13Oct12 Perugia
Big travel day from Cuneo
Early start for our RV train from Cuneo to Torino. Quiet ride. Next RV train to Milan was large and busy. We had less than 10 minutes to get tickets and get onto our train so it was touch and go as to whether we were going to make it given the crowds. We made it with a couple of minutes to spare. Train was full by mid journey and even my pretend sleeping and outstretched legs tactic did not stop the locals piling in next to us.
We did not anticipate the chaos at Milan central station being the weekend. Given that the Italians cannot walk in straight lines normally it is not hard to imagine to problems with streams of people trying to leave the train platforms meeting streams of people trying to get onto the platforms to catch their trains. Think sale day at the stockyard or perhaps boxing day sales. We found that there were no tickets left in economy for the fast train to Florence and the computerized ticket machine was only offering expensive first class tickets at 115 euro each. No way. We found a last minute ticket counter and purchased some business class tickets at 70 euro each. There goes the no frills travel today. Had to dip into the gelato expense account.
It looks like the mining boom money has arrived in europe. We were sitting across from what appeared to be a barmaid and miner from Australia. Some special comments went something like "is this a fast train?" ,"these magazines are in french and I can't read them" and "I have to eat some spaghetti bolognaise before I leave Italy". He didn't respond at all to her comments at all and continued filing his nails all trip without looking up. Perhaps out of their depth.
Fast train from Milan to Florence. New record for us in italy getting to 300km+/hr. The speedometer stopped working over 300km/h so don't have an exact figure. Train Italy must employ ex Ferrari racing car drivers to control their fast trains. We have seen advertising for the newer edition to the Italian train fleet which will travel at 400km/h.
An hour wait in Florence train station. Busy as usual but no where near as busy as Milan. Good on McDonald's for their free toilet. We stood in our favourite safe spot watching a gypsy girl annoy people buying tickets from the electronic machines and a likely looking pick pocket patrolling the crowd.
We half considered a train trip with a change but opted for the simple option of a direct train. What are the odds of sitting next to Australians on two trains in a row? Vanessa and I resorted to mumbling and sign language as a couple of Australian women happen to sit in the seats just across from us and we did not want to reveal ourselves. They saw our Australian flags on our packs as we were leaving the train.
It was a nice journey which showcased the expected tuscanny but the best was actually in umbria where we were headed. Impressive hill towns with castles dominated the landscape. The trip took less time than expected.
For some reason the concept of hill town had eluded us. We chose not to buy a bus ticket and ride our way up to the main square in the old town and headed off walking. It was supposed to take 20 minutes but within 10 min we had run into problems with unnamed streets and the we could see the old town way above us. Hill town. Now we get it. "Bloody stupid idea" was my mantra on the way up. Then we hit the maze of streets in the old town and the map that we had only showed a few street names. The "Bloody" increased to a new level as I cursed the people who made the map. Vanessa said "where is your sense of adventure?" and I replied "it got lost with the weight of this pack". We blindly wove our way up to a street with a great lookout and dumped our packs in disgust - Vanessa would say she was just taking a break. I almost dumped mine over the edge of the fortress wall by accident! We looked on the map and found the streets and had just managed to get ourselves within about 100m of our hotel. brilliant.
The hotel was really well located. It was a four star hotel but our room was not quite up to that standard but it was fine. Location. location. Location. No we did not pay a fortune for it.
Here is a quiz question. The taps are marked c and f. Which is hot? C for cold? No. (C)aliente - hot and (f)reo - cold.
Perugia is an absolutely stunning city and is the capital of Umbria. The old city is the beautiful. We took a stroll in the evening and are looking forward to exploring tomorrow.
This will be our base for the next four nights before heading to Rome for our last couple of days before flying back to Australia.
