Ya-su from Santorini! We are been blazing throught the rest of our Italy tour and Greece since we last wrote. We had a wonderfully relaxing time in Lucca and ventured on to Venice after a few days of sunshine, good wine and food. Though we were ready to be sleeping in the same room again so I found a sweet deal on an apartment in the center of Venice right nest to the Pont de Rialto bridge. Almost too good to be true, right? Well, we arrived in the afternoon in Venice and searched for hours and hours for this apartment to no avial. Keep in mind that we had been trying to find an affordable place in Venice for weeks and there was nothing. We trooped our stuff to the very pricey in-town internet cafe and got the info for this place that we booked so we could call them and see what the deal was. They seem to have no record of our booking and thus can't give us any info on the place. It turns out that I, as Chris calls the "mad clicker" did not hit the book button on this reservation and thus I have left us homeless. Ooops. But, wait, the place was still available and if I just gave them my credit card info again (ahhh, ok, a little scared about this now) they can contact this person about the apartment. I take the risk and go for it, only to find that niether I, nor the booking people can get a hold of this women. So I say forget it, cancel it because this is not working. Then we begin to wander (in the dark now) through Venice wondering what to do. But I feel the need to make a last ditch effort to call again and again to this womans voicemail for the apartment and we finally get her on the phone. She is speaking broken English - what reservation? I thought it was canceled? You are on the street with no where to stay? Oh dear! She promises to meet us at the Rialto water taxi stop in two hours and give us keys if we pay cash. Ok - so we wait - me biting my fingernails thinking Chris will throw me into the canal if this woman does not show. But there she was, early actually - I was so happy I hugged her. She led us to the door we had found and dismissed several times earlier as someones house to this great little place with a kitchen, double bed and its own bathroom right in the heart of everything. We were so happy and stayed there for three days, saw all of Venice, went to the market for supplies and cooked all our own meals. It was wonderful - but I had to tell the story of our arrival so you could fully appretiate how it begun.
After Venice we went to a tiny, overpriced hotel near the Milan airport and stayed one night so that we could catch our flight to Athens in the morning. We had an uneventful flight and arrived in Athens to our great little hostel in the center of Plaka. We spent two nights there and got to tour around a bit, see the Acropolis and have lots of chicken pitas. At this point we have been talking a lot about how great it would have been to see all these places before tourism had got a hold of them. So much tourist crap everywere, its a bit annoying. But, this comes with the deal right? Suddenly on our second day, the rampent rain and thunderstorms returns and we are stuck inside for the rest of the day. We think, lets get out of here and go to the islands - get some sun and all that right? Hmmmmmmm....
The next morning, we board a high speed ferry to Santorini in the sunshine and our hopes are high. We have a beautiful boat ride and we are picked up as promised by our hotel shuttle and wisked to the beach town of Perissa. We have a lovely place, with our own room and a kitchenette. But there is only one problem - most everything is shut down for the season. Apparently this particular place shuts down completely at the end of October. We venture to the one restaurant and have the few things left on the menu and a little too much Ouzo :) The next morning, we awake to pouring rain and thunderstorms. All the ferries are canceled and so we spend the day watching movies in our room and contemplating what to do next. It seems that this weather will continue and we start to wonder if we should make our way to another, warmer place (ie, move on to Thailand). That evening was filled with terrible food, more movies, and loud guests at our hotel. Not much sleep that night. The next day was more of the same, lousy weather and the uncertainty of what to do next. So we said Hell with it and took a bus to the Fira the picturesque postcard town you see on all the advertising for Santorini. We arrived with no reservations but figured it shouldn't be a problem. After getting off of the bus and shewing away the persistent man who wanted us to rent a room for 10 euros, who knows where that would have been, we set off to find our room. The good ole Lonely Planet Guide saved us again, we ended up with a room right on the edge of the famed "Calderra", from our balcony it looks like we are hanging over the edge of a great abyss, amazing. The Calderra is the edge of the Volcanoe that makes up this small island chain. Essentially the entire town is propped on the top of the rim of the old Volcano. We went into town and finally had some great Greek food, and decided to take the Cable Car down the face of the Calderra to the small port at the bottom. What a view, the cable car seems to go straight down a cliff covered in Volcanic rock to the small port. Of course the only reason Chris wanted to take this ride was so they could take the donkey ride back up instead of the cable car. The donkey trip was interesting, and scary. Chris's donkey had dreams of being Dale Earnhardt, biting his other Donkey competitors and passing them against the wall, the outside (Yikes) and the inside. Blythes donkey was a little more low key until the dog showed up that her donkey didn't live very much, he thought he could catch the dog and so tried. After that it was back to the room, a good dinner, and then a quite nights sleep. We are heading for Naxos, another island, for a least a day as we figure out what to do next. Pictures above are in order, Chris on the ghost of Dale Earnhardt, Chris above Fira, the Acropolis, Venice, Chris amazed at how the boat docks,

the view from our room on the edge of the Vocano, and a very sexy Woman posing on our deck.

