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Today we were traveling from Rome, to Vernazza in the Cinque Terre of Italy which means literally “five towns”. Vernazza is one of these 5 towns that sit on the northwestern coast of the spectacular Italian coastline. The towns are only accessible by foot or train and there are no vehicles which makes them very appealing. The towns are perched into the cliffs looking almost as if they were carved there. This portion of the trip was a nice respite from the hustle of the large cities that we left behind being largely dominated by spectacular scenery, water and mountains. We arrived in town and were greeted by our hotel proprietor, Giambo who showed us the way to the 100 or so stairs we had to climb to get to the room. Everywhere in Vernazza except the main restaurants and business are accessed by climbing so which gave us another excuse to indulge in the phenomenal cuisine and wine of the region. We arrived to our room which we had particularly requested, room 31 which we had read had by far the best views which to our delight was 100% accurate. The room was perched above a balcony etched into a cliff with two windows that opened up to a spectacular view of the Mediterranean Sea, even more amazing than the pictures we saw on the internet (for once, it was better than the advertisement!) We settled in, had a glass of wine on the balcony and chatted with some other travelers from Australia and made our way down the stairs to dinner at one of the restaurants that served the local “ligurian” cuisine. I sampled a dish that I read about made with potatoes, tomatoes, olive oil, wine and the famous local anchovies. I am not typically into anchovies, but was told they were different here and that was correct. This dish was amazing, full of flavor and delicious. Tammy had a pesto pasta dish that she also enjoyed and we watched the sunset over the sea of beautiful Vernazza.