May 24, 2012

Today could have gone a lot smoother than it did.  I woke up at 6.50 AM when Morgan was leaving the room for his train, they caught the early one.  I packed up and met Kyle in the lobby.  I checked out and got screwed into paying some city tax fee that cost me 30 euros.  We got a cab and hit serious traffic so the cab fare was ridiculously expensive.  It was 14 euro, but for the distance we had to go that was expensive.  We got to Termini and finally figured out what train we were on.  We were getting something to eat and got separated, it was really crowded.  Kyle had the ticket so I didn’t know where in the world I was going.  The stupid Roman train station doesn’t tell you what platform you are on until about ten minutes before the train leaves.  So I find our train and the thing says platform 1.  So I figured Kyle saw the same thing and found the train.  I waited outside the train until what I thought was the last second.  I didn’t know our seat numbers either so I got on the first car and walked the entire train.  Luckily it was running late and I didn’t see Kyle on it so I got off. I walk back to the board with the schedule of trains on it and now it says that the train was supposed to be at platform 21… not 1.   So needless to say I ran up to platform 21 and saw my train taking off without me.  I got another ticket and caught a train at 12.10, kind of sucks because we don’t have that much time in Cinque Terre and this wasted about two hours.  I made it to La Spezia finally and good ol Kyle was waiting there for me. I got there at about 4.00 and we had to be back at the station at 5.00 to catch a train, otherwise the next train was at like 7.00.  We went and dropped off my luggage at the hotel and made it back to the station.  We bought a two day Cinque Terre pass that was 19 euro; it let you on the train, bus, and into the national parks for free.  We barely got our money’s worth out of it, but we did.  We wanted to make it to all five towns of Cinque Terre and we only had two days.  We went to Riomaggiore and Manarola (the first two closest to La Spezia) that Thursday, I cannot even explain how beautiful it is there, definitely the prettiest place I have ever seen.  Check out my pictures to see what exactly I mean.  That day we walked from Riomaggiore to Manarola, it was about a twenty minute walk but we got to see the beautiful coast of Italy.  We came back and got to witness the sunset from a view that most people that visit don’t get to see, you will have to look at my pictures to see.  Post again tomorrow.

T