See you all soon,

Chris and Blythe

We are now firmly rooted in the Tuscan countryside! Greetings from Lucca - one of our favorite places so far! Since our last entry, we have been so many places it is hard to get your head around it so I will give you the highlights. We ended up staying for four nights in Sorrento because we loved our place so much and we made it to Positano, an amazing city down the coast cut into the cliffs (see pic), We spent the day there and took a boat ferry back right just in time. A HUGE thunderstorm hit and shook the bungalow all night - one of the biggest I have ever been through. But in the morning it was green and beautiful and we found our way up to Pompeii and saw the ruins there. After one more night we headed to Rome for four nights. I wont even list all the historic and amazing things we saw there, but we saw it all. Chris and I had a long discussion about monuments and "old stuff" and decided not to just see everything because we feel that we have too. All amazing, but its all starting to blend together. We vow to get even more creative with our travels :)

We do see all of Rome and were ready for something slower so instead of heading to Florence as planned, we found oursleves in Lucca, which is between Pisa and Florence. Lovely place in the Tuscan countryside that has few cars inside its walls (bikes mostly-obviously I love it). Today we rented bikes, bought food for a picnic and off we went. We ended up 20 km away in Pisa and got to see the tower and everything. So amazing! So now we are tired and ready for some good pasta! We are off to Florence for the day tomorrow and then on to Venice on Monday. Enjoy our pics (us and the travel dragon of course).

Take Care -

Blythe and Chris

Bonjourno from Sorrento!

Its been a bit since we have had affordable internet access or time to use it! We left Avignon in a whirlwind and got the only train to Paris last Sunday and had to pay a bit more because they only had first class available. It actually was worth every penny because it was the most comfortable ride. Only 2.5 hours to Paris - I have never been on a train so fast! We got to Paris and I must say, if you have never been there, stay as close as you can to the center. We had a barebones hotel out in Bastille and it was a bit of a pain getting in and out all the time, plus our neighborhood was a bit scary. But we made the best of it and we were just happy to have our own bathroom :) Though it was cold and raining, we managed to walk everywhere and really see all the sights. We skipped the Louvre, but made it to the Modern art museum (more our taste anyway) and did the whole walk to the Arc de Triumph and all the grounds in between. We wandered up to "the biggest flea market in Europe" and it was scary and all the stuff was cheap - dont let anyone talk you into that one. We had our breath taken away by Versille - totally amazing and well worth the crowds. One night we treated ourselves to a really good French restaurant - could not resist. And the last night we made it back to the Eiffel tower and, though we did not think we were going to make it up because the line was so long, finally got to the top and the view was stunning. If you are in Paris, go up there at night - the lights are amazing and the whole structure is set to twinkle with blinking white lights on the hour which makes the whole thing sureal. Just bring your boxing gloves to fend off the vendors selling plastic Effiel towers - they are very aggressive and everywhere.

Yesterday, we woke totally exhasted after staying up trying to figure our next step via slow internet connections and we found this great place in Sorrento. We hoped on a plane in the morning and landed in Naples after lunch. As for Naples, we could not get out of there fast enough - people were yelling and screaming at each other, there was more litter than I have seen anywhere and the smog was so thick you choked on it. Sometimes you just dont realize how good we have it! But a quick train ride down the coast and we landed in Sorrento. Our directions to our place were a bit hazy and we wandered very tired and hungry all around before we finally found our way up the hill and into Villagio Verde - the greatest place we have found yet. Though we dont have a view of the bay like all the other places boasted, we have a little bungelow in a lime and olive grove, away from the noise of town (god, there are scooters EVERYWHERE) and we have a big queen bed, our own kitchen and bathroom and a beautiful pool with a terrance. It is paridise after Paris. We decided to stay four nights because it is cheap and so relaxing. Today we took a stroll through town, took in the sights, bought a couple days worth of grocerys (we have a little deck with a picnic table on the front of our cabin to each at) then made cocktails and sat by the pool - ahhhhh, sooooo nice :) Tomorrow we are taking a bus up the Amalfi coast to do some beach going and hiking in the surrounding towns. We will try to keep you posted again once we make it up to Rome. Enjoy our pics - one from atop the Eiffel tower at night, one from Versilles and two from our little bungelow here in Sorrento :)

Chow for now -

Blythe and Chris