Sneaky

I am not, I must confess, a terribly sneaky person.not that I can't keep a secret, I just usually don't need to. But for the past couple of days I have been sneaky. 

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. First, we checked out of our place in Florence and made the trek to the train station.

Our first stop was Pisa. We had a couple of hours between trains so we stowed our luggage and went into town. Obligatory shot of the leaning tower ensued. 

It was kind of a madhouse with everyone trying to get pictures. I started to lose patience. Then we headed back to our next train. We had a whole compartment to ourselves.

It was only a short train ride to Monteresso. The town is shockingly beautiful.

We met up with the person who was renting us an apartment through VRBO. She walked us down the winding streets of the old town to possible the most lovely apartment on the planet. It is quite amazing. We sat outside on the balcony and Ellie read some more of the adventures of Mark Watney. Meanwhile the train from Milan to Monteresso was running 45 minutes late.

Why, you may ask, was this important? Because for the last several days Liz and I had been plotting a suprise visit. So as Ellie was reading I was texting with Liz who eventually made it to the apartment. The timing was perfect - she arrived when Ellie was in the bathroom so I could run down the stairs and let her in. Ellie was very surprised, though in retrospect she could discern some of the clues. 

After the shock wore off, the three of us explored the town. It is picture book gorgeous. 

We wandered up and down the beach, checking out the scenery. You can see all of the towns of the Cinque Terre if you look closely enough.

We had an amazing dinner. It just so happened that there was a race tonight and the runners went right past out restaurant. We clapped for each one.

It was quite a long night. Liz had been awake for over 30 hours and Ellie had a long day as well. Plus eating on the Italian schedule leads to late nights.

So in the end I managed to be sneaky, Ellie managed to be suprised, and Liz managed to stay awake to a normal hour. Tomorrow we are going to explore the other towns of the Cinque Terre and hopefully hit the beach.