End of October and whatever Indian Summer we had in Toronto – it’s all gone now. Cold, rainy and gray appear to be the the themes of today, but I’d rather remind myself of another somewhat rainy day. Unlike today here, that was in Cinque Terre and while humid and ultimately rainy, it was warm and colourful.
Upon waking up in a hot, non air conditioned hotel room we were anxious to get out into the villages and see how they fair in daylight. We headed to the now familiar train station and got tickets for the furthest one – Monterosso al Mare. The train station at La Spezia is actually advanced enough to accept credit card payments for tickets in an automated dispensing machine. On the previous night when we were returning from Riomaggiore the manned kiosks were already closed and all that was left was a single automated ticket selling machine that had a tiny screen to make your destination selection, a couple of buttons and a slot for coins. Coins was all it accepted and we were really lucky to have some (usually I’m the one to try to ditch coins as soon as I can and on most occasions I therefore do not have any). Shortly after we spent some time figuring out how to buy the right tickets with that machine, a couple of girls went for it as well and were getting quite frustrated (I don’t blame them). We eventually helped them out, and were slightly surprised at their surprise that we spoke English. I mean what, did they think we were Italians? At that hour?
But back to this morning. As I mentioned, it was looking cloudy, but even the gloomiest day on an Italian vacation is more fun that the funnest day in the office. No competition.
We passed all the first four villages and finally exited the train at Monterosso.
Monterosso al Mare – view off of train station.
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