blame it on the construction

so this post is REALLY REALLY late. we are in Lucca, Italy getting ready to leave for the last ride of the trip. before that, we plan to sit on the old city walls and eat breakfast. since the hotel wants to charge us $15 each, we figure this is the best option.

I blame the late-ness of this post on the european construction. everything here is under construction. fountains, roads, tunnels, railroad tracks. Therefore, I assume the Internet is also under construction. in fact, its been really difficult to locate internet cafes in Europe (as opposed to Latin America and Asia). I assume its because everyone has a home computer here.

Cinque Terre was beautiful as it was when I saw it 8 years ago. we stayed in riomaggiore, which is the 5th of the 5 towns. the first night, we walked between town 3,4,5 which was a good time, and less technically challenging than the hike between the first two (which Ben did solo on Sun). there is some weirdness going on in the Med, causing most of the town harbors to be shut down and massive waves to crash over the boulders. we almost saw a couple get swept into the sea. I blame the whole thing on global warming, right Al Gore?

have I described how cheap wine is here. in the grocery store, you can choose from several bottles under $4, most of which have been incredible. its actually tough to find one in the store thats over €15. you have to go to a special wine shop for that. they also have miniture wine in a box. some are personal size (like the size of the juice boxes you had as a kid)

ok - time for breakfast. I will write more tomorrow.