Riomaggiore to Portogruaro (Venice)

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We took trains from Riomaggiore/La Spezia/Pisa/Florence/Venice to Portogruaro, taking 7 hours in total. Some trains were packed and it was fortunate that we had seats booked for the journey. Trains might lack the privacy and comfort of your own car, but they are fast and direct if you discount the station stops and changeovers.
The countryside was flatter than I expected and where there were hills we were in tunnels. We went through the much publicised Tuscany which was mostly farming of crops of various types with farmhouses we’ve come to recognise. Our so-called “Italian style” houses on Beulah Ridge at home would seem to be mansions compared to most of the farm houses we saw. The style is much more simple that we have built.
We were met at Portogruaro Station by Diego and driven home to meet Pierina and Piero. We have been warmly welcomed by them which makes it easier to overcome the language barrier. My smattering of words helps a little but it would be nice to be able to string them together to something intelligible.
Diego took us to a large shopping complex with an electronics section to look for a language converter machine and a USB modem for internet connection. The deal we got for the internet makes Telecom at home extremely sick! We paid E49 for the device and 3GB data for each month for 3 months. 3GB isn’t much but it’s all we need for our time here and we can get another in Switzerland and leave this one for Diego to use. The Language Converter had everything except what we wanted so we’ve flagged that and will use Google Translator on the Notebook instead. So, we’re connected and we have a phone (also courtesy of Diego).
So, we’ve met some of the family, chatted on various family ties, been shopping, had a drink at a small bar, had a quick tour around the town (very nice), had dinner, more chatting and decided on tomorrow’s activities which will depend on the weather. Not looking good at this point.

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