Buon Giorno!
22 June: Oy…what a day! Today started off just like the last few…with a yummy breakfast laid out for us by Grazia. But then it took a turn for the worse. Claudio “collected us” to the Levanto train station a little before 10 so we could try to get to Venice to meet our friend Adam. He flew standby to Rome last night and was working his way to Venice also. While waiting in line for our tickets Leanne saw a sign that stated there was a train strike from 9pm last night to 9pm tonight. We weren’t sure yet how that would affect us. When we got to the info desk, the nice lady told us that because of the strike we wouldn’t be able to get to Venice since we didn’t already have tickets…the ticket office was closed. 
We weren’t quite sure what to do…after a little pacing and thinking through things we went back with more questions. After some internet searching the VERY nice ladies at the info desk told us about a 1:01 train to Milan that connected to another train to Venice. Meanwhile Adam has already purchased his ticket and is on the 
fast train to Venezia! As we waited for our train, we realized that 1st class was booked and with our Eurail passes we have to sit in first. So, we went to buy 2nd class tickets. Not long after we bought our tickets we saw that our train was delayed. This posed a huge problem for us since we only had 15 minutes to make our connection. As we got closer and closer to Milan we knew there was no way we would make our train to Venice. When we got off the train we looked for our next train number, which was definitely not there since we were 30 minutes late to the station. Karen noticed a train to Venice that was leaving at 4:35 so we ran for it...Leanne had to sprint. It was currently 4:37! As we got to the 9735 train we saw a train attendant, showed her our tickets to the 9733 train and she waved us on and told us to hurry. Whew! We were on! But we had no idea where to sit. At every stop we waited for someone to kick us out of our seats, but fortunately we got to stay. It was a long and stressful journey from Levanto to Venice, but as we stepped off the train and saw Adam’s smiling face all was well. Adam told us of his leisurely afternoon strolling the streets and parks of Venice while he waiting 5 hours for us to arrive.
With all 3 of our packs strapped on we walked to Ristorante Roma on the Grand Canal for some Italian goodness. Realizing we may have missed our check-in time at the hostel we rushed from our dinner to the bus station. The lady at the station informed us that there was a bus strike. That’s right folks…no buses! So, we marched right on over to the taxi stand where there was a really long line. It was a good day for taxi drivers!
We finally made it to Camping Rialto! It was perfect…€12 per person per night! Ciao for now!
I feel I should go on strike reading this blog, but it is just too much fun! Micah misses you, Karen. He thanks you for your postcard! Tell Adam we say hi and to keep checking in on foursquare!
ReplyDeleteAh, to be young again. I just got your blogspot address from your dad today. It sounds like you're having a great time. Martha and I enjoyed reading your blog. If you get down near Naples try to visit Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii. The ruins there are impressive as to how advanced Roman civilization was in 79 A.D. Keep having a good time!
ReplyDeleteErnie and Martha Neubauer