We made our way to the market and bought a couple of things before heading to the train. While waiting on platform 3, other twins whistled by at 125 km/hr with such ferocity and noisy screeching that we had to cover our ears and stand back for fear of being either blown away or sucked in to the moving train!
At 2pm our train arrived and we hopped on to discover an entire car to ourselves! Wow. We relaxed and took our shoes and socks off while watching the incredible scenery pass us by. Mountains and hillsides to our right and in the distance off to the left the ocean. The hillsides were dotted with beautiful homes all tiled with different colors and patterns of clay tiles. Each home was unique much more so than homes you would see in Canada. And trees everywhere. I Couldn't believe how many trees there were in the rural areas. Everything is green and lush for the most part.
We rolled past 10 stops and finally arrived in La Spezia! We got off the train and foolishly didn't Google directions. The written directions in broken Italian English was pretty obscure. We wandered a few blocks in the wrong direction before googling it and found our way easily.
We met Francesca and her husband and got our place for only 65 euro a night. Best deal so far! Alas no air conditioning so we will see how we sleep!
We showered, changed clothes, did a load of laundry and struck out for the train station. We picked up our passes for the train to all 5 villages. Coincidentally there happens to be a McDonalds in the train station and the boys were a little peckish so we bought them each a burger and fries to motivate them to do some more hiking.
We headed into the center of town and look at a few different shops before making our way down to the marina. Wow what a difference! We saw hundreds of boats including a few major yachts and a massive cruise ship about to set sail.
We wandered out on the pier to get a better look. The boys played on a few large rocks on the shore.
We found a bungee trampoline shop on the sidewalk and the boys each had 10 minutes on there while dad enjoy the cool beverage and a bucket of free peanuts. We made our way back into the center of town, checked our email and found a restaurant called chicken chicken. After 27 Euros of grease and fat, we hit a couple groceries stores to pick up some fruit and yogurt for breakfast before making our way 10 more blocks home to our flat.
We arrived home to discover that Francesca had dropped off the Wi-Fi box so the boys were quite happy. Dad was happy to have found a free pack of German beer for $2. After everyone check their email and wash some videos, the Wi-Fi crapped out which was the sign that everyone needed to go to bed. This was our first place without air conditioning so we have all the windows open.
You can hear absolutely everything from the train station 3 blocks away to the cheering of the locals and everything in between. It should be an interesting night.
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