Our time in Florence has come to an end. It is time to embrace the Italian train system and head for Cinque Terre. Our experience with the Italian trains has been mostly good, if you ignore the fact that none of them have been on time and one did not show up at all, causing us to take a taxi to the next station to find a working train.
Our first train trip to Elba from Rome required two train rides. The first leg, from Rome to Campiglia Marritina was 20 minutes late picking us up at the Rome station. Of course, this caused us to miss our connection to Piombino, necessitating us to take a later train. Four days later, leaving Piombino, the train never came. We had to take a taxi to another train line to catch a train to Pisa, which was 10 minutes late causing us to miss another connection to Florence. For us, it is not a big deal because we are on vacation and an hour here and an hour there are hardly an inconvenience. If we were relying on the train for work or business where time is important, it would be a different story. But, is it really any different than the morning commute in any major American city? Traffic can be bad or terrible, causing delays equal to those we experienced here with the trains.
Our train did not leave Florence until 11:32 am this morning. We slept in a bit before packing up our stuff. We had to check out by 10:00 am, and the host had texted us to say he would be here at 10:00 am to collect the keys and start cleaning the room. I cut up a nectarine, an apple and two bananas, equally distributed them between two of the three plastic storage containers we had purchased and poured unsweetened yogurt over them for breakfast while Sally showered. Next, I ripped up a head of lettuce, added the remains of the shredded carrots, olives, string beans and cherry tomatoes to make salad for lunch and dinner. After we had eaten breakfast, I washed the containers and stuffed the salad equally between the three containers, taped them shut with first aid tape and stowed them in my pack for later. We searched the room for items we might have left under the beds, behind the curtains or on shelves. Ten o'clock rolled in just as we finished and a knock came on the door, as if the host was hanging on the landing watching his atomic clock, ticking off the seconds. In his defense, I am sure he had another guest arriving soon and needed to change the bedding and clean the room.
We headed to the train station, five minutes away and arrived to find it a beehive of people. We had an hour and a half to kill but there was no place to sit. We found stairs outside on the west side of the station and took a seat. I blogged, Sally read Rick Steves. Our train finally showed on the computer screens. We made our way to binario due and boarded our waiting train. Precisely at 11:32 am, we rolled away from the station. Wow! A first! It was exactly on time!! Next stop Pisa.
We arrived a few minutes late in Pisa. It was a bit concerning. We only had 9 minutes before our next train left for La Spezia. We hustled off the train and headed to the stairs that lead to the passageways below the tracks. We needed to read the screens and determine on which of the 13 tracks our next train was leaving. We could not get down the stairs due to the gushing flow of people erupting up to the platform. We attempted to swim against the flow, but there was no room to squeeze between the tightly packed bodies moving upward. Climbing down Old Faithful as it erupted might have been easier. We ran to the other passageway which had fewer people and worked our way down the stairs as I mentally ticked off the minutes remaining. We still didn't know what platform to try for. Once in the lower passageway, we traveled toward the station, reading screens, looking for our train number. We found it just two platforms away, mounted the stairs and entered the waiting train. As we seated ourselves next to a couple from Australia, the train began moving. Perfect timing.
We spent the trip talking with this late 60's age couple, comparing traveling notes and lives. We detrained in La Spezia and sauntered to the adjoining platform, our train was nearly on time and we had 20 minutes between trains.
This next trip was only 8 minutes, to Corniglia, the third town of five on the Cinque Terre (Chink-way Tear-Ray) coast. Most of the trip is in tunnels. The steep mountains rising directly from the coast cascades rocks and slides often during the winter. Underground was the only way to build. We emerged and stopped at Riomaggiore, then Manarola and finally at Corniglia. It felt hot as we stepped off the train and squeezed with the people along the platform, up a short flight of stair to the bus stop. A crowd of 50 or more gathered on the side of the street closest to the sea. The bus, a vehicle the size of an airport type shuttle bus, lumbered down the hill. It disgorged its hefty load of SRO passengers, many carrying trekking poles as were the ones waiting for the bus. Then, the bus went forward without taking anyone on, turned around 100' further down the road, and came back. Everyone scrambled to the other side of the road as it approached, shuffling the order of who boards when. We squeezed in, taking on about half the people waiting and off we went up the hill, about a five minute ride to Corniglia.
