Picture: The cat santuary in the middle of central rome, us in Lucca, CJ at the Colosseum, and the Popolo Piazza with 1,000 trash men sculptures done by some famous german.


Hello from Cinque Terre!
We escaped the rush of Rome at a dead run the day before yesterday. The train station in Rome nearly got the best of us, crazy. On our way out of our hotel we ran into Rick Steves- the guy who writes one of the guide books we are using. He asked how we liked our place, the rate etc. Nice guy, guess he actually does get out there and check things out. Oh yeah, we should also mention we saw the Catacombs at the vatican (where Pope John Paul II lies).

After we left Rome, we went to Lucca, a small town with incredibly narrow streets and completely surrounded by a wall. Very defensible. We had an absolutely incredible meal in Lucca.

Here in Cinque, we have an room about 2 feet bigger then our bed, but with a porch hanging out over the sea. Nice! and actually the first reasonably priced room of the trip. We will probably be here another night- then off to Venice! Ciao.