Two nights ago, we received an email from Italian railway Trenitalia that our scheduled train out of Venice was canceled due to a train worker strike taking place today between 9:00 and 5:00. Last night, the connecting train was also canceled, so I spent some time in the app to figure out the best alternative route that would still get us to the Cinque Terre at a reasonable time.
Instead of two faster trains, we were looking at a hodgepodge of five regional trains with four stops featuring layovers between 10 and 20 minutes. We did most of our packing the night before, so after Amanda and I finished our final day of hotel breakfasts, we grabbed Noah and boarded the hotel’s earliest boat into Venice.
We said goodbye to the JW Marriott Venice, which was a comfortable home for us the last three nights.
There were several options for getting from the boat drop-off point to the train station. It was drizzling in Venice, so we opted for the shortest path, which required a short walk and a 25-minute vaparetto ride. The boat was crowded to the point we had to stand for the entire ride, but we made it to the train station before our scheduled departure, and everything was looking good.
Standing in the vaparetto, for a final time.
Our train was scheduled to leave at 10:40, and we felt fortunate looking at the board it wasn’t one of the many trains that had been canceled. However, that fortune was short-lived, as a canceled message popped up on the screen just before 11:00. We knew there was another train to Bologna in an hour, so we felt reasonably comfortable taking the same route just an hour later.
Noah was a little bored waiting at the Venice train station.
Knowing we had some extra time, we took the opportunity to have a quick lunch at the cafeteria inside the station. While the food wasn’t amazing, we enjoyed the respite from the cooler air near the open-air train tracks. Unfortunately, a few minutes after eating lunch, we saw a cancelation notice for the 11:40 train.
At that point, we were leaning toward renting a car from the nearby Hertz station and driving it to Monterosso, where we were staying the night, or at least as close to Monterosso as we could get. One-way, last-minute rental prices were high, so I decided it was worth a shot to wait in line at the train’s customer service booth to see if there were any other train options.
The process for getting evening tickets was reasonably easy, all things considered.
It turns out that during a national railroad strike, it’s a safe bet that any service between the daytime hours of 9:00 and 5:00 will be canceled. The worker helped refund the initial ticket purchases and booked us on the service he felt confident would run, leaving Venice at 6:18 and arriving in Monterosso after midnight.
Noah and Amanda weren’t thrilled about the change in plans.
This wasn’t what we’d wanted or planned, but we did our best to make the most of our bonus day in Venice. The most famous sites were out as they either required advanced reservations or long lines, but we had a chance to walk through the Venetian Ghetto, inside a couple of old churches, and by the Venetian Arsenal.
Amanda and Noah posed for photos outside St. Lucy’s Church. One McMillin was less enthusiastic about the pictures.
We stopped at a store that sold almost entirely cat-themed Venetian artwork.
The courtyard of the Venetian Ghetto.
I wanted Amanda to document me refilling my Oaklandish water bottle with Venice’s high-quality tap water.
Amanda tried hot chocolate from VizioVirtù, the chocolate spot we’d attempted to visit yesterday. It was topped with ample whipped cream and so rich she couldn’t finish it.
We hadn’t taken Rialto Bridge photos so far on this trip, so today was the day.
I got sucked into a situation where we sampled a half dozen or more olive oils, vinegar, olive pastes, and other Italian goodies. Noah even tried a sun-dried tomato! The samples were effective, as we ended up buying a bagful of gourmet goods to take home.
The flavored olive oils included truffle, garlic, chili, basil, and rosemary.
Noah poses with Cheetos soccer balls, which we’d enjoyed during previous Europe visits.
Another site that we’d walked by but hadn’t photographed was the Bridge of Sighs.
The weather was the best of our trip to date, with sunshine and temperatures nearing 60 degrees. We took the opportunity to return to a couple of favorite places including Del Moro pasta for Noah and Suso Gelateria for everyone. Over the course of the day, we trekked nearly 10 miles through Venice.
More gelato! Pictured was a kind with chocolate and salted pistachio.
Amanda and Noah returned to their favorite picnic spot.
We returned to the train station, picked up our bags, and made a collective sigh of relief when a track number came up for our train to Milan. The trip was smooth, and we successfully boarded our second train to Monterosso. We made it just after midnight, arriving only a few minutes behind schedule.
Baggage claim from the Venice train station.
We were happy to see the train in Milan destined for Monterosso (and ultimately La Spezia.)
All aboard our final train to Monterosso!
We made the short walk from the Monterosso train station to the gate to our Airbnb, where we were met by the owner. She guided us up the 120 steps to give us a quick tour of our home for the next 33 hours. We paid her the tourism tax, thanked her for staying up extra late to greet us, and went to bed as quickly as we could.
The main bedroom in our Monterosso apartment.
We were looking forward to seeing the balcony view in the morning!