Fun in Pisa

We left Cinque for Florence early in the morning, but first thing first, we had to make a stop in Pisa.  And this picture sums up the cliche stuff we did in Pisa. 😂

Getting to Cinque Terre

Following the landslides, train cancellation, bus delay, we reached Turin at 20:30 on Aug. 30th. By then, there were no more trains out to Cinque Terre for the day.  Crashing at the train station seriously crossed my mind...but with 3 kids?  Better not!  Found a hotel 5 min from Turin Porto Susa train station. No reservation, just showed up, never in my lifetime showed up at a hotel without a reservation lol.  I didn't even know it would still be possible.  They happened to have a two storey family suite available.  Ha... Everyone gets a bed, the most luxurious accommodation to date 😂

The next morning, bright and early, Nick and I went to the train station and had our tickets sorted. We had a few hours to spare, enough time to have a nice breakfast. Nick was determined for everyone to have a good breakfast before we got moving. He was right. The most important meal of the day!!! We're a serious breakfast family. So we found a neighborhood cafe with espresso, croissants and sandwiches etc. I was absolutely petrified when he asked if they had American breakfast What happened to the guy who always encourages kids to adapt to the local custom in a foreign country? What's gotten into him? The server was nice, didn't seem to be offended (or he hid it well), and said they do have pancakes, eggs and bacon, just not on the menu. Oh man he was thrilled. In the end, we had our first-ever American breakfast with freshly squeezed orange juice in Italy since we left Canada, for just €25. Oh man we love Italy already.

Getting on the train headed to Cinque Terre

Arriving Monterosso, and this is what was in front of us

outside the Monterosso train station

Time to celebrate - longest travel to date

Beanie was happy to get a good meal finally

Noah's favorite Pesto Spaghetti

OMG, Italians sure know how to make pasta!

Gelato Time!!!

Night View of Monterosso

This was our first night in Monterosso.  Despite losing 24 hours, we were just happy that we got here safe and sound.  We will start our hike tomorrow, and see what other towns have to offer.  

Rough Start to Cinque Terre

I'm a planner!  Once we know where we're going and when, I start making reservations.  I booked trains to Cinque Terre out of Chambéry 4 months ago.  Good price when you book early, less than 250€ for the whole family from Chambéry to Turin, to Genoa, then finally Monterosso.  Can't beat that. 

I can't plan for Mother Nature.  Rain started to come down a few days ago and it rained and rained.  Thunder and lightning!  Not good news for us.  Our train out of Chambéry was cancelled due to a landslide.  All railroads are closed until further notice.  Alright, that's ok.  We'll take bus.  Scooped up the last 5 tickets with FlixBus into Turin.  If everything goes well, we'll still be able to make our connections in Turin.  That's a big if.  Our 7:50am bus didn't show, was delayed to 10:50am.  Ten fifty came and went, no bus.  It didn't show up until 2:30pm.  We remained hopeful.  We should be able to get in Monterosso by midnight.  

We got on the bus, feeling pretty good about the rest of the trip.  I could finally close my eyes and take a snooze.  And I did.  

An hour later, I woke up, checking our progress. Looking at the map, I was surprised to see that we were travelling away from Turin.  😂 Looked like the bus had turned around and took a different route.  Oh man... May this day end soon.  Safe and sound!!!