Italy

Okay so Iàm Italy, so far so good. I started out in Alba, which was way the heck out in the middle ofr nowhere, three trains to get there AND the sister city is Medford, Oregon. Yeah, okay, sister city, who cares. Alba cares! Deeply! In all seriousness, they renamed part of the town Medford. Alba does not look like Medford though. It looks like a red brick and tile duchy in the middle of vast acres of grapevines. I did enjoy the barbaresco and dolcetto d'alba. In fact, I probably had one of the best meals of my life there (fresh pasta w spring veg, rabbit, amazing dessert, all very affordable) at a place called Osteria Di Sognatori. WHOA. and then, this morning, it was on to the Cinque Terre. I'm staying in Vernazza (pictured above) which turns out is a pit of German tourists with Alpine walking sticks. But it was sort of cool to get off the train and talk to a guy named Egi (pronounced Edgy) who rented me a cheap room off the main street in town. I was checking in and paid for about 7 minutes after getting off the train in this tiny little town. I'm going hiking now and am going to try not to get clobbered by Alpine walking sticks.