EuroTrip 2005

Arrived in Italy!

I was sitting at the La Spezia train station todqy at 3:30 am with all but 4 people. Two police officers who keep giving me strange looks, a bum who was consistently spitting on the wall in front of him every minute or two and an older man pacing back and forth, back and forth... You would have thought that more people would have hopped off the train at that stop but I guess I was the only one crazy enough to arrive in the Cinque Terre at 3:00 am... I was more than ready to leave Nice and if I had taken my scheduled morning train, I wouldnt have arrived until 4:00 pm... I guess I have to look at it on the bright side, I had time to work on my italian. I met a lovely old woman from Italy while I was waiting for the train, she lives in Nice now. She told me that the only reason she was able to afford to move to Nice was because she sold a painting to a houston business man. She told me she was 91 years old, I wouldn't have imagined. She seemed very young at heart and she was really nice to talk to. I helped her to find her train car, and she asked me if I wanted to come with her in the morning to breakfast. I accepted but since I didn't see her get off the train, I imagine she must hqve overslept and she must be in Rome by now. Hopefully I'll run into her in Vernazza... People started filtering in to the train station around 6 am and I started to wish that it was only me, the pacer and the spitter again... I could do without all of the "Hey, como sta's"... I'm not complaining though, times like this that make this trip interesting!!

I made it into Vernazza for sunrise and it was beautiful. I am in love with this place. I met a mother and two daughters on vacation together at breakfast and they invited me to hike the Cinque Terre with them, so I accepted. Views were amazing but the hike was tough!! Fun though, we had a good time complaining together!

posted by Donna Weeden @ 3:55 AM