Pass the Cheese Please!

Parole: avanti (forward, onward, etc), museo (museum), regionale (regional)

Everybody knows that Monday is the worst day of the week.  Usually it is because you have to return to work or classes.  As the US celebrated Memorial Day, I had the day off from work experiences by coincidence.  So, I took advantage of this fact, and got on an early train to Torino.

My train from Parma to the Torino Porta Nova station was not the most confortable that I have been on.  I had two options:  Take a 5:57am regionale train (the type we normally take) and get there around 9 for 14 euro, or take the 7:17am IC (intercity class) train and arrive at 10 for 22 euros.  I wanted the extra hour of sleep and didn’t know what I could do in Torino at 9am, so I went for the latter option.  My next option would get me there at 1:30pm, which would not give me enough time in the Museo Nazionale dell’ Automobile, which would close by 2.

That was my first mistake.  When I bought my ticket, the machine warned me that there was only second class standing room available.  By this point, this was my only option.

The trained pulled up to platform 3 and it seemed like it was a mix overnight bed cars and “cuccetti”, which are cars in which ¾ of the width is made up of “rooms” with 6 first class seats, and the remaining part of the train is an aisle with seats that fold out into it.  This is where I had to stay for the 3 hour journey.  With every stop I had to stand up to let people go by, carelessly banging their suitcases against me, reflecting  their attitude of returning to work after the weekend.  The only windows that opened were in the rooms and at the very front and the back of the train, and they only opened a little bit.

What is in the "Dinky Toys" box?

A Vespa Car!

I finally arrived, grabbed my key to the city—the Torino Card for free access to museums, attractions, and public transport—and headed to the Museo Nazionale dell’ Automobile.  I Google mapped it the previous evening and knew approximately where it was, and I saw where it was on tourist office’s map.

Forty-five minutes later, I was beginning to wonder just where this museum was.  I stopped and asked two middle aged men, Dove il Museo dell’ Automobile? And they responded with, Uno chilometre avanti. I was on the right track.  They asked me a few times if I was really an American, why I was in Torino, and after a good talk, they asked for my phone number.

I arrived at the Museo after a little over an hour of walking.  Apparently on the map, it doesn’t indicate where the Museo actually is, but rather it tags it in small print as being 3 km south of the border of the map.  Missed that part.

The Museo is full of history and cars, and is brand new, having just opened this spring.  The first section concentrated on the evolution of the car, how the design is constantly changing, and that there is no way to know what the cars will actually be like in the future until we get there.  There were hundreds of cars from many eras in automotive design.  One section featured the evolution of the wheel, appropriately sponsored by Michelin.  The museum had a general concentration on European and Italian cars, but there was an occasional Oldsmobile or Cadillac.  The second section featured racecars, manufacturing, road signs and car parts.  The final section featured super sports cars and concept cars.

Cars falling into water ahead

Airplanes Prohibited on this road

Other Signs

After the Auto Museum, I took at 10 minute bus ride back to the city center.  I wandered around to some of the landmarks, but many were closed because it was a Monday. I knew this from when I did some research on the city, and I was there because that was when I had the opportunity to go.  I really wanted to go up into the peak of the Cinema museum, housed in the Mole Antonelliana building, but that was closed as well.  From there I would have had a spectacular view of the Alps.

Museo Nazionale del Cinema - Mole Antonelliana

Lots of "stuffed" animals at an exhibit in the Natural Science museum

After some more exploring of palaces, castles, piazzas, parks, and the regional museum of natural science, it was time to go home.

A Palazzo (palace)

Lessons Learned?

Always  take cheap, “regionale” trains in Italy. (Unless you are going a long distance, or would like the luxury of the high speed rail).  The regionale trains are generally comfortable and not overcrowded compared to the intercity train that I took to Torino.

Don’t be a tourist on a Monday. A lot of businesses and attractions are closed Mondays.  This may have been my only chance to stop in, and to see the Automobile Museum, so I took advantage of it, even though many other things I would have liked to see were closed.

Read the fine print on the map. Some things you want to see may be more than a reasonable walking distance away.

It is day 100 of my semester in Italy, and I only have 10 more days, but I still have so many more things I would like to do and to see!

Parole: bellissimo (very beautiful), escursione (hike), mare (sea)

Today Aubrey, Victoria, and I went to the Cinque Terre.  The Cinque Terra refers to a touristic national park located between Geneva and La Spezia along the west coast, just a little over 2 hours from Parma by rail.  It was filled with Americans and English appeared to be the dominant language.  Considering how small the towns are, I was surprised at just how many tourists there were.  Cinque Terre literally means five lands, and refers to five scenic coastal towns that make up the area.  The tows are connected by rail and by hiking trails.

