Awake 5:30 am Cloudy Florence, Italy
A bag with 2 rolls, napkin, plastic spoon along with a cup of hot coffee
arrived @ 6:30 am from the conductor. We freshen up in the car's bathroom
before arriving in Florence. The overnight sleeper car experience
was...not too shabby....I'd do it again to be efficient for travel time.
We arrive @ the Florence station @ 7:07 am. Call Katrina on her cell phone
and 20 min later, she's bouncing thru the main terminal to greet us. She
leads us on foot to her rental apt a mere 7 min away....a great location.
We briefly meet some of her roomies: Jen from Westchester, N.Y., Susan
from Sweden visiting her sister Marie & Christian from Florence. We'll
meet more of her roomies later. The apt is on the 3rd floor just above the
Hotel Monica.
We eat another small breakfast of cereal & yogurt before we head back to
the train station for our weekend adventure with katrina as our tour
guide.
And we are on our way to the Cinque Terre region of Italy where there are
5 small villages built into the mountains along the Mediterranean sea that
are famous for their wine, olives & their hiking paths connecting the
villages together. It is our goal to hike to all 5 villages this weekend.
Train time to the 1st village of Riomaggiore is approx 3.0 hrs but during
our change of train time in Pissa, we pause & walk about 30 min to check &
make sure the leaning tower of Pissa is still leaning. Amazing structure,
over 1000 yrs old & still leaning. We did casually notice some reinforcing
methods & scaffolding in place applied to the leaning side however. We
take a few pictures & have coffee outside at a nearby cafe, then we hustle
to back to catch the next train to Riomaggiore.
Aboard the train, the conductor fines us for not having our tickets
authenticated @ the Pissa stop(5 euros each)....that's close to $20.00
total. We won't let that happen again.
Arrive @ Rigmaggiore @ 4:00 pm. We begin searching for rooms for the
night....we find nothing reasonable. Then the dark clouds overhead open up
& the heavy rains, lightening & thunder chase us into a nearby stairway
for shelter. Minutes later, a grandmother & her 2 grandchildren shared our
retreat. As best I can, using hand signals, I ask her where we might find
a room for the night...and this is where our Katrina began to show her
hidden language talent. She brought her Italian dictionary along & began
conversing with the grandmother & the children. After many pages were
turned & some confusion corrected, we followed this grandmother, boarded a
bus & went further up the mountain to another small village by name of
Biassa. Grandmother has a friend who has a nice apt with bunk beds for us
for the night....& the price was right. We remove our backpacks, look the
place over & walk 5 min to a nearby restaurant for an 8:30 Dinner of:
Pizza & wine. A good start on some new adventures with our Katrina.
Lights out: 10:50 pm
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