"Ciao, ciao!"

We arrived a few days ago in Soriano nel Cimino after spending five nights in Vernazza. We rented a room from the gracious and kind Monica, who always greeted us with a hundred "ciao"s. "Ciao, ciao, Jessi! Ciao! Ciao! Ciao!" Monica owns a restaurant called Al Castello, and it is located on the cliff near the castle (see the little red umbrellas in the picture). Every morning we got to eat breakfast here with a view of the ocean. Other memorable experiences included pastries at the pirate cafe, swims in the harbor, four scoops of gelato a day, pasta, anchovies, sun, bread, hikes through the towns, sweeping views of the sea....one of the best destinations of our adventure (but admittedly, they all are the best).

At the moment I am inside a small library in this rural Italian town just south of Tuscany. Appalled at the high price of internet at the hotel (15 euros an hour!), we took the advice of a local shopkeeper and got a library card to use the internet for free. We might be the only non-resident, non-Italian speaking library patrons to ever catch on to this great little idea!

Hopefully tomorrow I can post some pictures (these are just from the internet, since it takes a year to load from the camera...) And as Monica would say, "Ciao, ciao, friends, ciao ciao!!"