This is the beauty of free travel, one can go where ever one wants and still be surprised with the destination. We catch a train south to Pisa which takes a little over an hour from Cinque Terra and the hop off.

Where to next? John to select with the required criteria from me - views, water, bar, flat, not a large town .

We go for a wander to the info centre which is not that far from the station and ask for a map of the area between here and Roma, we are thinking on the coast and close to railway line. The lady exchanges broken English with us and after some no no no maybe ok yes we are headed to the coastal resort town of San Vincenzo, easy really. Back to station, the star attraction in the town is a 30 minute walk away so just take in all the souvenir action. Guess I will see it when next time I am in town! Train trip is about 1.5 hours, this is good as our next stop over being Roma about 2 hours further on.

Arrive in San Vincenzo mid arvo and wander beachside, a large harbour with lots of big boys toys. Ask for a room at a few places but are rejected as they do not fit my above criteria, we are going to be a little fussy as this is a three night rest stop. Ask around and a guy says try the white building just back there. We get to it but looks very fancy with big gates and fences all round (read expensive) . Anyway nothing ventured as they say, push on the gate and it opens as not been pulled closed. Knock on the big front door but no answer as they are villa units so go to leave but guess what, the gate has shut properly and we are locked in!

What to do - let's walk to the back as it is right on the beach and should be able to get out that way. No, it is a terrace area three metres to the sand. Has to be some way out of this sucker, we then walk past what looks like a smart garage and hear voices, as we get closer we see the word reception on the door, open it to find our very best new friend Erico (AKA Eric to his Aussie mates). We tell him our locked in problem but also ask on the off chance - any room at Villa Piani, you guessed it yes. Views of the beach bar on the beach right out front, beaches are flat and not busy season yet - so tick tick tick. He is a little hesitant as we are not his usual clientele but gag around a bit with him and he shows us the second best room on our trip so far and we play it as cool as possible when he says 75 euro, we paid that a few nights before for a room many flights of steps up with a bathroom down the hallway .

Passports out and he sees we are from a land down under, guess what, his best mate is about to set up an Italian restaurant in Perth and he takes us to his car and pulls out a map of Australia! The harder we work the luckier we get. Leave Erico to it as he had to split the double bed and make up singles, he sends us to the co-op for supplies and then an ale at the beach bar to congratulate ourselves on deeds well done.

Settle in with smirks on our dials. Fun night at the pizza place Erico booked for us. We walk in and they all look, turning heads again or was it just my shorts and thongs? We see a meal being placed down on the table nearby so I suggest to John to ask the dish, the guy can see we are having difficulty with the menu so he comes over, points to what the dish is and then gets John's fork, goes back to his table and takes a fork full of the dish from his wife's plate and gives to John to try. How's that for friendly hospitality, most in the room also find it amusing. At least half a dozen tables of people when they leave give us a wave or say Ciao to us.

Another day another experience.