Arpaiu, Manarola, Italy

For our next leg we drove up to Manarola and stayed at Arpaiu. There really aren't what I'd call hotels in Manarola. Arpaiu is a building with 4 bedrooms, 2 on each floor, and a common area on the upper level. The rooms are independent only sharing hallways. The manager comes over each morning and checks with the guests. Payment is cash only.

Their web site is here and the TripAdvisor review is here. After our daughter looked at the pictures on the web site she described the rooms as "spartan." Well put. It was clean and had a nice bathroom. The ants came and went. The manager said that they were always a problem in the fall. We were there in October.

The web site says that each room has "internet wi-fi connection." They don't. The building was built in the 900s (not a typo) and made of solid rock. The router is in the common area on the upper level and the Wi-Fi signal won't penetrate the floors. So to use the Internet we "had" to go sit on the upper level and look at the ocean. Tough job.

The view makes up for the ants and the limited Internet.

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