The Rain Returns to Cinque Terre....and we leave

After a glorious day yesterday, the rain returned overnight with vengeance. It poured down most of the night and was still pouring down in the morning. For us it was time to leave Cinque Terre...not because of the rain though...it was always planned that today we would move on to Florence.

So after breakfast, we were all packed up and ready for a 10 minute dash through the pouring rain to the station...all the taxis were booked out. When we got there, it was bedlam. The Intercity train heading south was a popular one for us tourists heading on. We managed to take shelter on the part of the platform that is in the railway tunnel...until it was announced that First Class was at the front of the train today...at the other end of the platform!

The train arrived and we all piled on...dripping wet. We were in a compartment for six again but this time there was only four of us altogether so we could spread out. We eventually departed about 10 minutes late for Pias...it took a long while to get everyone on the train. At Pisa we changed to another train to Florence...this time Second Class only. We had missed our connection but it was less than a half hour wait and we were speeding across the Italian countryside at up to 150 km/h.

We arrived in Florence to find it warm and dry. A ten minute walk soon had us in our hotel unpacking and drying out. Our cases hadn't done too badly considering who heavy the rain was...but a bit of water did get in. After sorting ourselves out and a bit of a rest, we ventured out for a walk around Florence.