Ciao Venice, bongiorno Cinque Terre! Wait a minute, not so fast there mister. Remember that baggage handlers strike in Venice? Well, today there's a train strike in Florence - you know, that key city between you and the Italian Riviera? Yep, that city. Those Italians
loooove their strikes! So what should take you about five hours will instead take around fourteen. First, let's send you to Milan, maybe you can get a train from there to Cinque Terre. Nope. Hmm, let's send you to Genoa. Close, but no cigar. (I think Mussolini was on to something when he promised to make the trains run on time...) But the "good news", if you can call it that, is we got a long layover in Milan followed by one in Genoa and so got to briefly take in the highlights. (The bad news is it cost us our half-day in Cinque Terre.
)
Once in Milan we hit up tourist information in the train station basement and asked the lady what to see with only three hours. She pulled out a map, circled a few spots, pointed us towards the metro station and we were off! First stop, Duomo Square, home to the largest gothic cathedral in the world - Duomo Cathedral. It is impressive! Hmm, what's that music? Turns out Andrea Bocelli was performing on the square the next day so the orchestra was practicing. Missed him by one day! Also on the square is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a giant glass-domed shopping arcade lined with high-end shops. Every girl's dream in one of the fashion capitals of the world! After the square we hit a couple churches, the national theater, took in a few statues, then it was back to the train station and another layover in Genoa.
We didn't have as much time in Genoa, not to mention we were incredibly frustrated and tired by this point, but we did walk around a bit in the immediate vicinity of the train station. We saw a statue of hometown boy Christopher Columbus, a church, the port, a cool lighthouse, and then grabbed some dinner - pasta, of course! (Spaghetti alla vignole to be precise.) Finally, after a bit more confusion at the third train station we, along with a hundred other disgruntled passengers, figured out the local train schedule and made it to Vernazza.
Milan & Genoa pics
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2244263&l=94db0&id=7012064
Comments (2)
That totally sucks. It's nice to put a pin through a few more cities on the big map though.
When I was there in 2002 Zack was coming up from Palestine (via a 3-day boat from Greece to Venice) and we were meeting in Genoa. I noticed our two train schedules had us both connecting in Milan, so instead of taking the earlier train I was going to (giving me about 3 hours without him in Genoa), I spent those three hours in Milan to wait for his connection to arrive so we could ride together. This sounded genius and romantic....until he never showed up. We had no way of contacting each other so I was a solo 20 year old girl and completely freaked out. I went ahead and grabbed the train to Genoa hoping he had just made a different connection or I had somehow missed him in the crowd (yeah right). When I got there my plan was to run to the nearest internet place and check that before calling mom, dad, FBI, etc. As I exited the train I found Zack filthy dirty on a bench in the train station. Apparently after his 3-day on-deck boatride he was unable to find a hostel or hotel in Venice and wound up taking the overnight train to Milan and Genoa, beating me by 8 hours. He hadn't slept or bathed in about 4 days and I was screaming at him when I saw him. I was a total jerk and it was awful. We wound up finding an overpriced hostel and passing out for about 13 hours.
I hate Genoa.
@therealPETERLA - You win. Or lose, I guess.