The Trip To Western & Central Europe 2017

By: Shoubhik Bose & Debanjana Maitra

Shoubhik and Debanjana, senior engineers in software companies of repute in Bangalore love travelling in India and abroad. They take time out to share their experiences through their travelogues.

The Italian Riviera ( Cinque Terre ), Italy

We took a flight from Palermo to Rome, and then a couple of trains to La Spezia.

From Rome, we took a train to La Spezia ( a 6 journey ). There is a train service with connects La Spezia with all the 5 villages of Cinque Terre. So if you want a budget stay , book an Airbnb close to La Speiza Central station , so that visiting these villages becomes easy.

Cinque Terra ( Cinque means 5 and Terre means Land. ) is a group of 5 coastal villages of Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso located in the Italian region of Liguria. ( all UNESCO World Heritage sites )

The Italian Riviera

Day 1

We visited the villages of Riomaggiore and Manarola on a sunny afternoon and stayed over till evening to witness the sunset.

Cinque Terra is known for its white wine. You can spot vineyards all along cliffs of these villages. The locals make their own wine , while are available for purchase in the local shops.

Day 2

The next morning we visited Vernazza , which is believed to be one of the prettiest villages in Italy.

Things to remember while traveling by in train in Italy.

  • Italy operates several types of trains:
  • Regionale/interregionale Slow and often cheaper, stopping at all or most stations.
  • Tickets in these trains mostly do not have seat numbers. So you can board any coach and occupy any seat.
  • InterCity (IC) Faster services operating between major cities. Their international counterparts are called Eurocity (EC).This was my de facto meal in Italy

While traveling from La Spezia to Venice, we had to take a regional train from Parma Central to Bologna Central. There was a Inter-City(IC) train from the same platform to the same destination , departing 5 mins before our train ! We happily boarded the IC train and realized the mistake only once we entered the coach. It was too late for us to get down as the train had already closed the doors.

Lucky a Treinitalia official in the same coach suggested us not to get down and instead pay the difference amount. Thankfully, all the officials were kind to us and the difference amount ( no penalty! ) was reasonable, we happily paid it and reached Bologna Central faster than scheduled.

To Be Continued…..

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