Down to the Sea in Trains

A leisurely slightly wet start to the morning today as we packed up and left Varenna and Lake Como. After a somewhat unsatisfactory experience with Italian trains getting to Varenna, our departure was much better. The first hour was getting back to Milan and for that we had a very new train...with First Class. It even had a real-time display and we were doing up to 140 km/h through the Milan suburban area.

From Milan we were on an older Intercity train to Monterosso. We were in a 6-seat compartment with two couples from Austin, Texas...who were very nice people considering they were Americans! About 3 hours after leaving Milan we arrived in Cinque Terre...and found ourselves swamped by tourists. We found out later that they were from cruise ships that dock in La Spezia and come "visiting Cinque Terre" for the afternoon.

After fighting our way through the crowds to get out of the station, we walked around to our B&B that is right in the middle of the old town...another brilliant choice of a place to stay courtesy of Trip Advisor.