It’s another train day! Today’s trip to Siena involved two transfers (@ La Spezia & Empoli) and was about four hours long.  When we arrived at Siena station, we took a cab to our hotel.  Most cars are restricted from entering the Siena city walls.  With its narrow one-way steep roads clogged with pedestrians, Siena is not car friendly.  However, our cab driver effortlessly navigated us through the city (narrowly avoiding tourists as we passed through the city’s main square) for only 11 euro.  While I wouldn’t recommend hiring a taxi in most of Italy, I think taking a cab is definitely the right approach in Siena.

Today, we headed to the remaining two Cinque Terre towns: Riomaggiore and Manarola. In Riomaggiore, we once again got lost while following the walking tour directions. By the time we realized we were lost, we had gone about halfway through the tour in the reverse direction, so we continued through in reverse order. Sadly, this meant we had to walk uphill most of the way instead of downhill.

Most of the Cinque Terre towns have small rivers running through them. However, it is often hard to notice since the rivers were paved over after WWII and turned into sewer systems. In Manarola, the river runs right underneath the main street and you can hear it flowing underneath your feet. Amazingly, we didn’t get lost on the Manarola walking tour. I really liked the Manarola walking tour, which includes a slightly strenuous hike through a hillside vineyard and beautiful views of the town and sea.

Along with Interlaken, Cinque Terre is one of my favorite destinations of this trip. The towns are easily accessible by train. There are very few cars. The restaurants are tourist friendly. The food is good. And the atmosphere is relaxed.

The coastal road between all the Cinque Terre towns is closed due to a landslide. This left two options for us: hike the much more difficult high road between towns or take the train. We started hiking the high road to Vernazza, but quickly gave up, turned around, and headed down the hill to the Corniglia train station.

Corniglia is unique among the Cinque Terre towns in that it isn’t at sea level. Thus, visitors must either hike up 365 steps to the town or take a shuttle for 1.5 euro one-way. For our trips up the hill, we opted to take the shuttle. For our trips down the hill, we braved the stairs and took in the view.

Today, we visited two of the Cinque Terre towns: Vernazza and Monterosso. Vernazza is Rick Steves’s favorite Cinque Terre town. This was clear from the numerous tourists with Rick Steves guide books in hand. We walked around town a bit trying to follow the walking tour from the book, but eventually gave up and walked to the harbor to relax and take in the sights and eat some lunch. Next, we headed to Monterosso, the only of the five towns with a “real” beach. We once again failed to complete the walking tour and just enjoyed the sights. Tired after hours of walking, we headed back to Corniglia.

Today, we traveled to a land (five lands?) popularized by the patron saint of European travel Rick Steves. We’re staying in the tiny town of Corniglia, the middle city of the five cities that make up Cinque Terre. I was fascinated to learn that one of my favorite pasta sauces (pesto) and one my favorite breads (focaccia) were invented in this region.  I’m really looking forward to eating lots of tasty Italian food. Meanwhile, Valerie is looking forward to the gorgeous coastal hikes that Rick Steves talks about in his books.

Valerie is not feeling well again.  Yesterday, we drank the tap water in Venice and perhaps that wasn’t a good idea.  While I’m still recovering from the effects of the tap water in Prague and thus have increased tap water immunity (this probably isn’t true), Valerie was hit by the dreaded tap water troubles.  Rather than heading into Venice, we stayed in Mestre today.  While walking around town, we found Jungle Pizza, a restaurant that won Best Non-Traditional Pizza at the International Pizza Competition in Las Vegas.  The place was super busy and the pizza was really tasty.

Our train arrived at Venezia Mestre station around 9am in the morning. We dropped off our bags at the hotel and then headed to Venice on the bus. We then took a vaporetto (water bus) along the canal before disembarking at St. Mark’s Square. In quick succession, we visited the Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s Cathedral before taking a quick walking tour of the square. (At the Doge’s Palace, we learned that St. Mark was not the original saint of Venice, but rather St. Theodore, slayer of crocodiles.) We then proceeded to take Rick Steves’s advice and get lost in Venice while trying to find our way back to the bus stop.

I think Valerie regrets that we are staying in Mestre instead of on the island. The 30 minute bus ride to the city and back is a bit inconvenient and I feel like we are missing out on the evening charm of Venice. If we ever return, we’re definitely staying in the city, even if we need to haul our luggage across half of it to do so.

We headed to the imperial residences of Hofburg Palace (winter home of the Holy Roman Emperor). Further disappointing Valerie, the palace did not resemble a castle. Rather, it was a collection of finely decorated rooms, just like every other palace. One thing I’ve noticed about all these palaces is the lack of hallways. One room just leads into the next room which leads into the next. It seems like it would be annoying to have people constantly walking through the room you are in as they move about the palace, but I guess that is the price of royalty. In contrast, as the show “The West Wing” has taught me, the White House is loaded with hallways. But I digress…

In the evening, we headed to the Naschmarkt to pick up some dinner. Naschmarkt is a dedicated two block area of various food related stores (restaurants, bars, shops). There were a lot delicious looking food options, but since we needed to hop on a night train to Venice in a couple hours, we opted for a couple of take-away sandwiches.

Today, we roughly followed Rick Steves’s advice about what to do on one’s first day in Vienna. We started by heading to the Opera building to catch a Big Red Bus tour around town. Unfortunately, we just missed the bus and the next one wasn’t leaving for an hour, so we visited the nearby Albertina Museum in the meantime. After the museum and the bus tour, we followed Rick Steves’s walking guide to the Kaisergruft and St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Besides being walking tour destinations, these two places have another thing in common: the remains of deceased members of the Habsburg royal family are (supposedly) stored in both locations.

In the evening, we headed over to the opera to get “standing room” tickets to that night’s show (Boris Godunov). After standing for about an hour, Valerie decided she’d had enough culture for the night and we headed back to the hotel.

As this trip has progressed, I’ve developed a calendar system based around the start of our cruise.  Day zero is the start of our cruise (October 15).  Days before departure are known as BC (before cruise).  Days after departure are known as AD (after departure).  For example, October 5 is 10 [days] BC.

For those who are interested, below is a list of the remainder of our planned travels BC:

• 12 BC – 11BC : Vienna
• 10BC – 8BC : Venice
• 8BC – 5BC : Cinque Terre
• 5BC – 3BC : Siena
• 3BC – 0 : Rome

Today’s train ride from Praha Hl. N. to Wien Meidling took about five hours.  It took us another hour or so to navigate Vienna’s maze of trams, U-Bahns, and S-Bahns to get to our hotel.  After we checked in, we took a walk around Vienna, through the gardens at Belvedere Palace and around part of the inner ring to the Opera House.  Along the way, we stopped by a very touristy Austrian restaurant and tried some Austrian “favorites”: haunch of ham and goulash.

(From what I’ve read, Praha Hl. N. station used to be named after Woodrow Wilson.  There are statues of him and plaques with his name all over the place.  After the communists took over, the station was renamed to “main station” or Hl. N.).