We actually got a really good night’s sleep last night. We had set the alarm for 7:00 AM, but I was awake at about 6:45 AM, and we did not need it. I checked out the college football scores since the Clemson game had not even started before we went to bed, and the UofSC game was only at halftime.
It was good news for the Clemson fan (me) and bad news for the UofSC fan (Stephanie).
After showers, we did a little packing and then saw from our window that the tiny grocery store down the street was open, so we headed there after we ate our breakfast of yogurt, cheese and ham (the cheese and ham were leftover from the other night’s dinner). The grocery had fresh bread, and fresh bananas, so we picked up two small loaves of bread, two bananas, some Penne pasta, and a jar of Barilla sauce. This was going to be our emergency food kit for Riomaggiore since the rain and storms may cause the restaurants and stores to be closed by the time we arrive. It was well worth the Euro 5.40 cost as insurance.
We headed back to the room to finish the last of our packing, and left to walk to the train station at about 9:15 AM. It was about a 15 minute walk with luggage in tow, and just as hilly as when we had walked to the hotel from the station with our luggage the other day!
We were supposed to arrive at the station to check in for the bus no later than 9:45 AM, but we were early, as were quite a lot of other passengers with bus reservations to Milan. As we headed up the last section of steep roadway to the station, we saw a train arrive, and wondered what had happened with the strike. Once we arrived at the station, I went into the waiting area and saw the electronic display monitor for the arriving & departing trains, and it indicated that several trains were cancelled, including the one we were originally scheduled to take to Milan at 10:36 AM. We figured that some trains were running to support the locals, but the main trains into Milan were shut down by the strike.
The bus arrived at about 9:50 AM, and we were boarded according to the order that the tickets had been purchased. With our luggage stored under the bus, we boarded and were about 2/3 of the way back in the bus. The bus had some difficulty navigating the narrow, winding road out of the station, it was amazing to see how close the bus got to the walls outlining the road.
The ride to Milan was thankfully, uneventful, and the traffic was not to bad, even though there were a few rain showers as we left Varenna. We actually arrived at the train station a little ahead of schedule at 11:25 AM. However, for some reason, the bus driver wandered around the station trying to find a place to park and drop us off, which took several additional minutes.
We got off the bus and claimed our luggage from the underneath storage area and walked inside the station. We went up to the third floor, which is the level of the train platforms, and looked around for a Toilette. That was a really confusing adventure, the signs told us to go to the other end of the station, and when we got there, the signs said go downstairs one level, and when we got there, the signs said walk to the other end of the terminal where we had started originally. We must have missed something somewhere, we could have just gone downstairs (actually a downward inclined moving sidewalk) at the original end we started from.
We used the facilities, paying our Euro 1.00 fee each to get access, but at least they were large and clean, and we did not have to wait in any long lines.
Unfortunately, with all of the extra walking time, we did not feel comfortable waiting in line for a lunch sandwich before we headed to our train, which had already arrived at the platform.
We headed out to the platform, and walked about half way down the length of the train to get to Coach Number 5. We wanted to board early so that we had better access to luggage storage, and there were empty racks in the middle of the car, right next to our seats. The overhead bins were quite large, large enough for our big suitcases, but I did not want to have to lift them over my head to get them up there.
We had selected two window seats across from each other so that we were assured one would be facing forward in the direction of travel for Stephanie, she doesn’t like to face backwards. There was a couple in our seats, but they were just there in case those seats were open for their leg of the journey. They spoke good English, so we actually exchanged seats so that Stephanie and I could sit next to each other, facing forward, and the other couple were across from us, facing backwards to the travel direction. The opposing seats we had are also nice because they have a table in the middle.
Food Cart on the Train to Riomaggiore
The train left on time, (a first for us this trip) and we talked a bit with the couple, they were heading home to Genoa, about half the distance we were going to Riomaggiore.
There was a small food cart that came by and we were able to purchase a small water and a Panini sandwich. It was not the best sandwich, mostly bread and one very thin piece of ham, but the prices were fair, and we needed something to eat since we were going to be on the train for almost three hours.
About half way through the journey, the ticket agent came by to check our tickets. I had them on my phone in the Trenitalia App, but it had gotten closed, and we were now in a tunnel, without wi-fi access. Perfect timing. We came out of the tunnel long enough to get a signal, and the tickets finally came up on the phone screen, right before we entered another tunnel. We had paper for back-up, it was just bad timing!
The remainder of the train ride was uneventful except that as we headed south towards Levanto, it was getting more rainy. By the time we arrived in Levanto, it was a steady drizzle. We had already purchased our regional train tickets for the short ride from Levanto to Riomaggiore using the Trenitalia Phone App while we were on the train from Milan, so we did not have to go into the train station and could save some time making our connecting train. When we got off of the train in Levanto, we went over to the train departure board on the platform and saw that the next train we needed was arriving on the same platform, just the opposite side. That was nice since we did not have to go down and up any stairs with our luggage to get to one of the adjacent platforms at the station.
As we were waiting, there was an announcement, in Italian of course, that we did not catch at first, but Stephanie though they may be making a platform change for our train. It was a little confusing because I had been monitoring the electronic board on the platform, and the location for our train had not changed on it. Sure enough, the train we needed arrived on the same platform as the train we had just departed several minutes ago, and adding to the confusion was that it was heading in the opposite direction that we knew we needed to go to get to Riomaggiore. Stephanie asked another couple if this was the train to Riomaggiore, and they said it was. I did happen to notice that it was a “Cinque Terre Express” train, which meant it only traveled between Levanto and La Spezia, to the south, and of course all of the Cinque Terre towns in between. However, it also had the wrong train number from what we were supposed to take, off by only one digit.
