>>80879I don't know what it's like looking for an old lady to stay with. Most of the hostels in Cinque Terre seem to be run by old ladies anyway. The place is small. I mean it's literally so small that not a single one of the towns qualifies as a town on its own, so they refer to them all as "Cinque Terre", or "5 lands".
That's not to say that it's not a beautiful place to go. For all the smallness, it was easily the most beautiful natural scenery I've seen in Italy condensed into a single stretch of coast. And walking into a town and being greeted by something like this picture is just beyond words.
It was difficult to get into the Uffizi Gallery in the Summer, but I think you should be fine in the Winter. I've even been told that getting into the Vatican is REALLY painless during the Winter. Basically I've heard that it's better to go in the Winter for a variety of reasons.
You can call them in advance, but I doubt you'll need to. Worst case scenario you can wait in line for a few hours. They might have tour guides to expedite you though.
That's another thing. Places are going to have tourists, and if your time is really valuable to you, you can pay a tour group something like 10-20 Euros to get you past the standard line and into a tour where they talk about the historical significance of the place you're touring with them. I've had no problems with it, and many of the tourists would just wait until they were past security, give the guy their listening device, and wander around on their own.
