Day 7 - Desenzano to Riomaggiore

Before long, it was time to say farewell to Desenzano.  Our next stop would take us to the oppositeRiomagiorre, one of the five coastal villages of Cinque Terre.  Read the Wikipedia article - it's pretty nice and takes 30 seconds. 👍 She also booked our train tickets, three separate tickets to get us from Desenzano to Milan to Cinque Terre.

coast of Italy.  Just as we left the Adriatic Sea behind in Venice for the quiet shores of Lake Garda, now we would head to the Ligurian Sea off the west coast of Italy, near Genoa.  Mona had booked a few nights for us in

Overnight, we had a bit of rain in Venice, as I found the streets were still wet from an overnight rain.  Rain was forecasted for the area for the next few days.  Later in the day, I would learn of the heavy rains and flashflooding that affected Spain, France and Italy - don't worry, folks, we are just fine!

We planned to book a taxi to the train station in the morning, instead of carrying our bags through the streets for the mile walk.  Before bed, I booked a taxi online.  In the middle of the night, the reservation had been canceled.  Doh!

  After spending a bit of time, I found the number for a local taxi and stammered my way through explaining where we were and that we needed to get to the train station.  Google Translate for the win!!!

Quick note - you can easily use debit cards at train/bus station kiosks, grocers, museums, attractions and "touristy" locations, but there are plenty of "cash-preferred" services, like the pay toilets (anywhere from 1 to 2 euros [1€ to 2€]), taxis, bus token machines, bars, etc. that prefer currency.  

Still, we needed to pay cash for the taxi, so I headed off in search of a bank machine.  The post office in Italy includes an ATM machine, and fortunately we had passed one the other day.  I walked into town and asked for directions, which got me there in plenty of time.  However, the walk back was taking so long, I opted to jog as much as I could.

Getting back to the apartment, we packed our belongings and headed down to meet our taxi.  He

arrived a few minutes early, and quickly spirited us off to the train station.  At the station, however, we discovered our train had been cancelled at our stop.  Good thing we got there early!  Mona swiftly booked new passage from the station to Milan, and even got us onto an upgraded coach.  We headed down to the platform and waited just a bit for our train to arrive.  While we waited, both a freight train and high-speed commuter train blasted through the station.

Our train arrived and we rushed aboard, as the platform was teaming with riders.  Settling into our

seats, we had barely an hour in the leg, and would arrive at the station 15 minutes ahead of our original arrival time.  How?  We had passage booked on a high-speed commuter train.  This train was newer, faster and certainly more luxurious.  During the ride, I noticed the information display said we were travelling over 190kph, almost 120mph!  The latest high-speed railcards in Italy are currently the fastest ones in all of Europe, reaching over 360kph or 223mph!  That's Kalamazoo to Detroit in less than 45 minutes!

The ride was terribly quiet and smooth - so much more so than I'd expect at this speed.  Even with

nine scheduled stops, we quickly arrived at Milan.  As we exited the train, I was impressed with the architecture - a mixture of classic, marble columns and high steel-arched ceilings. As we looked for our platform, Mona spied a coffee stand, so we grabbed a few provisions.  We soon boarded our train from Milan to Genova.  This was not a high-speed line, just a traditional commuter train.  It was noticeably slower and a bit louder, as you could hear the diesel engine slowly pull away from the station.

Our next stop put us in Genova for a bit, before our final train to Riomaggiore.  This train

experienced more stops, as it dropped passengers along the cities of Cinque Terre.  We waited at the door as we neared Riomaggiore, but didn't hear the announcement for the stop.  The train seemed to come to a stop, but the door didn't open.  Before we realized it, we were moving again, headed to the last stop on the rail line, in La Spezia, the largest of the cities in this region.  Doh!  Ahh well!  We found a train running back in the right direction, leaving just moments after we arrived.  Back at the right station, we finally made it to Riomaggiore.  Heading into town, it was clear we were in a VERY hilly village.  The small

path leading away from the train station seemed to rise into the sky,

just like the tall, multi-story houses along the hills.  We found our lodgings and deposited our luggage.  As the region was under an "orange alert" from the heavy rains, many businesses in town had the option to close.  With time to kill, we wandered down the hill, having a look at what shops were still open.  The local market was open - and quite busy - as were quite a number of the local bars and restaurants.  This seemed like a good omen, but we opted to head back to the train station and go back to La Spezia, assuming this larger city would have more choices available.

On the way to the train station, we detoured to the marina, since it was in the same direction.  We were greeted with a fantastic view of the rugged cliffs below the city and stopped to snap some pictures.  A winding path led from the marina up to streets running through the city, so climbed it for a better look at the shore and city.

Retreating from the marina, we returned to the train station and made our way to La Spezia.  The train tickets were 4€ per person, one way, around $4 USD.  Pretty cheap travel!  As we waited by the train doors, we were ready to "push the exit button", certain to NOT get ourselves stuck on a train again!  In La Spezia, we noted we were

certainly in a much, much larger city, given the density of traffic and high concentration of people.  Near the train station, Google pointed out dozens of eateries, so we wandered off in search of what we could find.  What we found was a neat burger stand called HOB Burger.  They featured a classic mix of hamburgers with interesting ingredients.  Mona opted for a Mediterranean Burger, while I had Pulled Pork.  The fries were served in a little carton with a long wooden skewer.  I could utterly soak my fries in ketchup and not get my hands dirty. HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS?!?  Ahem.  I will certainly invest in this idea when I return.

After dinner, we headed out in search of our daily gelato fix.  Uh-oh.  It was almost 8PM and many of the gelato stands we'd visited moments before were now closing for the day.  Undeterred, we headed back to catch a train and see what our options were back in Riomaggiore.  Doh, again!  Since it was almost 8PM, there were fewer trains running, and we'd missed the last one by mere minutes.  The next train was nearly an hour out.  So, we walked the streets a bit and found a market that hadn't yet closed.  We grabbed desert and other snacks, and made our way back to the station.  It wasn't gelato,  but it was a nice panna cotti - tasty!  Back in Riomaggiore, there was little to do but unpack, update the blog and prepare for tomorrow's adventures!