We went ahead and boarded the train and took our seats. As soon as it was ready to depart, the train number changed on the on-board monitors, now showing the one we had expected to see. This was our verification that we were indeed on the correct train, and that there had just been a platform change for some reason.
Stephanie was able to get a single seat at the back of the car, and have enough room in the aisle to keep her luggage next to her, but I had to put my suitcase on my adjacent seat and sit next to it. There was not any room for luggage racks on this particular train. At the next stop, we picked up a lot of passengers since this train is specifically used to travel between the Cinque Terre towns.
By the time we arrived in Riomaggiore, the train was quite full, so we had to push our way towards the exit door as we arrived at the Riomaggiore Station. We got off the train and found ourselves in a more steady rain. There was not a covered platform area at this station, and it was really crowded. We went off to the side next to a building to get our raincoats out of our suitcases. We just happened to be next to a person who asked if we were the Bond Party. It was Andrea, our hotel host, we had been communicating with him via WhatsApp text messages about our arrival. He was there to guide us to the hotel.
Winding Steps to our Hotel Room – Front Left Entrance
With our rain gear on, we followed Andrea through the long pedestrian tunnel between the station and the town of Riomaggiore. Then we took a winding route to the hotel, avoiding some steps that would have made walking with luggage more difficult. It would have been impossible to find the hotel had we not had Andrea to guide us. On the way, he let us know that the severe weather “orange” alert from yesterday’s forecast had been lowered to “yellow”, so all of the stores and restaurants were open, and other than the rain, everything was operating normally.
Andrea checked us in and took us to our room. It was exactly as shown in the booking photos, even the same room number. We have a great view of the small harbor and waterfront from our two windows.
View From Our Window
We wanted to settle in and unpack a little before heading out to see the town area. It was still raining fairly hard, so we had no desire to rush out into the bad weather. We got situated in the room and enjoyed some wine while looking out our windows at the people wandering through the harbor area. The hotel is very near to the harbor, we could see the rock jetties that provide the harbor with some protection from the waves.
When the rain mostly let up, we went into the main area of the town to find a small grocery store we had passed on the initial walk to the room. We went inside and bought a bottle of wine and also a large Coke Light for Stephanie to have for the next few mornings. The room has a small refrigerator, so we can keep the Coke cold.
We headed higher into the town area, which is all uphill from our room near the harbor. We found another small grocery store, a little bigger than the first one, but still quite small. It was more crowded, and we found that their selection of wines was much better, and everything was a little cheaper. We purchased two additional bottles of wine for the room, and a small package of chocolate wafers for dessert later.
View of Riomaggiore From The Top of the Hill
We walked all the way to the top of the hill where there was a barrier that was actually to designate a “no pedestrian” area, with clear signage for keeping out people on foot. There were a few people going past it, they all looked like locals getting off from work, and heading to a parking area we could see. We assumed this was to try and keep tourists from going to the remainder of the town area, there were no more shops or restaurants that we could see beyond this point. (We learned later in our stay that we had this gate purpose backwards, it was to keep out unnecessary car traffic during the daytime, not keep in pedestrians. But the signage on it was still confusing)
There was a couple of side paths to take and one led up the hill in another direction to a small fort. The views from here were really spectacular, despite the drizzle. Apparently, the fort area is now used for special events, there was a small canopy set up inside the fort walls.
Steps Going To The Top of Town
We also saw where the upper hiking trails started from Riomaggiore heading to the next town over to the north, Manarola. There was also a parking area and roadway at this level of the town. This was the highest we were going to venture today, so we headed back down the hill towards the main area of the town to look for a place to eat dinner. We needed to take all of the supplies from the grocery store run back to the room first, and once there, we decided to go ahead and hand wash some of our underwear and socks. It was disappointing that we were never able to use the washer in Varenna, we were now a little behind in our laundry because of that.
We finished the remainder of the bottle of wine from earlier while we did the wash in the bathroom sink. After that task was done, we headed out to dinner at one of the restaurants we had passed on our earlier walk. They had an outside covered eating area, and it had been quite crowded when we passed by earlier. It was now starting to rain again, and we had about a 20 minute wait for a table. While we waited, we talked with two different couples that were all waiting for tables, we were all waiting under a small covered area to try and stay dry.
Waiting On Dinner To Arrive
There was no written waiting list, so it was a bit confusing, it was all sort of self monitored by the waiting guests, we each tried to figure out who was ahead of whom. It was not any easier with the rain since everyone was a little scattered trying to get under cover in different doorways.
Our table was finally ready, and we ordered a liter of their Rosso della Casa, or Red House wine, served in a carafe. For food, Stephanie had Spaghetti Carbonara, one of their specialties, and I had Lasagna. They brought us a basket of bread and the meal was really good. There was a bit of confusion with the bill, the liter of wine was charged out as two times the half liter price, which we through was the liter price, it was confusing and not presented very well in the menu, but it was still not a bad deal.
Stephanie’s New Dinner Friend
Since it was still raining when we finished dinner, we just headed back to the room to relax. We enjoyed some time listening to the breaking surf in the harbor before retiring for the night. We went to sleep about 11:00 PM, it had not been a strenuous walking day like the last few, but we were still tired from the stress of the traveling.
Just a note on our emergency food rations, we did not have a kitchen in this room like we had thought, it was just an error on our part by not checking the details of the reservation we had made long ago before we bought the emergency rations. So, having pasta to cook was not going to help our cause had the weather been as bad as predicted, we just assumed we could cook, not really giving it a lot of thought to check and make sure. The other items we bought would have helped if we were having to make due. At least we could use some of them for tomorrow’s breakfast.