Friday morning November 9 I left by train to travel to the Cinque Terra villages of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterossa. My hotel was in the southern most city of Riomaggiore. My train was scheduled to leave Roma Termini station at 8:10. We had a local train leaving at 7:06 to arrive in Termini at 7:50. Thus allowing me 20 minutes to find my next platform. I decided I wanted a bigger time cushion. While 20 minutes seemed plenty, I also wanted an opportunity to maybe get a caffe at Termini before I left. So I decided to take the 6:36 train instead. Giving me an extra 30 minutes than the 7:06. Good thing. The 6:36 was 30 minutes late arriving at Roma Termini and I still only had 20 minutes to find my next platform. It was indeed enough time, but not enough to allow a "momento" break. And if the 7:06 was 30 minutes late I would have missed my train to Riomaggiore.

It is a four hour train ride from Termini to my destination. The train is what I would call semi-fast train. It is not a nonstop train like the one we will take to Florence. But it also doesn't stop every ten minutes like a regional train. We stopped about every 30-45 minutes. And sometimes reached speeds of 130 km/hour. The train had assigned seating and a clean bathroom. And occasionally a porter would stroll by with a beverage and snack cart, offering to sell items to snack on.

When I made my hotel arrangements they said someone would meet me at the train station and assist me to the hotel. I arrived at the my destination, Riomaggiore right on time. I expected to see someone holding sign with the name of the hotel or my name. There was no sign. As I stood on the platform bewildered, a young man approached and asked if my name was Larry. And he would assist me to the hotel. He was a great help carrying my bag up the hill to the hotel. One nice thing about a hotel at the top of the hill is the view as you see below. The bad part is getting to the hotel. Quite a climb every night back to the hotel. Once I left the hotel I tried to never go back until it was time for bed.

These are the views from the terrace of my hotel room.