HARD TO SAY GOODBYE

We spent yesterday exploring our town, Monterosso. We walked as much of the trail towards Vernazza as we could, turning back just before the person on guard....there have been a few rockslides in the last few weeks, which is why they closed all the trails. Some people have been climbing over and under gates and hiking them anyway, so now they are posting guards. We caught a glimpse of what the views must be like from the trails, so really hope we make it back here while our knees still work.
We had a great lunch on the beach, I tried the pasta with walnut sauce, one of Cinque Terre's specialties. It was delicious, but I don't think anything beats their pesto.
We ran into Jane and Donna a couple times, and each time gave each other our goodbye hugs, as they are heading on to Santa Margeurita before going into France.
We could not miss our last happy hour on our beautiful B&B deck, it is like being on top of the world. Tom and I were enjoying a glass of wine, chatting with fellow travelers and watching the evening sky, when we hear a little voice (a little out of breath) coming from a bush in the direction of the stairs. Jane and Donna had made the climb up to our place to enjoy our last Cinque Terre evening together! What a perfect way to say goodbye, way better than the other 3 times we THOUGHT we were saying goodbye.
This morning we stretched out breakfast as long as possible before having to say goodbye to Lorenzo and Giovanni, our fabulous hosts.
We hopped our first of 3 trains of the day and said goodbye to Monterosso. Tom and I both agreed it was the first time on this trip that we were not ready to move on.
Our first train connection was going to be tight as we only had 5 minutes to change trains, and we were 6 minutes behind schedule. Our compartment had six seats, and we were chatting with the others, a couple from Seattle, an elderly-80ish Italian lady and a young Italian man. The man pointed out different things along the way, when we were going thru Carrera and saw all the marble yards, and pointed out the mountain where Michelangelo took the marble to carve the Pieta. I mentioned my concern about our timing, and he got on his phone to check online what other trains we could catch if we missed our connection. The elderly lady and him were conversing in Italian, they were so concerned for us. The man called the train attendant over and talked to him, again in Italian, he checked the train computer and said we would likely make our connection but it would be close. When we were close to our stop, we got our luggage and thanked our new friends very much. We hopped off the train and started toward the stairway to get to the other track, and I hear our lovely 80 year old lady friend, who must have run to the door of the train as she was sticking her head out and yelling "run, your train is here" and the train attendant was a car further down yelling "run, go down the stairs and to your right"....and but for the kindness of strangers, we made it! ( I was just waiting for someone to yell...run, Forrest, run). I said a prayer and thought, well I am glad the stress is over for today......and then we pulled into our next transfer station ...first we heard the yelling and chanting, then we saw all the riot police lining the station..... Big soccer game today, Bologna vs Florence and all the fans were chanting and yelling, waiting for their train to Florence. We actually got our train bound for Venice with no problem, but is was interesting, I know how passionate the Europeans are about their soccer. I am definitely having wine with dinner tonight!
We arrived in Venice about an hour ago, and thanks to Jane's map and directions, managed to find our hotel without any problem.
Thinking of our family who will all be together tonight for Thanksgiving dinner and sending our love to all of you...stay tuned.....