My Vodafone SIM had stopped working earlier in the day so we were without communication. Without it, we were unable to contact our host for directions. Because of this, it took us a bit to find our B&B. Between google maps and Sally asking people, we found our host in her gift shop in town and introduced ourselves. She waited until all her customers left the shop, then locked up and walked us back up the main road to a pink, stucco, 4 story house.
We were expecting a room with a shared bathroom with no kitchen, but she showed us a full apartment with a simple kitchen. It was perfect. The house, perched on the cliff 300' above the water, has an outstanding view, but our rooms were on the backside of the house. Still, there was a nice piazza with a view where we could eat our meals.
We dropped our gear, logged into the wifi to pickup messages and emails, then walked back to the town square/bus turnaround and then walked up the town's main street, a lane about 6' wide, lined with tiny shops and eateries, until we reached the end of the lane and town. Here we found a piazza about 30 feet in diameter surrounded by a 300' cliff on three sides and a magnificent view of the Mediterranean. Looking off reminded me of the Cliffs of Insanity, except we had a sturdy rock wall railing at the top.
Our first impressions? This place is a combination of Orcas Island and Yosemite. It has the climate and vegetation of Yosemite and the water front, hills and small town feel of Orcas. And it is crowded like both at high season. Awash in people. Hearty, determined and goal driven Germans, relaxed Italians, retired Americans in ever changing outfits and a surprising number of younger people. The bus is packed tight, the piazza's crowded, the train platforms jam packed, the trails a steady line of marchers. And we are adding to the throng by being here. Reminds me of that saying, "You are not in traffic, you are the traffic." Yet, we are glad to be here and to have an opportunity to see it.
We spent a few minutes talking with the National Park official (ranger?) about hiking the trails and bought a one day trail pass. We planned to get up early tomorrow morning and hike the trail between our town (Corniglia) and the next town north, Vernazza. If Sally's back is doing well, we will continue on to Monterosso, the northern most town, #5 of the Cinque Terra coast. Each town is separated by about two and a half miles of trail. These are hilly trails, climbing steeply (400-600 vertical feet) out of the seaside towns, traversing, then dropping steeply into the next town. Corniglia is an exception. It is perched 300' above sea level. This means in the morning we will not have a tough initial climb.
By 5:30 pm the crowds evaporated and the locals slipped out into the public spaces. We enjoyed the quiet, and took a walk to find the beginning of tomorrow morning's hike. We walked the "roads" of Corniglia; narrow, stone paved walkways that run between the houses, far too narrow for a vehicle. Also, Corniglia, like the other towns are built on incredibly steep hillsides. Many of these "streets" turn into steps, further excluding wheeled vehicles.
We made our way into one of the two grocery stores for the second time today and met an American from Detroit behind the counter. We were later to learn her name was Sara. We enjoyed chatting with her and she seemed to reciprocate. The calm of the evening after the frantic pace of the day with the hordes of tourists made everyone relaxed.
We wandered to the west of town and got a wonderful view of the town illuminated by the setting sun, the rich colors of the sun warming the colorful buildings. The whole Cinque Terre area used to be flanked wall to wall with grape arbors clinging to the steep hills on flat terraces constructed with rock walls. There are 3000 miles of these 4 to 8 foot high walls throughout the Cinque Terre area, constructed by the farmers over the past 700 years. With the advent of the crush of tourists, the crushing of grapes has been abandoned for the easier life of running a tourist trinket shop; a much easier job than climbing up and down steep hills all day tending to fickle grapes. We could see the terraces near town, now overgrown with scrub grasses and brush; in places, the walls in need of repair.
There is a unique device the farmers used to tend their terraces and vines. A single track, made of a 2" by 2" beam of steel is suspended above the ground as little as 2 feet and as much as 10 feet. These tracks run straight up the hill, nearly vertical in places. On the bottom of the track is a series of teeth. A gas powered "cart" rides this monorail, gripping those teeth to motor its way up and down. The cart has a load limit of 250 Kg, about 500 pounds. It must be a wild ride, more scary going down than up.
After our stroll, we returned to our amazing B&B and crawled into bed. After sleeping apart the last 9 nights, 4 on Elba in bunks in our tent, and 5 nights in Florence in twin beds it was nice to snuggle in a comfortable queen bed. We set our alarm for 5:00 am to get an early start on the trail. Two reasons prompted our early morning hike, (1) to avoid the crowds and (2) to avoid the heat of the sun. The cooing doves had quieted as darkness fell. There was not a sound coming through our open window as we fell asleep. Another great day!
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