Reece & Amy go to Italy: Wow.. What am awesome day!

So, we leave out nice hotel in Florence and head to the train station for our trip to Santa Margherita. The challenge is the we each have a large rolling suitcase and duffel bag and carry on, which is WAY to much to lug around an Italian train station! So, with an eye out for the gypsies we head into the station and find our train platform. Amy paid extra for 1st class seats except on the first train there is no first class! So, we haul our stuff up and down the platform looking for the 1st class canin, and here come the gypsies! The second you look lost or confused, they are on you like firs on you know what. But this time I told them NO sternly and gave them the look and they left We made the train and got to our connecting station in Pisa. Now to find the connecting train. Not that easy, cuz our destination isn't the end of the line and that's what they put on the departures board. So we asked a guy on a blue train uniform and he motioned to follow him. At this point I decided to just accept the fact the he knows where we need to go and he was right. After hauling all the bags up into the train, we plunked down in our 1st class cabin, just us and 6 bags. Hahaha! What a relief!

Two hours later we are ready to get off at our stop after a ride where the train goes though a series if tunnels cit through the costal mountains. So it would be totally dark and then, out of no where, 5 seconds of bright sunlight and aqua blue Mediterranean Sea. Wow! Not quite enough time to get off a picture.

We finally arrive at the Santa Margerhita station! I saw the sign, but no platform to get off on on either side. We are standing by the door which hadn't opened and a the cabin steward that checked ou tickets comes running down the hall yelling and motioning to get off. I pushed a button and the door opens to a 3 foot wide strip of old cement and we haul the bags off the train. 10 seconds after that the trim pulled away. I told Amy to freeze as if any part of our stuff got snagged on the moving train, we would be screwed!

After the train left we dragged out stuff 50 yards to the little station house. It was beautiful. I hailed the only taxi at the station and he said something I didn't understand and then said $15 Euros. He shrugged and loaded us in the car. Then drove us 75 yards/15 seconds straight down the street and stopped in front our our hotel. Oops. That was a about 1 Euro a second. Oh well!! Haha

Our hotel is wonderful and Santaargherita is a really cool town. We took a water taxi over to Portofino. The captin showed us the houses owned by Giorgio Armani, Dolche Gabana (120 million euros) and a ton more. Wow. Tons of money here.

Tomorrow we explore La Cingue Terre and so far no rain in the forecast.