Wednesday 8 May 2013

Slow train to Belluno

Sunday 28th April

Sunday starts with a leisurely breakfast and a look at the train times for the journey to Belluno, there is a normal service from a local station to Bologna then a high speed service to Belluno. Total time 4 hours, great, but there are no seats available! we have chosen to travel on a holiday weekend along with half the population of Italy. Martin takes us to Viareggio and organises the tickets, two changes and about 6 hours. We have a quick look around the harbour at Viareggio, packed with "super yatchs" and return to say our goodbyes and put the cases in the car for the drive to Prato Centralle, the start of the train journey. Prato to Bologna change to the Padova train, which is a double deck train rattling along at 150kmh and standing room only. Then at Padova we board the train to Bolluna, this is a 2 hour journey stopping at every town on the way. We also encounter a delay of about 35 mins meaning a start time of 14.30 and a finish time of 21.00, it's nice to see a couple of smiling Italians waiting for us in the rain at the station, Annalisa and Zara recognise us immediately. How ? we are the only ones wearing T-shirts and shorts, all the Italians are in coats and fleeces! We are soon sat down for pizza and beer or pizza and birra as the locals say. Off to bed in our own chalet, it's dark and raining lets hope the alpacas are under cover.

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