Travel Update #2: Italy!

Here comes another backlogged travel update! In early April I was 12 weeks pregnant and we knew that this was our chance to see Italy before being hit by the busyness of summer and arrival of baby in the fall. We took a week and flew direct into Milan via Easy Jet. Milan was not our destination of choice, however; we had our hearts set on the dramatic coastline of Cinque Terre and the romantic streets of Florence. So on a train we hopped and traveled about 5 hours to the southern end of Cinque Terre. We quickly realized that Italy's train system was nothing like our trusty and reliable Deutsche Bahn train service. Trains were canceled at a drop of a hat and often late with no explanation at all. We made it to Cinque Terre by early evening, just in time to catch one of the last local trains to our village, Riomaggiore. For those of you not familiar with the Cinque Terre, or "5 lands", I must say it's one of the most beautiful and unique places I've ever visited. It is a rugged portion of the Italian Riviera that consists of five quaint villages. Over centuries, people have carefully built terraces on the rugged, steep landscape right up to the cliffs that overlook the sea. A big part of its charm, in our opinion, is the lack of visible "modern" development. Paths, trains and boats connect the villages, and cars cannot reach it from the outside. We were also drawn to the region for its great hiking spots. Nobody could stop this pregnant lady from hiking the hills to find the best views of the area!! Do you blame me?!

















After spending 4 incredible days in Cinque Terre (hiking, dining, sunset watching...) we set out for our next destination...Florence. We made it to Florence in about 4 hours (again by train) and were there just in time for the Easter weekend festivities. The weather had turned rainy and cool but luckily we snuck in just in time to see Florence's big Easter tradition: Scoppio del Carro (or "Explosion of the Cart"). It was exactly as it sounds. After parading around the city all morning, they wheeled in this huge wooden ornate cart pulled by four huge white oxen into the Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square). After the Sunday mass was finished, they lit the cart "on fire", meaning they set off a system of colorful fireworks that had been strapped to the cart. Quite a sight!














Another fun memory from Florence was the result a not-so-fun-moment upon our arrival. I had forgotten to write down directions to our hotel (blame it on the preggo brain :), so we only had the name of the bus stop where we were left standing with suitcases in tow. Apparently our hotel lived on a tiny no-name street, so while people had "heard" of the Hotel Santa Croce, they couldn't begin to tell us where to find it. Finally we stumbled upon a tiny gelato shop where wonderful Marco scooped us some ice cold gelato and allowed us to use his computer to mapquest our hotel. We got talking to Marco, and he invited us to come back to the shop before dinner for some "apertivos". After showering and relaxing for a bit, we went back and hung out with our new Italian friend. We had a blast chatting and sharing our life stories late into the evening. We were so impressed by his hospitality and genuine interest in getting to know us. A really fun night!

Us with Marco in the Gelato shop



Our trip was coming to an end, and it was time to make our way back to Milan for an evening flight back to Berlin. Now this is where things got a bit interesting. I think we were feeling a little overconfident in all of our train-travel experience over the past 2 years in deciding that train reservations were for novices. Boy, were we wrong. We thought it would be a cinch to make it to Florence on Easter Monday. Not the case. We got up to the desk after waiting in line at the Florence main station for almost an hour only to be confronted with a conversation that went a lot like this:

Matt: Hi, we would like two tickets to Milan, please.
Grumpy Italian guy behind the counter: (without hesitation) Tomorrow.
Us: Noo, today (silly!)
Man: Tomorrow.
Us: Nope, you're not hearing us. We need to get to Milan today so that we can catch a flight tomorrow.
Man: No. Tomorrow.
Matt: But, sir. You don't understand. We have a hotel reservation in Milan tonight and flight back to Berlin tomorrow. It takes almost 5 hours to get to Milan. We have to be there tonight. We checked online and there were many trains leaving for Milan today.
Man (not amused): silence.....some typing on the computer.....loud sighing.....long pause.....more typing......a condescending shake of the head.

Then he hands us a piece of paper with our new itinerary which included 4 extra stops (2 in cities we didn't know existed) and we prepared ourselves for the long haul. And a long haul it was. Long story short, Easter Monday meant that many trains were either canceled or overbooked. We ended up missing a vital connection and our already extended trip quickly turned into a 10 hour journey. Not exactly a highlight of the vacation but certainly part of the adventure!

The next day in Milan we explored the city's parks, as we were not so interested in the city's main attraction: really really expensive stuff. Overall, we had high expectations about Italy's beauty, food and culture and we were not let down. Next time we're going back when I'm not pregnant so that I can sample another thing Italy is famous for: The VINO!! ;)


Milan's impressive Duomo







Click here for the rest of our Italy pictures