Wednesday, June 6, 2018 (Cinque Terre/Florence)

We checked out luggage storage by the train station on Tuesday so we would only have to conquer the incline once. We finished packing and drug our suitcases down the street. Still feeling the grueling task of getting our suitcases up to our room and our near miss of our train from Rome, we decided for an early departure to give us time for any unforeseen challenges. We actually left our room as the village was just beginning to awake, many businesses still closed. About midway we stopped at a local restaurant and had breakfast. We were able to park our luggage by our table. We saw a school "bus" come by and drop a couple of kids off.  We had one village left to see, the biggest and had a train later that afternoon enroute to Florence.

School Bus in Riomaggiore

School Bus--But we never saw the school

A helicopter was used to remove trash from the villages.

We rode the train to Monterosso. It was much bigger, more touristy, and lots of hotels. There was a nice beach area but everything was busy. We both are collecting Christmas ornaments from each of our major areas so we were still looking for that special one. It was a pretty city but lacked the ambiance of the other quaint villages. After browsing the village, we walked down-down-down to the port to ride the boat ferry back to Riomaggiore. It was a pleasant ride and the scenes from the sea were breathtaking. The pastel of the houses, the steeples peeking above the homes, the terraced land all delicately placed in a sea of turquoise was picturesque. This was truly a place from the past, a place right out of a fairy tale.

The only sandy beach area in Cinque Terre

Beach in Monterosso

We saw a lot of people "posing" and we had to get in on the action.
Johnnie's pose

Tiffany's pose

Gardening in Monterosso

Tomatoes Growing

Very unusual--The Oratory of the Dead Church

The Oratory of the Dead Church

St John the Baptist Church--
across the way from the Oratory of the Dead Church

Pictures that showed the damage from the mudslides of 2011

We found a municipal building with a little "library."

Tiffany and Johnnie
Boat ride from Monterosso back to Riomaggiore

We ran into Johnnie's rescuers from the first day.

Vernazza from the sea

Corniglia from the sea

Manarola from the sea

Terracing from the sea

As we approached Riomaggiore, we had a mix of emotions – excitement for the next step of our venture but also a little emptiness that we most likely would not see this magical place again. We decided to have pizza from a little hole in the wall by the luggage storage. It turned out to be one of the best pizzas we’ve had. We got our luggage out of storage and waited for the train. We caught our train to La Spezia and then made our connecting train all the way to Florence. Of course we had to change platforms but after the incline of Riomaggiore, we had conquered the impossible so we could do this!

We arrived in Florence about 5:30. The train station was very hectic and traffic was heavy. We followed the GPS on Tiffany’s phone based on her text from our host. While we were able to navigate there, it was hot and we had to go through a long construction area. The area was in the total opposite direction of where I had stayed before, away from the historic part of the city. As we passed some warehouse areas and mixed with the construction, I was starting to get a little worried. I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived and our accommodations were very nice.

Our host, Savino, was there to greet us. He actually lived in the apartment and had two rooms that he rented out to guests. His apartment was very clean and neat. He had completely remodeled and gave us great details about the home. He had special blinds that could make the room dark, showed us how to open the window in two ways, showed us the kitchen, breakfast goodies, and more. He had a bulletin board with pamphlets on special interest places in town. He had a map of the city and told us places to eat (good food and priced within reason), where to go for the best photographs, what to avoid and even how to tell the best gelato.

Savino had one of the bedrooms in the apartment but would be leaving early the next day for work. He told us to text if we had any questions or needed anything the next day. His other guest came in after us, a young college age Asian boy and his female friend. The young man had been pickpocketed on his way in from the train and had lost all his money and his immigration card. We only saw him as he first arrived and just a bit on the last morning. He never did find his things. Savino told us that Asians are kind of an easy target. They are very nice but often so distracted in looking around them that they are not alert to their surroundings. The city is safe but pickpockets will take advantage if given the opportunity.

I had hoped to wash out clothes upon arrival and leave them in the room to dry but the room really didn’t have anywhere for that and rain was expected the next day so I couldn’t use the outside area. We decided to try Savino’s suggestion for food right down the street and then look for a laundry. We found the restaurant and ordered dinner. Tiffany ordered a pasta dish and I ordered grilled prawns and French fries. Wrong choice! The waitress brought my dinner and there were seven huge prawns all with eyes intact. I hated to not at least try them but I had to look away as I tried the first bite. The skin had been left on the prawn and although the meat was flavorful, I could not get past the fact my dinner was looking at me. Even though I was hungry, I only ate my french-fries and asked for a to go container for the fish.

After we left the restaurant, we trudged down the street with dirty clothes all in our backpacks. We asked for help a couple of times and finally found the laundry mat, which we learned was called Wash & Dry. It was now 9:55pm and the laundry closed at 10:00pm. We had started the day early and fatigue overtook our bodies. We decided to head back and make a plan for tomorrow. Savini was having some left over pizza when we arrived. I was a little embarrassed to tell him I did not care of the prawns since he’d recommended the restaurant. But, he was happy to have my left overs for his dinner the following evening. Long day, we went to bed.

WALKING ACTIVITY: 7.8 miles; 16,913 steps; 15 floors