I Didn’t Know Cinque Terre Had Five Towns!

I knew today was going to be busy, so I made sure I was all packed and ready to go before going to bed last night. I set my alarm for 6 to do some last minute bits with the idea that I would head to the market at the Rialto for 7am when they opened. Imagine my surprise when I stopped in Piazza San Marco to take some pictures and found that it was unusually foggy and wet towards the water. Men in funny hats and clothes were milling about, the fog was rolling in and the sun was just coming up over the gondolas bathing everything in an eerie glow. Of course, I had my camera out and at the ready.

What an awesome location for a movie set! And what a surprise to come upon it. I think I might have taken the picture that will make it on to the wall above my bed. I think…

I made my way to the markets only to find that most weren’t open yet. I wandered around the area congratulating myself for having found my way so easily and only getting lost once. I wished I could stay longer and wait for the stall owners to set up (they were all coming in with their boats laden down with fruits and vegetables and such) but there was so much to do and I had a schedule to keep. As Henry A. Kissinger once said, “There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.” That’s how I felt today. If I hadn’t had my tickets bought and someone to meet, maybe I would have been more flexible but that just wasn’t the case.

Shockingly, (or not so,really) the water transportation workers were on strike today, just during the hours that i needed to buy my tickets. I managed to figure out the self-service machine and got my ticket and was on my way. I was starting to wonder if I should have just braved it and walked the way to the station. In the end I was happy I hadn’t as I thoroughly enjoyed the ferry ride along the Grand Canal to the station. As I watched people sipping coffee on their balconies overlooking the canal, I thought that I could definitely live in Venice. There is a magic about the city. Everything is done by boat-from mail service to laundry service for the hotels, to construction workers bringing all their materials to sites to people mover across the canal.

It was a good thing that I arrived early to the station. I needed to pick up all my train tickets (I had 6 in total) and the line up was long. I took a number for tickets and then went back for a number for the information line. I had numbers for both lines, figuring whichever got called first could surely handle my questions. Good strategy as my first number hadn’t been called by the time my second number did. With tickets in hand, I boarded my first train for Florence.

The train was clean and quiet and before i knew it, I was in Florence. The next connection was just as easy and I easily found the train for La Spezia. This was a different experience. There were homeless people asking for money, women giving cards for you to read about their families and how they needed money, loud families running up and down the aisles and some rather shady looking young men who were up to no good. I had debated choosing a quieter, emptier car but realized afterwards that it wouldn’t be wise to be on my own with all my luggage.

I was doing so well, proud of myself for all my preparation and how it was all paying off only to hear a woman yelling at some man about the wrong trains etc. I got off to look at the board, the doors shut and the train started moving. Luckily I took all my stuff because it turned out that I was on the wrong train! Not sure where I would have ended up but I was happy the crazy lady scared me enough to send me off the train. The ride to Vernazza was uneventful and quiet. It was through a lot of dark tunnels and when tree was suddenly daylight, I gasped, jumped up and grabbed my camera. It was like I had never seen the sea before- I couldn’t stop grinning and snapping happily.

We haven’t made it out of the town yet. We wandered a little, ate some dinner (fritter mista and apple cake), did a little shopping and are now back at the hotel to blog and plan our day tomorrow. We are hoping for good weather as we have lots of ground to cover, even more than Nina had imagined as she really didn’t know there were five towns in Cinque Terre!