Forever to be known as Rio"Bell"Giore - August 5, 2010

Thursday August 5, 2010

Senne’s summary: Thunderstorm thwarted our plans so we just relaxed today. It was good 😉

Today we had planned to take the ferry to Monterosso and then explore the village. Steve was going to do the hike all the way back, and I was going to take the train back. But, when we woke up there was a thunderstorm going on! It actually lasted off and on for hours so we decided to go to Monterosso tomorrow. I was pretty excited about the thunder and lightning (don’t get to see it very often anymore!). I watched out the window for quite a bit until I saw the lightning come straight down and hit the water right in front of us. Immediately there was a loud crash of thunder… then I remembered that as well as being exciting, it’s also a bit scary!

Other than going to La Spezia to get our train tickets to Venice on Saturday, we didn’t do much else.

Side note #1: the conductor checked for tickets again. We saw him giving a ticket to people who didn’t have one. They had to pay him on the spot and he takes credit cards!

Side note #2: we had researched the trains we wanted to take to get to Venice (4 of them) and Steve typed it all out on his I-touch. When we got to the front of the line we told her we wanted tickets to Venice and then Steve showed her the I-touch note. It seemed to make it a lot easier for her, and when we were done she told Steve his I-touch was “beautiful” 😀

We just kind of hung around and relaxed. It’s nice to have the luxury of all this time so we can take as many days as we want just relaxing.

General musings from Riomaggiore…

I just want to show your Riomaggiore one more time... I can't believe how gorgeous it is!

• Cats – in France we didn’t really see cats anywhere. Maybe 1 or 2 the whole 4 weeks we were in France. Riomaggiore has a LOT of cats. They seem to mostly just be wandering around the streets. The other night in the restaurant there were two cats that were making the rounds begging for food. They’d just walk up to a table and sit and stare at the person who was eating. The staff didn’t really bat an eye, so I guess this is acceptable 😸

We came across these cute cats cuddled together for a nap 💜

• Everybody knows everybody (and their business!) – in the evenings it seems its standard practice for the “older ladies” to sit out together on the benches in the street and chat with each other. I suspect that as well as gossiping about people who live in Riomaggiore they have plenty to say about the tourists invading their town. It’s interesting because it’s just how you imagine a classical Italian village. Everyone seems to know everyone that lives here, and they all stop to say hello in the streets, no matter what their age is. There is also this little boy (about 10 years old), who I’ve seen out two nights in a row in the main street. When he wants his friend to come out and play with him he just runs up the street shouting her name (Carla! Carla!). Then you see her look out her window, and a couple of minutes later she is out in the street running to meet her friend. I’ve also noticed a lot of people either sitting out on their balconies watching what’s going on, or peeking out from behind their shutters. I have a strong suspicion that in this town everyone knows everyone’s business!

•  Bells – Steve has nicknamed this town Rio”Bell”Giore instead of Riomaggiore. There are ALWAYS church bells ringing. There are at least 3 places that chime the hour (and a chime for the half hour); they are not in synch. This goes on all day, and I suspect all night (but I’ll sleep through anything, so I can’t be sure). This morning when I woke up they started chiming, so I started counting to see what time it was… I lost count after 35 and it went on quite some time after that… I guess it was 60 O’ Clock? And then sometimes there is just the random joyful bell ringing (I think that might be when church services have finished). Suffice it to say, if you want to hear bells ringing and you’re in Riomaggiore you don’t need to wait long 🔔
• Grocery Stores – This is a small town. There are four grocery stores on the main street that have pretty much the same items. (Why four???) The stores are all microscopic compared to grocery stores at home. Seriously, some of them are the size of a bedroom. It is tricky for us to find food to eat at the grocery store. I would be curious to see what people who live here buy from the stores… it seems to mostly hold fruit, pasta (no sauce), bread and meat. We’ve seen Cornflakes (but haven’t found the milk yet). It’s very different.
• English – I haven’t run into anyone yet who didn’t speak English. (Thank goodness since my Italian is limited to Ciao, Grazie, vino rossi and bella!)
• Up – everything is up. If you want to see anything be prepared to walk up stairs. From the main road to our place is 135 steps up. The steps are not uniform because they are cut out of the side of the hill and some of the stairs are more than a foot high!  On the hike between villages, the steps get even more out of whack… especially on the hike up from Vernazza; some of the steps where at times 2 feet high.  If you’re Steve, standing 6 feet tall, this is just an odd step that you must be aware is approaching so you don’t trip… if you’re Lisa, standing 5 foot 5, this is a step that involves doing a power squat to get up it.

Stairs, stairs, stairs and more stairs!

  

... and more stairs!

...and yes indeed... more stairs!