Florence, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Venice, Zermatt, and Gimmerwald

It has been a while since we posted but it is for a good reason. All the internet cafes we went to were too expensive to use for extended periods of time (up t 20 euros and hour). Last time we posted we were in Rome. Since then we went to Florence where both Jessica and I got sick at different times. We went to the La Cinque Terre ( five towns) on the coast of Italy, flew through Venice, and have hiked over 20 miles in Switzerland.



Florence was great. We stayed with a friend of mine, Ian, who is studying architecture there. Ian took us to Fiesole, a small town about an hour outside the city where we went for a hike and were able to look down on Florence. We met up with the Trans (from our bible study) and went to Pisa. The only thing to do is look at the leaning tower and take pictures pretending to hold up the tower. This is stupid because the tower is far too heavy for one person to hold up. Nothing can prepare you for the horrific angle that the tower is leaning at. It is very unnatural.
From Florence we went to La Cinque Terrre on the advice of Rick Steves, Jessica's best friend.



Rick has a lot of friends and they were all in La Cinque Terre with us. In fact, the cool thing to do is walk around town with your camera and copy of Rick Steves travel guide (we left ours in our room). I think I overhead two couples arguing over what copy of Rick Steves was better. I don't like Rick much. I tore out the La Cinque Terre pages from our RS book and gave them to a needy tourist.
From La Cinque Terre we took three trains overnight to Venice. Jess found us a hotel 20 minutes outside of Venice for a great deal. The hotel let us cheek in at 6am. We caught a couple hours of sleep before checking out Venice. Venice was very picturesque. However, we only spent 5 hours in the city. We were getting tired of ultra touristy Italian cities.



The next day we set out for Zermatt Switzerland, home of the Matterhorn. People and landscapes sure change from country to country. The Swiss share very little with their southern neighbors. Everything in Switzerland is clean, on time, and logical. When you ask someone how to get somewhere they give you a spreadsheet with timetables from your current station to your desired station. In Italy they blow cigarette smoke in you face and say, "I think you take that train over there," Pointing in the direction of four or five trains. We spent two days hiking around the small town of Zermatt. We hiked right up to the base of the Matterhorn. Our Hotel included breakfast. We took enough bread and fruit for lunch and dinner also. This was also the first time we had eaten buffet in Europe. A Zermatt woman watched in amazement as Jessica took down two bowls of cereal, two rolls, a cup of coffee, some fruit and a glass of orange juice. Europeans eat one roll and have a cappuccino for breakfast, if they even eat at all.
From Zermatt we arrived in Gimmelwald (worth typing into google earth). This is where we are now...