Oh I do love to be beside the seaside

Thursday  

15 August 

Day 46

50 to go

The 7am alarm jolted me awake, not excited to hear it. The bags under my eyes would need a few extra hours of sleep before being put away. Sadly, they were left hanging under my eyes, as I got myself out and began the breakfast routine. I phoned Mum and Dad, happy to see them sitting by the fire at home. Happy their trip had gone off without an issue. 

It was then all go, finishing the final pack and out of the door for 8.10am. We struggled with our cases over the various road surfaces, before reaching the shopping arcade and catching the lift to the station platform. I went in search of a loo, not finding one but seeing our platform listed, we opted to move to it. The train was already waiting, even though there was still 20min before departure. We opted to get on and find an easy spot to sit with our bags. This proved a smart idea, as the train began to slowly fill and 5min before, a great rush of people boarded, jostling with each other to find a space. We just sat back and watched it all unfold. 

Dead on 850am, the whistle blew, the doors crashed shut and we were on our way to La Spezia. We stopped shortly after, at an outer Florence station, and even more people attempted to crush themselves into the carriages. They poured in at both ends of the cart meeting in the middle and pushing on by. We shook our heads at the stupidity of it. 

I sat back and enjoyed the view of the river, farm land and little villages. All the while the morning sun was pouring in through the window. We made a stop at Empoli, an announcement being made that there would be a delay due to an issue further along the track. We began moving again at 9.45am, concerned about missing our connection in La Spezia and hoping the one hour lay over would mean we would be ok. Someone in the carriage began playing a piano accordion, which garnered plenty of applause. Only in Italy!

At 10.30am, we pulled into Pisa central station, it was here that the train emptied a little, removing some from the aisles, but it was soon filled with those waiting on the platform, and we were on the move 5 minutes later. 

It was a slow journey. There was an announcement to say the train was delayed 28 min. At least we knew the general timing and had concerns of missing connections allayed. We watched the sky grow darker and more ominous, the further we moved along the track. It definitely looked like we were in for rain and sure enough, as we finally pulled in to La Spezia Centrale at midday, we were greeted with a few fat drops. 

We made our way to the lift, only to find it not working, so it was off to the stairs and down to the underpass. We found our train details, platform 2 for 12.38pm, and used another lift to return above ground. Thunder and lightning, flashing and crashing, as we stood around waiting. Another announcement informed us our connecting train was running 15 minutes behind schedule. We passed time away by walking the platform, until, finally it arrived at 1pm. 

There was a mad scramble of patrons trying to locate their carriages. We were at the wrong end, so had to run the gauntlet, before reaching cart two and hauling our bags and selves aboard. Thankfully our seats were positioned at our point of entry, and we were able to get our bags away and into our seats, though I had to share the legroom with my case. We were finally on our last leg by 1.05pm. Most of the travels were through dark tunnels, gouging their way through mountains. Every now and then, we had sea views through semicircles and at one point the track was outside, hugging the coastline. It was pretty dramatic. We also snuck glimpses of towns clinging to the rock face. 

We had one stop at Monterosso al Mare, one of the five towns that makes up the Cinque Terre and shortly after we were pulling into Levanto station. We then had a 750m walk to our accomodation. It started as a downhill run, but flattened out as we reached the town centre. Fabiana, the owner, met us on the corner and lead us to the second floor apartment. Thankfully there was a lift. She showed us through the two bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom and then left us to it. 

We unpacked bits, put on the washing and acquainted ourselves with all the gadgets, before going exploring. We made our way to the centre and then out to the beach front. Here the grey pebbles were littered with sun lounges and umbrellas. We wondered if there was a free section. We took in the view of the coast. While it was overcast, it was still humid and there were plenty swimming. 

We did a walk through the streets, before popping up on a path above the beach. We followed this partly back to town and then returned to the centre and a supermarket to buy things for lunch and meandered back to our room. We ate our salad, cheese and cold meat and then enjoyed a quiet afternoon. 

It was gone 6pm, before we thought about heading out into the town. We walked back down our street before heading into the Piazza Cavour, where an event was being set up. We took some different roads, exploring all that was on offer, before stopping at Gambrinus, a craft beer bar. Paul had one beer and then we walked on to Pelican Bistro where we had a hamburger for dinner. 

The sun was beginning to set, seeing it was close to 8pm. We elected to buy a gelato and the walk along the top path in the direction of Bonnasola, the next town north. We only ventured as far as the tunnel, before making our way back to home for 9pm. It wasn’t long and it was lights out.