European Trip (Italy) Second 3rd of Trip

Onward to Italy......(if you have not read the first third of trip you can review before reading this entry)

If returning the car in Paris was challenging then getting to Italy was equally a tough one. We arrived at the train station and found our train waiting for us to board. We decided on a 6 berth for cost reasons and were pleasantly surprised to find two very nice young ladies from Sweden sharing the other two bunks. Although they had not showered in a week they seems to wash-rag clean fine. One hour passes the time of departure and we blew it off as just the Italian rail rumors we heard about. At least there were no strikes which shut you down for days. Hour 4 passes and now it is getting dark. We are already 4 hours behind and people are starting to get frustrated. Smoking increases, the Indians start making tea on the tarmac, people open the bottles of wine they were saving for the trip, we start playing cards. Six hours pass and now there is yelling at conductors and such.............finally we get off 7 hours late. The bunks were nice and clean and the people were great but arriving in Rome 9 hours late was not fun. Luckily we had not connection to catch but we did miss getting out scooters that day. We caught the metro (we are now professionals at the Metro although the Rome Metro is not nearly as nice at the Paris version) and a bus to our hotel (which was a bit out of town and the bus dropped us off at some god-aweful location where we had to hike down a dark street for a k but made it and the hotel was very nice albeit expensive for the small stuff. Again I am baffled at the difference in hotels from the US. You can pay more but get less all day long or you can get smart quick and realize that family hostels or b&b's are so much nicer. We got lucky on this trip and found some great deals at some great places but you have to explore first and make a few mistakes. In any case the hotel was packed at the Japanese Ambassador was staying there so we were overrun a bit but heck...........we had scooters.

Excited to explore Rome we got up and went to the scooter shop only to find out that we missed our chance to rent for the day. Guido pointed me to another scooter shop and my doubts were rising and saddened by the loss of our chance. Good news! Fabio (not his real name) had two scooters and we were off again. We spent most of our time at the Colosseum which was amazing!! Luckily we had the Rick Steves version on our mp3's because the stupid rental headsets were dead. After we spent time in some piazza's near the Pantheon, Circus Maximus, etc.....

Trying to ride our scooters to the hotel was a trick and a long haul but we had a great time and Sheldon got to hitch his mother for a few miles. We stopped at the store for some food and then spent the next day exploring, eating, and more until we returned the scooters and caught the train to La Spezia.

Arriving in La Spezia we were a bit late and so I figured we would just catch a bus to the tiny ( I mean tiny) mountain village of Biassa. There was a small b&b / hostel there that was recommended. I was not aware, however that the bus does not run on Sun (according to the locals) and taxis were scarce. As the darkness came on us my family looks to thier fearless leader and asks "now what". Well, let's hit the corner, find a taxi or pay some young guy to drive us to Biassa. Just as the sweat was beading on my head a little van drives by that has a sign that says "Biassa". I hail, yell for the other quails and we jump on.................yes, the last one of the day......unreal. We arrive to a quaint, clean, and wonderful place, walk for some amazing dinner at the local joint. The food was now even better than France. We had sauted spinach with garlic and sausage, homemade ravioli, pasta sides and some wine. So fun!!

We had some internet avaliable and were able get up and catch a little bus to Riggamore and then onto Vernazza (one of our fav places). Cinque Terre is a series of 5 small fishing villages on the NW coast of Italy. It is clearly one of the most amazing places and one that few visit. As we arrived I realized very quickly that my gps was not going to work on these little 90 degree angel streets, stairways, or a stair that is a street, or alley, or walkway..........whatever. I found an older man at a restaurant to tell me he had no idea where I was needing to go. I grabbed another lady and asked where Rina Rooms was. She took me to Rina who turned out to be a 300 year old woman who was, indeed, named Rina (like all the other women in the town) but she was not renting rooms. Her daughter took me to the real Rina who was only 260 years old and she then proceeded to yell at me in Italian and tell me that my name was really Chad and I was only supposed to have two people in my party. After some wrangling I asked her if she could call her daughter. She did and her daughter said I was in the wrong place, she was out of town and her brother Nick was going to come get me. I hung up and Rina proceeded to yell at me a bit more and thow me out of her house. Needless to say my family was staring at me 5 floors down wondering what was going on. Nick met us at the corner and took us to a great little flat with 4 beds, bath, kitchen overlooking the square.

Vernazza is beautiful and we wished we could have stayed longer. Fish and chips, fried seafood, and world famous for thier pesto (which the put on everything from pizza, to riceballs. I think we ate enough pesto to grow basil sprouts. We also had a great time swimming off the cliffs of Vernazza. The snorkeling is great and the water is clear. You can just float on top for days. The weather was fabulous and so leaving was very hard. Small ships would come in dock but we just swam around them. Not many Americans come here but we will definitely return. It is also very famous for hiking the coast but with Tiffany not feeling well and the water to swim in we just hung tight. We stayed for three days and then boarded a train to Milan and then onto Switzerland.........................More to come in the last entry.

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