To Italy and Beyond: To The Cinque Terra and beyond. June 14th

How many times have I said travel day and nothing happens? Not many. Today we travel from Rome to Bonasola via train. First time Bryan, Kirsten or Annie have been on a train. Mary Ann describes the compartment we will have on the train like in the old movies. When the train pulls in, the help at the station guide us to a car that has seats similar to an airplane. Two on one side and four on the other facing each other. We have many bags and after they help get them in the train, they want 50 Euros for the help. We are so tired we give in to their extortion. Fast forward 10 minutes and other people are getting on showing they have tickets for our seats. Drag all luggage off and look for our assigned rail car and assigned seats.. Down to the other end of train and low and behold we have a compartment for 6 people. We are happy. (Except for the 50 Euro donation we made to some crook) .
We look at our tickets and see they are all for this compartment except for the child ticket which is Annies.

Annies first seat

Finally a compartment

At the next stop, just outside of Rome, an elderly lady comes on board and shows a ticket for the seat Annie is in. Some discussion goes on in Italian and then Annie begins to cry thinking she will have to sit away from us. That did the trick and we were all together for the rest of the trip. I had made some sandwiches before we left and packed salami and cheese. Great lunch on the train.

Did I mention changing trains in La Specia? Always fun with luggage. Nevertheless, we arrive in the town where we will be picked up. Told to just walk towards the end of the tunnel and our ride will be there. I walk to both railroad tunnels and no ride. Some calls later I find out they meant passenger tunnels and we find our ride..

In case you don't know it, the Cinque Terra is some small towns on the sides of cliffs above the sea. Our house is at least 300 steps above the beach. Views are great, but the walk up is murder.