test for using my pda and compact keyboard for posting. If you are reading this, it must have worked!