Time to say Farewell to the boat, the crew, and fellow passengers. A lot of contact details have been swapped, a lot of appreciation has been expressed to the crew, and all our belongings packed for transfer. Emerald Cruises is a relatively young company with Australian origins and it has exceeded all expectations. The cruise route was excellent and all the passengers have expressed how great this journey has been.
We kept it simple and had a taxi booked to our accommodation, which was an apartment in the castle area of Buda. The afternoon was chill time, 3 loads of laundry done as we have a washing machine here, and rest & recoup. Ready for our wonderful 3-course dinner ……. ohh, that was on the boat, so bacon & eggs it is.
After a good long sleep in, we casually went out for the day. We made our first port of call the public transport ticket office, about a 20mins walk away. Planning to get a 10 ticket pack for use over the next 2 days, the chap pensively asked my age, at 65 I don’t need tickets, all public transport is free! We hopped on a tram and headed off to the Gellért Thermal Baths. Gellért has a series of pools at different temperatures, both inside and outside. We spent most of the day there, making our way by Metro to the Pest side of the Danube late in the afternoon. A bunch of us ‘Aussies’ were staying in Budapest extra days after the cruise so we organised to meet for dinner.
Wednesday and we head off to Rome. We have the day in the shopping area of Pest after we leave the unit. The accommodation was really good and the owner turned up to say “Hello” when we locked up. We headed off over the river to the area to pick up the airport bus, had time for a nice relaxed brunch, to catch up with some souvenir shopping and of course a Chimney Cake filled with ice cream, chocolate and all those bad things.
We arrived at Budapest airport without any issue for our Wizz Air flight to Rome. Certainly not worth paying for extras on this airline as you do not get them, what a dismal outfit. Still, after an hour & half flight (that felt like 3 hours), we got to Rome. The airport itself was no trouble but getting to Rome central was typical fa’a-Italia. The express train, direct airport to Termini (central terminus), was not operating for some reason, buses were provided instead. Hordes of people who would have been on the train were lined up in some shambolic version of queuing for too few buses that were apparently stopping at 10pm (it was now 9:45!!). Eventually we got on and arrived at Termini after 11:20pm after a roundabout trip. We keep seeing far too much of places whilst catching buses! At least the hotel was only 50m from Termini.
Wednesday and were up and off to the Cinque Terre by train. We chose this hotel in Rome as we are coming back here on Saturday for a night before we join the Trafalgar tour of Italy and have left our cases at the hotel. Termini is large and super busy but has a good vibe. We got tickets, but at a stretch, the train we wanted was booked out but we did get one with a few seats left for 2 hours later. Decided we’d better get the return tickets now as well and ended up with another tour of the country just to get back to Rome again.
The train actually left on time and it’s quite cruisy sitting back watching the countryside go by. But they aren’t the roomiest carriages and you compete for leg room with the person opposite. And then you have those who keep their suitcases in the aisle with them instead of in the case storage area at the end of the carriage. After a 3-hour journey, we made La Spezia. It was then simple to grab the local commuter train to Riomaggiore. This is an adventurous town to get around in. The railway station is cut in between 2 tunnels. You then walk through one of the tunnels to get to the town. The town is tall buildings built on top of each other with narrow lanes and alleyways between, and banks of narrow uneven steps along the alleys. But boy, what character, vibe, and super picturesque. We had pictorial instructions from our host to find our unit and he was waiting at the gate for us when we arrived. Very welcoming. Our unit is perched above the ocean and with the marina just down to the side. A quaint but roomy unit, clean, and comfy. Missing some useful bits like T-spoons, egg slice, etc. But who cares, a great unit in an absolutely stunning location. We wandered around town and found a little al-fresco restaurante at which to get a great little pasta dish each. There are heaps of tourists, but not too crowded, just right to create a great atmosphere. Lots of young folk and the sounds of some dance entertainment getting underway. But alas, the spirit is willing but the flesh is just too worn out and tired!! Back to the unit with wine and citrus tart for dessert, perched in front of the open window, watching and listening to the ocean in the dusk.
Thursday has provided us with a bit of a sleep-in. I even got coffee and breakfast in bed 😊. We decided to take a day trip to Vernazza, the 4th CT (Cinque Terre) town. We took the train up the coast with plans to catch a ferry back to see the towns from the ocean. When we got to the station, we were surprised by how many people were waiting to catch the train, the platform was packed. We jammed in like sardines when the train arrived. It was even worse when we got to Vernazza, it took longer to get off the platform than the actual train ride.
Vernazza was incredibly busy, the main street down to the marina was jammed after the train emptied into it. Calling into some shops on the way down allowed the bulk of the people to move down and the street was a lot more comfortable. Vernazza is known as the pearl of the Cinque Terre, with the colourful boats in the foreground and the houses of the main square in the background with many cafes and eateries along the road. The Doria castle round tower is open to climb for magnificent views of the village, its colourful harbour, and up and down the CT coast. The train station above the main road at the top end of town, having tunnels in through the mountains at both ends. It is rather spectacular walking up the main road as an inter-city train hurtles across just above your head!
There was too much swell for the ferries to operate so not an option to go back that way. We hopped back on the train stopping at Manarola, the train was just as packed as before. The stations are all cut into the rock so access is via staircases down to tunnels underneath, with 2-way traffic movement can be very slow. After 20mins to get out of the station, we wandered down the main road to the marina. Each town has been different to each other but still the distinct Cinque Terre style. We took a trek up around the headland and then up to the top where we stopped and had a drink and chatted to some fellow travellers, a young couple from Chicago and an older couple from NE of London. We are meeting so many folk as we are never shy to start up a conversation, an Aussie couple and then a Boston couple at lunch in Vernazza and a young Utah couple on the train. A very relaxing stop in Manarola and then we made our way back to Riomaggiore, showed the Utah couple how to find their unit, grabbed a pizza (it’s Italy after all) and had that on the patio outside the unit, chatting to a mum & daughter from Sth Carolina.
Friday and our last full day on the CT. We had a full day yesterday, so decided today would be a more casual day around Riomaggiore. The ferries were still not running so that option was out. I went for a morning explore whilst Angie slept in, up to the top end of the town, and by ‘up’ I mean ‘up’! Then along the level road to the old Bastion and tower at the ocean end of town. Great views from up there. Once back, it was Angie’s turn to venture out, the shops were calling. After a couple of hours, I trotted off to the accommodation office as we are leaving tomorrow and then met Angie for lunch. We had a delicious Brushette each at a waterfront restaurant, great setting, and relaxed watching the ocean and the tourists whilst we feasted. Of all the CT towns, Riomaggiore has been our favourite so we made a good choice staying here.
We have a long journey back to Rome, via Milan. So we hop on the local commuter train to Monterosso Al Mare, the northernmost and largest of the CT towns. We chose to come here early to look around, it stayed sunny for us even though the weather was supposed to be closing in. It’s the only CT town with an actual beach so we found some nice souvenir beach towels and went for a swim in the Med. Afterwards we wandered through to the old town, shopped and strolled the streets until it was time to go back for the train to Milan.
So it’s on to Milano. Didn’t think we would get to the Cinque Terre, but we did. And we loved every bit of it. The trip to Milan took 3 hours and we had just enough time to get something to eat and drink to take on the Rome train and get on board. The train to Rome was a high-speed train with no stops on the way, a max speed of 300kmph! When we got to Rome, we had 50m to go to our hotel, fab.
Tomorrow we move to the Trafalgar hotel on the other side of Rome for the start of the last part of our journey, the bus tour of Italy. Onto the next issue of the blog.
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