Amateur Traveler: Sept. 21, 2008

Sunday, September 21, 2008

First Day in Vernazza. What a charming and relaxing feel this town has. We slept in until 9:00am. There was nothing really planned for the day, after all it was a day on the Italian Riviera. I washed shirts and pants for about 30-60 minutes. We had a leisurely morning, went down for our breakfast at the bar, explored the town and then went back to the hotel before heading to Monterossa. The Room service lady who happened to be Giamba’s mother (Giamba runs the accomodation) had organized my wash on the clotheslines to dry. What pleasant surprise. We took a boat to Monterossa. We thought we were going to miss the early boat, but fortunately the boat was late so we did not have to wait long. It was a short ride to Monterossa. We had a pizza lunch with beer for only 5.30 Euro a piece (Rick Steves' recommendation).

We were doing the Rick Steve’s tour when it started to rain. I lent Becky my rain jacket, as she did not have one! It was a beach town so I was in swimming trunks, my green North Face shirt and flip flops. Great, I was wearing the only items I had that were clean and dry. The rain did put a damper on things. Mainly because all the places with covering were crowded, especially the train station. The train station was extremely crowded on the return trip. There was almost not enough room on the train for everyone. People were a bit pushy. We could barely get off. I speculate that it was because it was raining on a Sunday afternoon and everyone wanted to leave. It was quite an ordeal.

We got back to Vernazza and there was our laundry outside on the clothesline getting rained on. It wasn’t too bad except for Becky’s PJ’s. We had wine, I journaled and we went to dinner at Taverna del Capitano. It was a fine meal and after our 10% discount it came to 80 Euro.

Impressions

Vernazza is very relaxing. Tour groups are still a pain and put a damper on the atmosphere. Our room was great and so were the people who work there. I was so glad we had one more full day in Vernazza.

Bringing in the grape harvest, Vernazza