In an effort to get on track with the blog, I've decided to skip over the rest of our France trip and talk about our arrival in Italy. I'll come back to France when I get a chance.
Our first experience with Italy was at the train station in Nice. Our plan was to catch a train to Vitimiglia* (right along the boarder). switch to another train to Genoa. In Genoa, we would catch a train to Monterosso Al Mare which is the first of the Cinque Terre (Five Villages) and then finally take the train that runs up and down the Cinque Terre and hop off at Manarola. An ambitious undertaking for two people who speak no Italian and know nothing about the Italian train system.
I haven't talked about our experience with the TGV in France yet, but I'll say here briefly that it was fantastic. The train was clean and comfortable and the ride was smooth and fast. We had a table, nice lighting, and power to plug in computers/phones/etc.
This was NOT our experience with the Italian trains. Just standing on the platform in Nice and watching the other trains go by, we knew the experience was going to be different. The trains looked older and were completely covered in graffiti. This was not something I was used to. I feel like, in the states, you don't see much graffiti on passenger trains (I'll have to look when I get home). To be clear, I'm not talking about a little graffiti here and there. When we got on our train, we had to switch cars so that we could find a window that wasn't completely blacked out by graffiti...
Alex got us first class tickets for all the trains because it wasn't that much more expensive and a little comfort is always nice when you are traveling in an unfamiliar environment. On the Italian trains, this bought us two seats in a six seat box. This wasn't terrible in and of itself, but the box was completely dark and really smelly. And of course the windows were spotted with graffiti.
Something else we didn't like about the trains, when Alex went to use the restroom he discovered that "flushing" meant everything was pushed out the bottom of the train and on to the tracks. Honestly, I didn't think anyone in the western world dealt with waste in this manner before. I was thoroughly repulsed...and didn't use the restroom until we finally made it to our flat in Manarola.
Anyways, I was a little nervous because we had less than ten minutes to switch trains at our first stop. When we got there and looked at the board, we were frantic because we couldn't find our train. We ran around looking for someone to ask,with no luck. After running back and forth like chickens with our heads cut off, I grabbed the ticket and realized that we should have been looking for the train number instead of the destination because our train continued on after we got off. Of course our train was on the furthest platform, so we literally sprinted to get there on time and made it with about a minute to spare. Seriously, the only reason we made it was because the train was delayed by about five minutes.
This trip has really been great for Alex and I because we are starting to discover our respective travel related strengths and weaknesses. I pay much closer attention to detail and I'm a little bit paranoid about getting lost/missing things, so I excel at travel logistics. Conversely, I'm incredibly shy/insecure around new people and Europe requires you be outgoing if you want to get anything. As an aside, if you wait at a table in a restaurant for a server, you could end up waiting FOREVER. Seriously, they will not come unless called. It's not a rudeness thing, but a cultural thing. For this reason, Alex is great when it comes to interactions with the locals. He'll shameless engage with someone and attempt to speak with them in their native language, even if he really doesn't know it. This was true in France and, so far, is true in Italy. He'll try and figure out how to say whatever he needs to say and then run up to someone and say it.
Anyways, after that terrifying train layover experience the rest of our journey was pleasantly uneventful. On one of the trains, the family sitting next to us had a cat. Clearly the little girl wanted to hold the cat, but the mother preferred that either she hold the cat herself or put the cat in the carrier. Comically enough, whenever she put the cat in the carrier the cat would howl and howl and howl. This amused me.
Once we made it to the Cinque Terre, we were shocked by how many people were on the platforms. It was clear that most of them were tourists, like ourselves. When we arrived at our final destination, the platform was reminiscent of some of the major DC platforms at rush hour. I can't imagine what this place must be like in the summer!
I'll say more about Manarola in another post, but I'll say here that our host greeted us in the church square and showed us to our new home for the next few days. Though her English wasn't that great, it was a delightful end to a somewhat stressful travel experience.
In the next couple of posts, I'll describe our flat here in Manarola and the Cinque Terre. I'll also talk about our New Years experience. It was definitely something I won't soon forget!
Ciao
*i'm butchering the spelling of these names. I'll come through later and make corrections when I have more time.
No comments:
Post a Comment