Nice to Rome

July 12 2010

We’re sitting on the floor of the train station in Ventimiglia, Italy waiting for a train to Genova (Genoa). There was some accident along the French Riviera that made all the trains late so our 8:17 from Nice turned into about a 9:00. That meant we missed our 9:00 connection in Monaco which became more like a 10:50. That meant we missed our 10:58 connection in Ventimiglia so now we’re getting on the 1:54, about an hour from now. Ventimiglia looks nice but we’re not going too far because this marble floor is nice and cool and we don’t feel like lugging our stuff down to the beach in the heat. We just finished another delicious backpack lunch of bread, cheese, olives and water with bread and nutella for dessert. We had to switch from Brie, which is really cheap and good, to some other type of cheese just for a change. The scenery from Nice to here is magnificent. The mountains are quite steep and come right to the water’s edge. The train winds around the coast in and out of tunnels and every few kilometres there’s another picturesque little village with yachts floating just offshore. And by yachts, we mean big yachts. We haven’t seen any with a helicopter pad but they’re still very large and expensive.

The other night we had a great dinner at the Petite Biche. We ordered the full meal package for 14 euros each plus wine and beer came to 38 euros total. We had a thick fish soup, pork brochette with figs and apricots (delicious), salad and fries. For dessert I had the chocolate mousse and Anita had crème de caramel, both excellent.

The next morning we hopped on a train to Cannes for the day. It took only 45 minutes there and 25 minutes back (different number of stops). Cannes is much nicer than Nice, very upscale and very expensive (we knew that, that’s why we didn’t stay there). There are lots of huge yachts, fancy hotels and casinos and real sand on the beach. Anita posed on the steps where the other stars also walk up the red carpet during the film festival. Brad and Angelina had wanted us to come out to their yacht for drinks but we were enjoying the beach so much we blew it off.

After we got back to Nice we went down to the old town and had a beef stew with gnocchi with some kind of thick, rich wine sauce meal at an outside restaurant. As soon as we sat down they gave us a glass of rose wine that a lot of people seem to drink here, at least in the summer. The meal was very tasty and again with wine and beer we spent only 31 euros. When we were walking back a lot of cafes had big screen Tvs set up for the world cup final. Everywhere was packed. We watched most of the game but couldn’t stay awake for all of the overtime. Apparently Spain won. That’s it for now. We’ll post this later from Genoa, hopefully.

It’s now 9:30 pm and we’re in our hotel in Genoa. It’s another old hotel but with very clean, fairly big rooms and good security right near the train station. The train this afternoon took until 5:30 to get here. It stopped at every station from Ventamiglia to here so a relatively short distance took a long time. To top it off, there was no air conditioning on the train so we just cooked for hours. Finally we got here and after only about 15 minutes in line got a reservation for a 1^st class direct train to Rome at 6:52 tomorrow morning. We should be in Rome by noon.

We went to a little restaurant down the street and had gnocchi with pesto and risotto with shellfish. It was great and once again with beer and wine only 24.50 euros. We’re well under budget for the first 2 weeks.

We had a good chat with an Aussie at the next table who is travelling alone. After that we took a walk down to the old harbour area that has been fixed up. Genoa has some magnificent buildings and is quite hilly but everything looks tired and dirty, with a few panhandlers and homeless people sleeping on the streets as usual. We are fascinated by the poor marketing of some panhandlers who walk down the street smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer while accompanied by a big dog and continually asking for money. Their business skills aren’t the best.

We’d have to go down to the lobby to get WIFI so we’ll probably post this from Rome tomorrow. We’re a little tired and have to get up early. This was the worst day for train problems that we’ve had so far.

July 13 2010

We got up early and caught our train for Rome at 6:52. High speed, first class, few stops so we got to Rome a little after noon. We found our hotel (the Hotel Hollywood right near the Hotel California - this is true) 2 blocks from the station. It's great, chandeliers, nice marble floors etc. We went back to the train station and only waited in line for an hour to get reservations to Florence on the 17th and from Florence to Venice on the 20th. We're sitting in the lobby using the WIFI and have booked hotel rooms in both cities. Now all the work is done so tomorrow we can go to the Colosseum about 10 minutes walk away and then the next day take a city bus to the Vatican. The 3rd day we're going to walk around to other sites, of which there is no shortage.