Saturday, May 31, 2008

Saturday - Destination Mediterranean



This morning, I finally got rid of the car, and I am extremely proud of the fact that I only made ONE wrong turn getting into Florence, and made it to the Hertz office on time with the help of a nice gas station attendant and a little dumb luck.

Trains were easy – Florence to Pisa, then Pisa to Cinque Terre. I actually thought I would have to switch trains once more to get the small local train, but it turned out the larger train did stop in Monterosso (the town where I am staying). I had actually only bought the ticket to La Spezia, but since Monterosso was just one stop away, I decided to just stay on the train and play Dumb Blonde American if anyone said anything. But since I have yet to see a conductor on an Italian train or get asked for a ticket, it seemed like a safe bet, which it was.

I’ve walked around a little bit. This is supposedly the most resort-ish of the five towns. Lots of touristy places, but a pretty walk by the sea. The weather has turned sunny again, which is great because this is the view of the Mediterranean from out of my new window...

1 comment:

Alison R. Williams said...

The photo of the beach is breathtaking. We're all benefiting from your gift of prose and your photography skills! Glad you got rid of the car - I know they're convenient to get to where you want to be when you want to be there, but there's nothing quite like staring at a train schedule in another language to really make you feel like a tourist!

I don't mean to be greedy, but I hope to be one of the folks that gets to try the prosecco - sounds divine.

Lots of love from the humid swamp that is DC,

arw