Behind me is Riomaggiore Bay

The first town was Riomaggiore.  Our train went directly to Riomaggiore, but it stopped first in La Spezia.  At La Spezia, hundreds of people got on the train to go to Riomaggiore.  The train had to go through tunnels in order to get there.  Now and then there would be a 5 second break in the tunnels, and we would be right on the coast on the edge of the sea, and the entire overcrowded train was filled with “ooooohs” and “aaaaaahs” and overall excitement.  We went the wrong way after we got off the train and ended up on the trail headed to the next town instead of exploring the main part of Ropmaggiore.

Looking back at Riomaggiore

See the point way off in the distance? That is at Monterosso, our final destination

This first path was between Riomaggiore and Manarola.  It is called Via dell’amore, or “way of love.”  It was a very scenic, paved, well-kept trail directly on the coast and surrounded by cacti and flowers.  It took less than a half hour to walk.  Once we arrived in Manarola, we grabbed a piece of pesto focaccia and a bottle of water, wondered around a small market, and headed to the next town.  However, we got to the trail head, and it said that the trail was too dangerous to walk and it was closed.  Based on the condition of the final trail of the day, I question how dangerous “too dangerous” really is.  It was probably closed for renovations.

Manarola

Victoria and I at Manarola

Because the trail was closed, we had to take a train to Corniglia.  Once we got to the station, we were faced with 382 steps of a back-and-forth staircase in order to get to the town.  These stairs turned out to be a breeze compared to the stairs we had on our next two trails.  We took a pit stop in Corniglia, walked around a bit, and headed for Vernazza.  The Rick Steves’ Italy book says that this is a 90 minute hike, but it is the “wildest and greenest section of the coast…and is very rewarding but very hilly.”  So, we gave it a shot.  The trail was long with lots of stairs.  The scenery was amazing, and it took us through vineyards and olive groves on narrow and beat stone and dirt paths.  It was a rough hike and it took us probably around 80 minutes to complete.  It was quite a feeling of accomplishment when we sat down at the end of the trail at “Bar La Torre” for a glass of fresh lemonade, a sandwich, and a couple bottles of water.

Flowers along the shore

One of the better paths

Looking Back at Corniglia

getting closer!

More path

picture break!

narrow paths on a ledge

The town of Vernazza, like the other towns, is pretty small.  It has a small beach and a castle and lots of tourist shops.  We decided to skip climbing the castle because of the steep hike to get to the town.  We got some gelato, more water, and went on our way to the final town, Monterosso.

Vernazza

Rick Steves’ warns that the trail from Vernazza to Monterosso is another 90 minute hike, is very scenic, has lots of ups and downs, and many of the trails are rough, narrow, and some say are downright dangerous.  To us, this meant we had to try it.  As it turns out, Mr. Steves was right on the money.  The first 20 minutes or so was old rough stone & wood stairs which varied by size, length and width.  After that the trail started to go downhill.  That was because we had to go back down into a valley to get to the next set of stairs up.  The trail kept going up and down lots of stairs and there were narrow paths on top of high ledges.  It was always fun trying to figure out how to pass someone going in the opposite direction.  This one also took us through some vineyards.  All the time I would think to myself, whose idea was it to make these trails, and who is crazy enough to have agriculture on this terrain?  Just to get into the fields there were narrow stone steps.

Probably one of the most dangerous stretches

Beautiful

Monterosso

Wine shacks?

The last 10-15 minutes of the hike was down steep stairs that were even rougher than the ones that we went up.  The drop down into the valley was so steep.  We took about 90 minutes on this trail, and it was very rewarding, especially because Monterosso has a beach, where we relaxed.  I took a dip into the Mediterranean and swam around a bit.  After the beach closed, we went to dinner at a restaurant on the beach, and then caught a train home.  We got back into Parma around 11, and I went immediately to sleep.

Monterosso

Monterosso Beach

Overall the day was tiring, yet beautiful and extremely rewarding.  It was so nice to relax on the beach after a long day of hiking.  Overall we hiked about 7 miles, but it felt like so much more because of the rough terrain.  Parts of the trails made us feel like we were going through a jungle, with plants and trees hanging all around us, crossing little creeks and watching salamanders scurry all over the trails.  We were a little rushed because we wanted to get to the last town before the beach closed, but relaxing on the beach was so rewarding.

aaaaaah time to relax

I am headed to Torino tomorrow so more posts to come soon!