Trains, trains, trains! ...and some cheese.

This morning began with a wee bit of trouble.

In fact I, Kyla, could not get out of bed. Quite literally.

We slept in a bunk bed and I had the top bunk and when I attempted to climb down the ladder provided, I soon realized that the bottom of the contraption was not attached to the lower bunk....or to my bunk for that matter. When I tried to descend, the ladder flipped up on me and I literally made a face-plant into the foot of my bed as my feet flew up into the air behind me! My legs went flailing and the ladder went crashing and Tibby came running to my rescue - amber locks flying and her eyes barely open she asked sleepily but with as much concern as her half-awake brain could form, "are you ok?" 

Obviously as I was hanging from the metal bars with my fingernails digging into the bedding for dear life I announced that yes I was, yet as she and another concerned member of our dorm room helped me slide back down to solid terra firma, I realized that I actually was pretty sore but miraculously, yes, fine. 

SO! That's how our morning in Corniglia began! And let's just say it set the pace for the day.

But we did have a nice breakfast - even though we had to pay a bit extra for it - including cereal, yoghurt, some pre-packaged pastries, toast, and OJ. 

After our meal, we finished packing up our bags and said one last goodbye to the quaint sea-side town before descending the 382 steps to reach the train station! 

Then we waited 45 minutes for a train that would take about 5 minutes to reach the neighboring town of Manarola....silly, we know. 

But we had a nice little morning concert with the ticketeer and his buddy who played the guitar while the former sang along! Oh coastal life!!

Finally the train arrived and when we departed in the gorgeous town and fought our way through the numerous Germans....still don't know why there were so very many....until we reached the town center. There was one spot in particular that we wanted to find in order to get a certain view of the cliff-top houses, but unfortunately we took the wrong path - which happened to be up-hill - to find it! Luckily we realized our error in plenty of time to hike back down (mind you folks, we are carrying our huge backpacks and other bags and have already had an excellent workout on those 300+ stairs!!), but we made it without collapsing and were rewarded not only with a taste of the seaside atmosphere of Manarola, but that amazing sight we'd been yearning for....

...our view from the wrong hill...oops! But still pretty!!

...almost!

YEAH!!!

Eventually, however, we had to move on in order to catch a train to Parma - one of the birthplaces of the delicious Parmesan cheese!! In fact, only cheese of this kind from the areas of Parma, Reggio Emilia, Bologna, and Modena can be officially called "Parmigiano-Reggiano"!
But before we readied our tastebuds for hard cheeses, we stopped in the city of La Spezia where we enjoyed a few tasty sandwiches in the train station and Tibby angsted over an asymmetrical work of art she had to stare out at through the cafe window that "simply didn't make sense".


Anyways, after our lunch break, we hopped on that connecting train to Parma and set off on the hour-long ride. When we arrived though, it was not quite what we had been expecting....
There was no luggage storage anywhere to speak of - even though I asked 4 different staff members who each gave me broken bits of English that I eventually pieced together to come to this conclusion - and the overall feel of the city was a bit more grungy than we had anticipated. There was a dried-up river bed, the streets were quite empty and somewhat overgrown, most of the people we observed seemed either to be tired students or Ethiopian refugees, and even the tourist office was closed! Oh yes, after asking for directions from a nice concierge at a swanky hotel (we've learned that this environment often provides clearer English answers), we walked quite a bit only to arrive at a pair of locked doors with a sign that said they were moving to another location and would be closed on 3 days out of the summer....we just happened to be that middle day.
So, with sweat dripping down our backs and a complete lack of ideas on where to go next, we did what I believe most travelers in that situation would do....we got gelato.
And was it delicious!!
Mine was even made to look like a flower by the sweet older lady working the counter and Tibby took a leap of faith and ordered the Parmigiano gelato flavor! She says it's her favorite so far even though all she could identify flavor-wise was some nuts and the whipped cream that was mixed throughout it.

Anyways, after our snack, we decided that we would use the 3 hours we had allotted to wander around as much of the town center as we could and see what happened!
Even though we got a bit turned around here and there and had to continue to carry our freakishly heavy backpacks over the cobblestone streets, we ended up actually seeing quite a bit!
We walked around the Church of San Francesco del Prato (built in the 13th century), the 16th century Ducal Palace of Ottavio Farnese - the Palazzo della Pilotta, we admired the facade and bell-tower of the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista, and also walked through the inside of Parma's Duomo and around it's really cool-looking Baptistery (both begun around the 10th and 11th centuries!).

Afterwards, Tibby nearly died of thirst, so we decided to cut our cheese-tasting losses and move back towards the train station (grabbing some much-needed bottles of water along the way!).
When we finally arrived back at the tracks though, we actually found a vending machine with a packet of crackers and Parmesan cheese cube! It was definitely tasty and though it may not have been in a restaurant or on an Italian farm, it was still in Parma!!

After our snack, we waited for another 45 minutes or so, watching the antics of a little girl across from us who was trying desperately to keep her mother on her toes as she ate ice cream and continually kicked off her shoes then danced around giggling.

But after watching a Parma woman just casually whip out her breast while standing in line for a train ticket to publicly nurse her crying 2yr-old...well, we enjoyed a change of scenery.

Anyways, eventually we made it on the train and thought we were on our way to the town of Faenza to switch trains for Ravenna - our destination for the night! I say THOUGHT because we ended up sitting in that train for an extra hour or so as it suddenly stopped and loudspeaker announcements (which we couldn't understand) kept eliciting rather heated responses from our surrounding passenger mates....

It was super exciting.

But eventually they got whatever was wrong fixed and finally the wheels began to move towards our destination. Unfortunately, we were now behind on schedule for catching that other connecting train....and did we miss it? Yes we did!!

It literally was taking off as soon as we stepped off the other train. But luckily the lady at the ticket counter was understanding and gave us detailed directions and timetables for when the next (and I'm pretty sure it was the last) train to Ravenna. 

By this time Tibby and I were suitably exhausted. We had taken 6 trains thus far and had visited 4 towns in the span of less that 24 hours! So needless to say, we were a bit punchy....Chinese-speaking Swiss and small European Amish communities may or may not have been involved in the conversation....and I'm sure we annoyed the other folks in our train car.

Then, as we were pulling up to another station on our route to Ravenna, we stopped in front of a group of 14yr-old Italian boys who looked like they might have all been related and were all just chillin' on the train platform half-sitting on their bikes. We figured they were waiting for the girl-biking-crew to show up, but they just looked so adorable that I had to blow one of them a kiss from our window. The kid batted a few confused but gorgeous black eyelashes before he stupidly waved back. Then Tibby leaned out and waved as we started to pull away and told me that they all started waving and jostling each other in quintessential boyish pride. It was hilariously perfect. 

So, with smiles at last on our faces, we arrived in Ravenna and called up our hotel to get directions. We hoped we could take a bus but turns out they all stop running here at 8 and it was already 9:30, so we bit the bullet and got a taxi. In retrospect, we both agree we would definitely have gotten lost. But we made it safe and sound and the hotel is very nice (despite a bit of a booking hiccup...thanks hostelworld) and is even right next to this indoor mall/bowling alley that provided us with a few squares of delicious greasy pizza for a late-night dinner. 

And now we are about to head off to bed with plans to tour Ravenna (hopefully with a few less mishaps than today!!) and see some gorgeous mosaics!! Can't wait!!!