C. Tar and Smoke Bombs
We started off the day by having breakfast and ordering some true Italian coffee….espresso and cappuccino. Oh wow, the espresso was so strong I almost gagged, not kidding. It was worse than many hard liquor drinks! I made a face because it was tar. So, c tar revevved us up with psycho energy for the whole day! We had planned to go to Cinque Terre in the morning by boat, but when we walked to the harbor we found out by a guy with almost no English that the boat only went one Sunday a month and this was not our day.  So we walked to the train station and boarded. We got to the first of the five villages, Monterosso and bought some gelato. You cannot go anywhere without seeing it sold. I was craving real food and protein so bad that I actually ate a hotdog (without the bun)…..I am sure my family cannot believe this but yes, it is true! This was one of the only beaches, and you had to pay to have a chair with umbrella so we set up shop on a flat rock right on the shore. The sound of waves splashing up while suntanning………ah, paradise  Then we walked around the village and took many photos of the steep cliffs with multicolored buildings poking up on them. Really cool. On our way back we had problems because the lady at the train station said our ticket was round trip. We got on board and shortly after a guy came and wanted our correct tickets. Evidentally they were not round trip and we were basically stow-aways. He also told us to move right away because we were sitting in first class. How were we to know, the trains are so ghetto it is hard to find out!
The day ended with us pulling up to our train station and seeing a neighboring train car with tons of people hanging out the windows. Then next to it were 30+ S.W.A.T. men dressed with shields. Suddenly……..BBOOOOOMMMMMM! They were setting off smoke bombs and tear gas to stop rioting. We were fine, there was nothing happening to our train, but the air was filled with plumes of smoke! Crazy. We have been staying safe though and are always watching our backs. Today we leave for Florence, so I will chat later. Have a good week everyone |
