27/7 farewell Costa at Savona

Friday 27^th Train to Civitavecchia

Olympic opening ceremony tonight. Made it downstairs by 8am – the passports weren’t where they were supposed to be – the Mexicans told us they were at the main desk, where they were higgledy piggledy in a large box. They eventually found ours and we were delighted that they had laid on an air bridge because we had not been looking forward to teetering down their rickety gangway with the big bags.

Views of Savona ( above & below)

Waterslide on Costa Mediterranea

We jumped on the bus to the station and decided that we may as well catch one of the earlier trains. Our ticket for the first leg to Genoa was open dated. There happened to be one just about to leave so we jumped on. Next thing I knew I had a ticket collector demanding 5 Euro fines EACH for not validating our tickets at the station. He triumphantly turns the ticket over to where it says (in Inglesi) that tickets which are not for reserved seats should be stamped or you may get a fine.

I told him we wouldn’t be paying any fines and that “may” means that he has discretion, which he should use, and we would accept a caution. Plainly we had a reserved ticket to go on to Civitavecchia and had no intention of using the local ticket again. Both tickets had been issued the day before. He launched into Italian and seemed disinclined to yield. Subconsciously, I reviewed all the training courses and the Dale Carnegie principles of How to Win Friends and Influence People. I have always tended to see that as more of an “or” than an “and” . . . so I influenced him. He staggered off down the passage, apparently considering career change or suicide.

We had a couple of hours in Genoa so we went in search of the Golden Arches . . primarily to use the wifi. There was a poster within sight of the station, proclaiming that a Maccas was 100m away and had 1Euro chickenburgers. We followed the arrows for about half an hour – at times there were signs pointing to 2 different Maccas in opposite directions. Eventually we stumbled across one in Via 20 September (its just like South America – the maps look more like calendars).

We arrived at 10.51 and Maccas didn’t open until 11. The lovely lady at the counter spoke Inglesi and fetched us a brochure showing how to log on (in Italiano).  Alas it became apparent that you have to enter an Italian mobile number where they can SMS you a password. Wotaloadacrappa! So we couldn’t get online.

20th September old city gate

Very nice looking railway building

The station was somewhat disconcerting. We found our way to platform 9 but a succession of trains passed through with no way of knowing what they were or where they were going. Nothing on the front of the trains and the TV screens just kept playing adverts. But train 511 duly appeared at 1pm and we jumped on.

Not quickly enough. This train had individual compartments and the other 4 were already seated and had filled the overhead luggage racks. So our jumbo bags sat in the passageway for 5 hours, providing a constant source of entertainment watching passengers trying to get their luggage past or over. Our favourite was the man with the refreshment trolley.

Interestingly, we had reserved seats and for the entire 4.5 hours nobody showed any interest in examining or clipping them.

An unexpected bonus was that the track passed along the coast for most of the journey, which included the Cinqueterra (5 old towns hanging off or between cliffs along the coast). These are a renowned and favourite place for walking holidays, each being a good day’s walk apart. There were some glorious vistas of sun, sea and (black) sand in between the buildings and tunnels. The Italians are great builders of horizontal tracks through and between mountains – you are permanently either in a tunnel or up a viaduct.

We managed to lose 10 minutes before Civitavecchia and Michaele seemed less than his cheerful self when he picked us up at the station. Maybe that had something to do with the leeeeeengthy high-pitched telephone argument right outside our door while we were trying to sleep?

We had a relatively small and dingy room downstairs. We were pleased not to have to lug the bags up but our room in May was much nicer. We had bought dinner from Genoa (yes a baguette but no not salmon . . cheese and ham) which we ate on the bed while we gorged on internet use. We didn’t make it upstairs to watch the Olympic opening but it seems to have been a cracker.

Back on the ships tomorrow J