Italia! Well, eventually...

As my previous posted stated, the wedding actually happened. It went really well other than me giving Wife my right hand during the ceremony (realized it in time to fix it) and Wife being nervous with everybody looking at her. She's the only woman I can think of that doesn't want to be the center of attention on her wedding day. But we both survived and it seemed like everybody had a great time at the reception.

So after a long day for the wedding, Wife and I were ready to get going on the honeymoon. Two weeks in Italy was going to be just the trick to help us relax and recuperate from the stress of the wedding. However, we weren't going to get on our trip just yet. After stopping by Wife's parents for brunch with her extended family, we headed for the airport.

With the troubles I'd been having with flights lately I made sure we were there in plenty of time and we had plenty of time before all our connections on the way to Milan. Unfortunately Delta's plane maintenance didn't want to cooperate. As we were checking in we found out our flight to Cincinnati was going to be delayed long enough that we'd miss our connection to Newark and then miss the flight to Milan. Although we were disappointed, the agent was so nice and helpful that we really couldn't be upset. She worked on our itinerary for almost two hours to get us to Milan as soon as she could. We ended up flying to Atlanta and then catching a flight to Milan the next day. Spending the first night of our honeymoon in the Holiday Inn by Atlanta's airport wasn't exactly what we had in mind, but at least we were on our way.

After killing the Sunday in Atlanta, we finally got to Milan on Monday morning. Since we were behind a day we skipped our day in Milan and went straight to the train station to catch a train for the Cinque Terre.

Even though we were really tired, there was a good omen for the rest of the trip. We had an easy train ride and, unlike in the US, we were able to get a really good prosciutto crudo sandwich at the train station. Maybe it is just the idea of being in Italy that makes simple things like a sandwich better, but I think it's that Italians know good ingredients.

Riding the train west from Milan we passed through a relatively flat area of farmland that reminded me somewhat of home. The fields were smaller and of more irregular shapes, but the crops were familiar. The biggest difference was the wonderfully tall, straight trees that dotted the landscape. If my jet lagged mind would have been working better I might have recognized that the only way trees can grow that straight in the open is if there isn't much wind. I mention this because I kept noticing the lack of a breeze throughout our trip. More on this later.

As we got closer to Genoa the terrain turned more mountainous and we were able to see less and less of the landscape because of tunnels and railway cuttings. Well, I was able to see less. Wife had been sleeping for a good portion of the trip already so hadn't seen much but the back of her eyelids. After passing through Genoa there were a few stops before our stop in Monterosso where we needed to transfer to a local train to take us on to Manarola.

Our timing on this transfer was rather unfortunate. All the tourists, who were mostly Italian due to an Italian holiday the following Tuesday, thought it would be the perfect time to return to their hotels in La Spezia to rest before supper. The platform was absolutely packed and rather stifling, which is not the feeling you want when you're already covered in funkiness from a long plane ride. We were able to cram ourselves and our bags on the next train as close to the door as we could. Everything was fine and then we saw the first "stroller".

I use quotes because while you would probably never see a Hummer in Italy, you'll definitely see the SUV strollers that parents with too much money to spend seem to favor in the US lately. As if that wasn't enough, the stroller people didn't see the benefit in removing their child from the stroller so they could fold it up before boarding the train. I was certainly bumped and Wife may have been almost run over. Needless to say it was a relief when we could get off the train in Manarola.

Unfortunately we still had a half mile walk up a steep hill, but we managed to survive the hike to make it to our bed and breakfast. It was a very satisfied pair of travelers that dropped their bags and laid on the cool tile floor to cool down that afternoon.

In the next installment, we'll explore the Cinque Terre.

Ciao,
Frog