Bunk beds, spritzs, and night trains

Hello from Vienna! Here us a summary of what we've been doing for the 10 days...

Cinque Terre, Italy:
-arrived here after Genoa to find closed hiking trails and some serious rain and wind.  To top it off, our room was half the size of a dorm room and equipped with bunk beds and one small window looking into an alley! As the waves were furosiously crashing at the coast we explored the one block town and then quickly found the bar with free wifi and snacks, to which we became regulars on day one.
-on day two we took the train to the town over, trying to ignore the cold rain. We then decided we were cold and the town was eerily similar to our town, so we retreated back to our bar for some red wine and soccer.
-day three: SUN!! We woke up to find sun and a calm sea. Trails were still closed, but we town hopped by train and packed as much as possible into our last day.

Important lesson learned: get a room with somewhere to sit : )

Venice:
Beautiful, magical, unlike anywhere I have ever been. I will never forget stepping off the train and feeling like I just went back on time. I felt like I was visiting one of this colonial towns where they act out how it was back then...but it was real! Every 30 min one of us would comment on how old everything was. We arrived to rain here too, so we got to experience "agua alta" aka when Venice floods. But this is a typical thing there, so everyone just puts on their rain boots and goes about their day.
We spent the days wandering through the tiny winding streets, following signs pointing us in the direction to the important areas ( Rialto bridge, Sam Marcos square, etc). Anytime we felt lost we would just "follow the shwag", as every touristy area was filled with stall upon stall of crap to buy. But we were able to go off the beaten path, finding small cafes and bars where we drank "spritzs" (white wine, aperol, and seltzer) since Bellinis were 15 euro.
Saint marks basilica was one of the most amazing things I've seen as of yet. So giant, made of patterned marble, with mosaics covering the interior; awe inspiring at the least.

We journeyed on the 4th to Vienna by an 11 hour night train. We didn't get a sleeper car so it wasn't the most comfortable ride, but we survived. We decided its worth it to either spring for the sleeper car or find friends who want to make a giant bed out of the fold down seats with you-either would work great!

And now we are on day two in Vienna. Already loving it and thinking four days won't be nearly enough.  It is a clean, beautiful, old but very modern city. I plan on eating sausage and cake for the next 3 days : ). Off to a Mozart concert tonight, will report more later.