Last night we realized that we are definitely not going to see even all of the "must sees" in Rick Steve's book. Getting up early to see some of them probably wouldn't work as we had to make sure to get to Riomaggiore on time for our reservation, so we had to come to terms with missing a few things: seeing the inside of the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, climbing St. Peter's basilica, and some smaller things.
Since we stayed out late, getting up too early was out of the question. But we thought we could make a run to the Basilica and back, but after showering it wasn't looking good. Nicole made us breakfast again and we chatted about heading to the Cinque Terre, and then Luca came in and he checked the train schedules for us which was when we realized we probably wouldn't be able to go to the basilica. Luca also offered to call ahead to our rooms in Riomaggiore to let them know we would be coming but may be late ( although we made all our trains and were early). And then we chatted for a while and Bill came in and we all talked for sometime which was really nice. It made us really regret that we were running around so much and didn't manage to have dinner with Nicole and Luca (and Bill), it would have been a much better evening than the ones we had. Sigh.... Oh well, next time!
We had to go to Termini station to get our train tickets for later and ended up waiting in line behind a German that was taking FOREVER!! I don't think he ended up buying anything... And the machines ended up being super easy to use.
We did make a quick run out to Piazza del Popolo, although our Roma pass had expired, so we had to buy metro tickets. But I tried my Roma pass anyway and it still worked, although I told Katherine to go through the turnstile, so I still had to use one of the tickets. We hadn't needed to use tickets because of the Roma pass so I didn't know exactly how it worked; Roma passes you just put in front of a sensor. I kept inserting the ticket as if it was one of our bus tickets at home (in and out of the same slot) all the while a line of frustrated people was forming behind me (not offering to help even though I obviously was clueless). Finally I realized there was an insertion slot down below and everything was good except for my embarrassment. What's worse was we were getting on at Termini station so there were lots of people waiting and also cramming into the train with us.
Anyway, went to Flaminio stazione to see the Piazza, it was pretty obvious where to go since it was so big. It was actually sunny today! I even took off my sweater and could enjoy the sun. Of course we only had 15 minutes so we sat on the steps of the obelisk Centred in the piazza which was nice and relaxing but so short; all in all I think we experienced half an hour of sun in Rome, and maybe a full day of no rain (but split over several days). So I want to come back when it is warm! And since we've seen a lot of the major sights there might be more time for lounging throughout the city.
Katherine was making sure we left early from the piazza, which ended up being vital as we had an incident at the metro station that could have made us miss our train. So my Roma pass still worked, Katherine's did not, and she tried the other ticket we bought and it didn't work, so she had to buy one but the machines wouldn't take her paper money and we didn't have enough change (20 cents short). We didn't know what to do and time was short. There was a bunch of staff checking tickets on the way out and we tried to buy a ticket from them, but they waved us away to the machines fairly rudely. It seems like you see that a lot, a bunch of staff standing around chatting and not doing much, customer service is not great. Panic was starting to set in at this point, we didn't have a quick way of getting a ticket and we needed to leave, soon! So I tried the ticket Katherine tried earlier and it worked! And my Roma pass still worked so we were good to go! Hurray!
We ran back to the b&b, grabbed our bags, left the keys, and ran to the station. I was getting pretty warm at this point, lots of stress and rushing. I think we made our train with just a few minutes left - it is a good thing the place was so close to the station!!
For the train we had to go to Le Spezia Centrale then switch to a train going to Riomaggiore. We only had a few minutes connection which wasn't a problem except we didn't want to miss our check in. The trip was about 3.5 hours long; not much happened on the train except there were some really amazing seaside views since we were going up the coast. Oh, and we passed by a bunch of lambs/sheep lounging around on a hillside while Katherine was sleeping so I started calling her a sleepy lamb. Anyway, made the connection with a minute or two to spare but we definitely could have missed it if we mistook anything.
When we got off at Riomaggiore, the weather was beautiful and the platform was right at the cliff edge with a great view of the ocean. So it was sunny (that's called foreshadowing).
In the space of time it took to get to the other side of the tracks, get a couple maps and schedules, it had started cloud over and rain a little bit. Weather-wise it seemed like we never left Vancouver and it has probably be worse than average for Vancouver, getting pretty annoyed at this point. Anyway, I led us the wrong way at first because I didn't really look at a map and I though the main road would lead right to the station, as it was we had to go though a pedestrian tunnel through the mountain to the end of the town's main road. A block up we found the place to claim our room keys, with a guy there that seems to always wear jeans, a zipped up pure white jacket, a toque, and a weird colourful effeminate scarf that you only see a wisp of peeking out the back of the neck of the jacket. He was super nice, laid back, showed us to our rooms, and told us to come back to pay later today or tomorrow.
The room is pretty nice, although you might say it is charming and that could go either way depending on whom you ask. But it is pretty big, has a kitchen, and table area: so we can make our own food which will save some money. After settling in for a few moments we went in search of food and groceries just outside on the main street (we're not actually on the main street, but tucked a bit down an alley past the local piazza, so half a block away from the main street but almost everything is that close)
We had some fun looking around some of the groceries, bought some fruit and drinks (Sanpellegrino and something we thought was water or maybe sparkling water but ended up being lemon-lime soda). Oh! We also bought a tiny bottle of something called Camparisoda, that I had heard of the name but didn't know what it was - it looks like old-style red cream soda (it's actually alcoholic and TOTALLY NASTY! I'm glad I sipped it!). We also met this couple from Montreal in one of the stores (oh we briefly met a couple from Nova Scotia at the train station), Angelo and Maria. I started talking to Angelo because he was wearing a Canucks shirt and i let him in on the bad news of them being down 3 games to 0. He wasn't really a hardcore fan so he was bummed but not too much.
Then we went to this take out place and order lasagna and pesto trofie (it's a little noodle that looks like it has been twisted and is designed for pesto to really stick to it), went back to our room and ate. Then we napped for a few hours... Maybe more.
After our nap we went out in the twilight and roamed around the town checking everything out. It was super peaceful although a little scary sometimes in the tiny alleys between tall buildings. But there were a lot of nice views and the town is so hilly that you can get up pretty high. We probably walked around for a couple of hours! The stars were really clear and it made the sky seem closer somehow. We also ran across a cute splotchy black and white kitty that reminded us of Cow. He was pretty timid, which is weird because he's probably used to lots of strangers being around, and normally animals have an affinity for Katherine. We also ran across an orange tiger cat that kind of sat and angry purred at us, so we left it alone. (we found out later that there are a number of these cats in the Cinque Terre and they mostly seem pretty uninterested in the tourists). Oh that reminds me! When we first got to the train station we also saw this cute dog that hangs out at the store there. (Katherine and I are going to share him 60-40!)
Then we went to bed to find our room was freezing, we pulled out two extra blankets from a closet but it still didn't help enough... Vancouver better be warm when we come back or I'll be annoyed as his weather has probably made our trip half as fun. So we had trouble sleeping that first night.
Tomorrow: visiting some of the other towns and hiking.
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