Today we are leaving Andrea
and Monterossa. We will truly miss this
part of Italy. Who am I kidding? We will
miss it all. Cinque Terre was extra special,
because Grandma Johnnie was all around us. Katie kept saying she could smell her
everywhere. We finally figured out that
fig tress are abundant in the villages of Cinque Terre and that was what
reminded Katie of Grandma Johnnie. It was nice having her tag along.
Andrea was special too. He made sure we had all of t train
information and gave us the names of three restaurants to eat at while we are
in Venice. Five hours away and he still
had contacts for us. He also gave us a
bottle of his wine to take with us.
We had a pleasant train ride until we got off
at the wrong stop. I was prepared to go
purchase another ticket or throw myself on the ticket counter and beg for
mercy. Not Katie. She has always been the biggest rule follower in the world. I’m not quite sure what happened to her but
she has turned into a “rules are just a suggestion club”. I never thought I would live to see the day
that happened. She said we didn’t have
time to go get another ticket and told me to just jump on the next train headed
in our general direction. I was stunned. You have to understand that when traveling by
train in Italy, first , you buy a train ticket, then you make a reservation on
that train at which time you are assigned a seat. Then the day you are traveling, before
boarding the, train you must validate your ticket. Failure to do so will result in a `100 Euro
fine. I know all of this because I read
it in the travel warnings. She told me to jump on the train without a ticket so i did. Once again my life in a Italian prison
flashed before my eyes. When the conductor came by, he just looked at our
tickets, looked at us, handed back the tickets and walked away without saying a
word. He may have been mumbling "stupid tourists" as he walked away.\ but I'm not sure. Personally, I think he took one look at Katie
and decided it was best not mess with her.
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