Italy und Innsbruck.

WiFi has been spotty at the hotels and pricey elsewhere, so I have a bit to catch up on.  The Cinque Terre were beautiful and mostly restful.  As it turns that chapel at the top of the hill is always MUCH further away than it appears.  We were hoping to snorkel but woke each day to the waves crashing spectacularly on the rocks in precisely the way we do not want to dash. Our ample free time also allowed us to perfect our Wine Pong. The rules are the same as ping pong and wine drinking, only observed simultaneously.  Also, whoever is ahead when you begin forgetting to keep score wins.
We were sad to leave, even sadder when we got to Florence and discovered that our 'guesthouse' was very much a random apartment building with no one to let us in and a conveniently disconnected phone number.  Equally worrying was the fact that every room in the city was booked for the night.  This was probably due to the presence of Paulie D and the Situation of Jersey Shore fame, whom we saw huffing it down a narrow cobbled street with their camera crew apparently in search of a laundromat.
We had to stay in Pisa instead, which we found much more pleasant on account of it not being an oven full of grumpy tourists.  No one spends longer in Pisa than is needed to photograph the leaning tower, so we had it ourselves by late afternoon.
Venice was nice, but the climate is a bit sticky this time of year and we choose mostly to walk after seeing the official $140/hr rate for Gondola rides.  We did take a lovely moonlight cruise but that didn't leave much in budget other than several lemon slushes a day to keep cool.
We were very relieved to reach the more rarefied atmosphere of Innsbruck, Austrian which advertises itself as 'The Capitol of the Alps'. Not that I've ever visited the Alps before, but so far it has my vote.  Our first day we took the tram from town up to just above tree-line and hiked down.  The mountain ie dotted with little cottages which spend the summer serving beer and delicious homemade traditional Tyrolean dishes to hikers. How civilized. Time to catch up, Sandias.
Today we went Canyoning, which is basically hiking down a narrow mountain stream.  Of course the water is glacially cold so you've got to wear a wetsuit. And its a bit steep so you have to rappel and/or slide down waterfalls.  Oh, and you start by being lowered by rope from a bridge into a raging ice-cold stream.  Scary, but very, very fun. And beautiful, this is the Alps after all.