Wow! Once again time has gotten away from me. We are packing, getting ready to leave Cinque Terre tomorrow and all at once I realized I had not posted anything from here.
We arrived in Vernazza in the late afternoon on Saturday. Weather was good, for which we were very thankful. Weather.com had predicted rain for all three days that we would be here. It had rained in Bologna most of Friday and again on Saturday morning, but when we had to walk to the train station, the rain had stopped.
We got to La Spezia, where we had to change trains to get to Vernazza… and what happened? That train was cancelled. A train strike was scheduled to begin at 9:00 p.m that night, but in preparation for the strike, several trains were cancelled. We did only have to wait an additional hour to catch a train, but dealing with that was stressful.
I just think the strikes are interesting, as we never know why they are striking, the strikes are announced in advance, and some trains are required to run. We just don’t know which ones.
Also, they happen frequently. I think it must be something written into their contract that they have to have a strike every few weeks/months. I really don’t know.
Finally we got to Vernazza, got checked into our hotel, had a Happy Hour drink on the main piazza, then later had a delicious dinner at Gambero Rosso ristorante.
Our next two days were spent just relaxing, having Happy Hours on our terrazza, and enjoying the beautiful weather.
Today we took the train to Riomaggiore and Manarolo, just to visit some of the other villages. (Yes, the train strike was over.) The trains were packed today with tour groups from all over the world. This had to be my worst train experience ever.
Thankfully, we made it back to Vernazza without being too squished, but we sure didn’t want to go on a train again for awhile. However, we have to do that tomorrow morning. I just hope we are leaving before the tour groups get on the trains.
Today was the birthday of one of the travelers, Nichole, so we had a little Happy Hour celebration on the terrazza then a fabulous dinner at Gianni Franzi ristorante, complete with a chocolate birthday cake with a candle.
We had an extraordinary sunset. Note how the clouds behind the mountain have the same shape as the mountain. Interesting.
So we say, Arriverderci to Vernazza, and we are off to more adventures in Florence. You will hear from me from Florence, my favorite Italian city
Ciao for now,
Dolly
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