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Published: July 22nd 2011
I woke up early -- by 6:15 am -- so that I could do an early morning hike before the girls woke up.
My plan was to take the train from Monterosso to Vernazza, then take the sentiero (path) to Monterosso. By catching the 7:10 am train to Vernazza, I would have 2 hours to get back to Monterosso, wake up the girls prepare the bags for checkout and shower.
I had a bit of an adventure on my way to Vernazza. I told you earlier that you have to have a ticket for the train/park access. Each ticket is for a single day, and I had purchased 3 tickets for the day before. I intended to buy 3 more tickets at the station in Monterosso before catching the 7:10 am train. But when I arrived at the station, there was no one (except a janitor) in the ticket office. I went into the little bar at the station and asked them if I could purchase a ticket, but they said no, that I needed to purchase it from the ticket counter. What to do? I had only a few minutes before the train, there was no one available
to sell tickets...so I thought, okay, I’ll take the train that one stop to Vernazza and then buy the 3 park tickets there.
So, I hopped on the 7:10 train. Now, you need to understand that the conductors on local buses and trains almost NEVER check tickets. In fact, in all the vaporetto and bus rides in Venice and Rome, my tickets were never checked, but of course I always had them. The day before on the train in Cinque Terre, no one checked my ticket. So I figured, it’s only 1 stop and then I will puchase the tickets. Well, that is where I thought wrong. Naturally, on this particular occasion, the conductor asked for my ticket. I explained that I didn’t have one because the ticket office was closed. I thought that was a reasonable explanation, but he didn’t. He proceeded to tell me that I either had to pay him 50 Euro right away, or risk a fine of 250 Euro. I said again that I was only going the one stop -- and by now the train was stopping -- and then I would buy the park passes. Oh, no, that was not good enough.
He followed me off the train and said I had to give him the 50 Euro, or else he would call the police. I said, okay, call the police, I am not going to give you fifty Euro! At this point, he called the police on his radio and told me to wait for the police to arrive -- I suppose to arrest me-- and then he got back on the train! So I stood there for a moment in shock, looking for the police. Of course, they weren’t there and in fact the ticket office at this train station was also closed! So I walked out of the station and did the hike.
The hike was fantastic, with a very steep start. The path is relatively well maintained, but somewhat poorly marked. For a long time, I was the only person on the path. I walked by a checkpoint -- again thinking I could buy a ticket -- but the office was closed but the checkpoint was open.
I arrived in Monterosso after about an hour and fifteeen minutes. I halfway expected the police to be waiting for me at the checkpoint at the end of the
path, but they were not. Instead, a nice woman serenely collected my cash and reminded me to “convalidare” (stamp with date and time) the ticket the next time I took the train. And that was the end of that little adventure. I know it sounds funny, and it was sort of funny in retrospect. But I have to say that I am a really unlucky person! How many people would get caught by such an unreasonable conductor on a four-minute train ride!?!
Anyway, I got back to the hotel and found Chonsa already awake and ready to go out. She and I ate breakfast together while Liliana slept another hour. After breakfast, Chonsa went out to shop at the local market while I showered and packed my bags. Then I woke up Liliana and we checked out of the hotel (leaving our bags with our hosts) to do another hike.
We chose to do the inland hike between Corniglia and Montera. As I mentioned previously, the sentiero along the shoreline was closed due to a rock slide. But there is a longer, inland hike that goes up into the vineyards and through another small town, then back to
Corniglia.
That was a TOUGH hike! The first half-hour felt almost completely vertical. Liliana led the way -- in fact, she was way ahead of me and Chonsa. Once we completed the first half-hour, the path went both up and down in steep ascents and descents for another hour and a half. Liliana and Chonsa left me behind and they completed the walk about 20 minutes before I did; we met in Corniglia.
We took the train back to Monterosso, ate an unexciting lunch (boring panini) and then went back to the train station for our return to Florence.
We had another little adventure when we got to La Spezzia and I started looking for the tickets to Pisa and Florence. I couldn’t find them, and I completely panicked. I didn’t remember that I had put them in a different compartment of my suitcase, and I was sure that I had left them behind. I was so nervous that my hands were shaking because with those tickets were also the tickets to Positano and Catanzaro. Oh.My.God. I was so worried...and then I found the tickets. Wow, what a relieft. But by that point I was so shook
up that I simply handed the tickets over to the girls and told them to figure out which binario we were on. They did, we got on the train, and we were in Florence by 6 pm.
We checked into a new B&B near Santo Spirito. It is a very inexpensive B&B, but it got good reviews and I wasn’t sure what to expect of it. It turns out to be a great little place. Clean, and without lots of bells and whistles. But no bed bugs (as far as I can tell) and the host is very pleasant and well-organized. We even have a computer here for use in the room. The girls both spent time on the computer before we headed out to dinner.
We ate dinner at a great little restaurant called Angelino’s. I remembered it from when I was here 6 years ago, and they still had the same good Florentine food and even the same waiters.
After eating a HUGE meal, we went for a little walk along the Oltre’Arno and then returned to the hotel by 11 pm.
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Dawn
non-member comment
good for you!
That a' gal! good for you for challenging that scheming conductor! I wonder how many euros he regularly collects from the more faint of heart...and what the percentage is of women to men who fall for that ploy and if he targets only foreigners. Good grief, am I anal or what? Anyway, I think you are awesome ; }