Lauterbrunnen – Monterosso – Day 35

Well, that was a tough day, but the end result was worth all the pain. We started early this morning by leaving our apartment in Lauterbrunnen at 6:50am to catch the 7 o’clock train. Our journey today involved 6 trains over an 8 hour period. It was still pitch black when we left Lauterbrunnen train station and the sun didn’t surface for at least another hour. The train ride today took us from Lauterbrunnen to Interlaken then onto Spies, then to Milan, Genoa, Sestri Levante and finally Monterosso. The journey was another cracker as the train hugged lakes, went through the Swiss Alps and the Northern Italian Alps and finished off by hugging the Mediterranean Sea from Genoa to Monterosso. With five connecting train rides we were expecting some fireworks but it all went fairly smoothly. The only time things started to get hairy was when Trenitalia got involved, my favourite train company. I cannot believe how shit this train company is. All the trains in Europe are very good, pvery efficient and extremely comfortable. None of these apply for the Italian train service. Our change over on the train from Milan to Genoa allowed us 10 minutes to catch our next train to Sestri Levante. Ten minutes is normally cutting it fine but at a small outpost train station ten minutes should be heaps of time. That is for any other train company. I don’t think I’ve ever ridden an Italian train that has arrived on time. So, normally we would have our stuff packed up and we’d be waiting at the doors 10-15 minutes before the train arrives at the station ready to jump off but just as we were about to do that out comes the “trolley man” with his trolley full of snacks and it looks as though he is going to block the passage to the doors (proper trains have a restaurant carriage and don’t have to rely on a knob pushing a trolley ringing a bicycle bell). Because the train we are on is going to continue on to somewhere else after we have got off he is probably oblivious to the fact that people need to get off this train shortly. Initially we thought it wouldn’t be a problem because no one is buying anything so he’s moving pretty quick but of course, just as he gets to the people in front of us they want to do their weekly shopping and this guy and his trolley is now blocking us. Not only is he blocking us but he is also blocking us from getting to our bag. We lose precious time and end up way back in the pack for the race to the door. All of this is happening while we still don’t know if we are on the correct train or if this is even our stop. There was no indication on the monitors at the platform when we boarded the train that it was stopping at Genoa, nothing inside the train to tell us where the train was going and no information regarding if it was on time or not, which is all standard information on non Italian trains. We didn’t even have a ticket inspector come into our coach during the 1 ½ hour trip, not even to check our tickets! To make things worse the train is running late (surprise, surprise). Luckily for us our connecting train is also running late (surprise, surprise) so it didn’t end up like it did a couple of years ago when we were trying to get to Venice. Anyway, we get o the next train and make it to Sestri Levante. We get off and ask some Trenitalia dude which platform the train to Monterosso will be on. He says” ahhhhh, look at the monitor.....” So we do that and.......it’s not on there. It appears they have decided not to run that train today. Why? Because we are in Italy now, that’s why. So I speak to this lady at the ticket counter and she lets me know about another train that is going to Monterosso. This train arrives....late (surprise, surprise) but gets us to Monterosso. We get off and walk through the tunnel and BAM, this place is amazing. The first thing we see is the ocean and a street full of people lunching, walking, eating ice-cream, it’s just incredible. We make our way to the apartment and we get met by Mario, the restaurant/wine bar guy from over the road (umm, no idea why he was meeting us there and not the holiday apartment guy) and he lets us in and shows us around. The apartment is fantastic and sits directly above a pizzeria but we don’t hang around, we head straight out for a look around and eventually make our way back to the pizzeria for a pizza. We continue looking around some more before we visit Mario’s wine bar for some wine and an antipasti plate. To end the night we go for a walk along the terrace above the beach and buy some ice-creams before heading back to bed.

One of the many change overs

Yay, were here

Our first look at the Monterosso view

The antipasti plate at Mario's