Trains, trains, trains and then another train! - July 31, 2010

Saturday July 31, 2010

Senne's Summary: We took four trains and made it to Riomaggiore safe and sound.

This morning we packed up bright and early to catch our four trains to Riomaggiore in Cinque Terre. We were able to buy the first three tickets ahead of time, but couldn’t buy the last one because it is a regional train, and you can only buy those in Italy.

We catch our first train to Monaco, and then our second on to Ventimiglia. On this train we meet three nice young people from Langley, BC. They were travelling for two months, so we learned a lot about the "traveling cheap when you’re 20" way of travel. This is not for me. Sharing a room with 8 other people (which you may or may not know) and eating McDonald’s once a day doesn’t sound like our style. Instead we like the “rent an apartment for a week and buy your food at the grocery store” style (with the occasional restaurant of course!)

When we arrive in Ventimiglia we decide to see if they will let us buy our fourth train ticket here (we have an hour to spare). The kids we met went to get their reservations on to Genova. (They had the train pass, which they admit probably wasn’t worth it, and had to get a reservation at the station.) We discovered that we can not get our tickets until we get to Genova (at least we think that’s what they said 😀 ), and the kids could not get a reservation… the guy told them, “You don’t need one, just get on the train.”

Our train was sitting in the station 30 minutes before we left, but we weren’t allowed to get on (I don’t know why). Then they said our train would be delayed 30 minutes (again, I don’t know why). Eventually a conductor opened the door to car 5, and we all went in that way even if we weren’t in car 5 (once again, I don’t know why).

Carlos and I on the Italian train!

We found our seats and got settled. On these trains there were six seats in a little compartment with a narrow hallway off to the right. The seats in the compartments were reserved, and if you “just get on the train” you stand in the hallways. (Lucky for us, we had reserved seats.) We were sharing a compartment with two people from Quebec who were travelling for two months. The last two seats were empty.

We discovered something else interesting about the “Italian Train Experience.” They don’t announce where your train is stopping, and they only stop for one minute for people to get off and on.

Important Train Travel Tip when in Italy:

1. Know which stop is before yours. (Luckily, since our train was late leaving Ventimiglia, Steve was reading posters around the train station and knew which two stops were the ones before ours!)
2. Watch carefully, and be AT THE DOOR when it’s your stop.
3. Try to figure out how to open the door before you have to get off… it’s not always as easy as it looks!

Anyway, because we had two empty seats, some guy decided that instead of standing in the hallway, he’d try one of the empty seats. This was fine until the people who reserved the seats got on, and he wouldn’t get out. We finally had to produce our ticket to show them, and then he got out (They were speaking in Italian to each other so who knows what he was telling them. I suspect he was trying to tell them that he had a ticket.). Anyway, we had our seats and managed to get off the train at the right spot, and our train was only 45 minutes later than expected.

 

On the regional train.

The next train I wanted to catch was in 15 minutes. So we raced down to find the ticket area, of course to see a LONG line up. Steve stood in one machine line, and I stood in another. Then I noticed my machine only took credit cards, and I had read the machines only take Italian Cards. Steve’s took coins so he stayed in line and I went into the enormous line where you talk to an actual person. As I was standing in line I could see which track our train would be on (my lucky number 14) and that it was on time… maybe not so lucky. My line barely moved, but Steve managed to get tickets in the machine (half English, half Italian instructions) and we ran to track 14.

Somehow we made it! I asked two people waiting if this was the La Spezia train and they said yes. Turns out they were from Kamloops… it’s a day of Canadians! The train was five minutes late, which is what really saved our bacon and enabled us to catch it. (Don’t worry, Senne, if we missed that one there was another in an hour and a half, we wouldn’t be stranded… we just didn’t feel like waiting around if we didn’t have to!)

We got on and even managed to get a seat even though there are no reserved seats on this one. Before we left France I had written on my notes that Riomaggiore was the 17th stop. I didn’t write down what the stop was before us, but I knew it was one of the villages that started with an M. So I counted the stops 😁 and we got off at the right station (thankfully some man on the outside opened the door for us, because I couldn’t get it open from the inside!!!).

We managed to find a pay phone and phoned Lorenza to come pick us up. Funny thing was she was in her car right beside the pay phone picking someone else up when we called her. She said she’d be back in 10 minutes so we just waited for her in the main street. Steve explored a bit and discovered a few restaurants, pizza shops, and groceries. The grocery stores were even smaller than France!!!

In about 10 minutes Lorenza came and picked us up in her car (I thought there were no cars allowed!) and drove us up to her place “Casa Lorenza”. There are three roads in Riomaggiore: the main road, the road to Lorenza’s and another road we haven’t seen yet. There is a reason there are no cars here…. Lorenza’s teeny car (I think it was called Panda) barely squeezed through the streets. We were thankful for the car so we didn’t have to carry our backpacks way up the hill!

 Lorenza's Beautiful Terrace. That's the Ligurian Sea in the background.

We arrived at our place, admired the view and settled in. This is a lovely apartment. It has a separate bedroom with a giant wardrobe for clothes (Steve is trying to imagine how they got it up here!!!), a nice bathroom, a little kitchen, big table and chairs to eat at, and a sofa. For me the best part is the terrace. It’s a little grassed yard with two lounging chairs and an eating table and chairs overlooking Riomaggiore and the Ligurian Sea. It is absolutely beautiful!

At this point Steve and I both have a raging headache (Steve because he banged his head on the train… he’s taller than he thinks… and me because I neglected to eat on this hot train ride day). We head down approximately 2 bajillion stairs to the main street to pick up a pizza. Then we head back up the stairs and eat out on our terrace.

Steve decided he should go pick up some drinks (water and Cola Light of course) in case the stores are not open on Sunday.

Steve comes back with some drinks and a little bit of food for breakfast and of course some treats. Steve brings back something that looks vaguely like “Ding Dongs” but has a picture of a milk jug on the front indicating that you can get your daily serving of milk if you eat one of these. I’m game for that!

It doesn't get much better than this!

We spend some time sitting out on the terrace and enjoying the view and then decide to go to bed early (well early if you think 10:30 is early) to see if we can get rid of our headaches.