Friday morning Brian and I grabbed a quick breakfast at our hotel in Milian and hailed a taxi to the train station. The 3-hour train ride to Cinque Terre went fast (mainly because Brian had the forethought to rent a movie on his iPad—we watched City of God—I highly recommend it). The long journey to Cinque Terre (a flight to Milan then three hour train ride to the coast) and the high cost of the bed and breakfast we stayed at made me question if it was reall...

Cinque Terre has a lot of cat residents, and the shops have a lot of cat-themed souvenirs. The cats aren’t everywhere so it isn’t some kind of creepy horror-movie thing. One will just be walking though a store or hanging out by a restaurant. A lot of them have collars and are clearly pets, and others seem to have been adopted by the local establishments. Being a cat-lover, I wanted to pet them, but settled with just watching them for fear of taking home som...

Our travel guide book (“Rick Steves’ Cinque Terre”) recommended a wine tasting at a family-owned vineyard in Monterosso--Buranco. Rick said that there was a tasting every day at noon, but you would need a reservation. Friday afternoon, Brian and I decided to take a walk to the vineyard to see if we could get on Saturday’s reservation list. I was expecting that we’d have to hike way outside the village, but it was just a short (difficult) hike up a side ...

As I stepped off the plane in Milan, I was hit by a wall of hot, humid air. During the past month in Paris the temperature has averaged in the 60s, so I wasn’t quite prepared for 90 degree weather (although I know with the heat wave at home I can’t really complain). Knowing that Milan is one of the fashion capitals of the world, I expected it to be, I don’t know, shiny, but in reality it is a little gritty. Gone was the clear blue with cotton candy clouds ...