Levanto

So, I’m sitting here at 10pm looking out to sea 🌊 at what should be Paradise and blissful but this afternoon has been the first challenge of negativity of my trip!

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first… Vernazza is, as you can see from the photos, truly beautiful. The proprietors and business owners; not so much!

So, we arrive at picturesque and postcard pretty Vernazza… Everything should be perfect, just like the brochures say it should…

Here is my experience…

Off the train and I am so hot 🥵 that I could almost blow smoke rings out of my arse!

Look carefully they said, there is only one street they said, you will find your accommodation, they said… it’s so easy, they said. So, off we schlepp but we just couldn’t find our accommodation. And there are tourists spatially unaware everywhere!

Already having more than wonderful experiences with beautiful, honest, caring and considerate Italians in Rapallo (and most other Italian cities and towns) I thought the best thing we could do would be to simply ask if I could tap into the Wi-Fi at a bar or shop so that I could phone 📞 my accommodation provider.

The first bar I went into point blank rudely turned me away, being told there is no way I would be able to use their Wi-Fi… I informed Richard and said we probably need to go back to the station to ask tourist information ℹ️, after all, that’s what they are there for. To GIVE tourist information!? So off we went… Through the hordes of tourists! Rudely walking past & through you as you attempt to navigate your way up the main road/pass with heavy bags. 😫

Finally get up to the station to speak to the man in charge of tourism information ℹ️ … Clearly not a position he should be holding down. It seemed to be putting him out and to be the most inconvenient & biggest effort for him and he couldn’t possibly afford to even give us a shred of politeness and care considering our dilemma. ‘Informing’ us, there is only one street, it shouldn’t be hard to find…!?!?🤪😡

Eventuality, after reluctance, he decided that he would call my accommodation provider. ‘Informing’ me (as he is paid to do) that my accommodation provider would meet me at the pharmacy on the main street. Sounded like a reasonable plan to me… So off we went…

On arriving at said Pharmacy I walked in and politely asked the pharmacist if he was aware I was to meet my supplier in his shop. He threw his hands in the air without skipping a beat and said he knew nothing about that & he was “…just the pharmacist!” And walked off! Rude! Arrogant man! Plain. Simple. Rude! 😤

Finally my host did show up and took me up 40 extremely narrow & dangerously steep steps to my room. (I dare not even photograph those steps because, not only would my own Mother pass out with fright for the safety of her only son, but these shiny/slippery steps break all kinds of OH&S protocols & rules.) Remember also, I was already as hot 🥵 as a lobster 🦞 in a boiling pot, had to lug a 17kg bag up said 40 narrow steps and had been treated like shit already by a handful of “tourism providers” (…I use the term loosely!)

Open the door, relief 😮‍💨…it looked good. She said she was in a hurry and quickly showed me the basics. I asked for the wifi password and she informed me it is not working at the moment! I politely (again) explained to her it’s a shame & inconvenient because it is my only access to the outside world. She shrugged her shoulders and left…☹️😠😣

It took me 20 minutes to try and work out how to lock and unlock the door. Richard may have a different story here, but regardless, it was an extremely anxiety producing for me and I was at breaking point by now! After much twisting and turning of the key I finally worked out how intricate force and ‘safe-like’ precision must be applied at a certain angle carefully for it to be opened 😩

By this stage both Richard and I were in dire need of some water. This should’ve been an extremely simple task but we were greeted by a very gruff & unreasonable convenience store owner who refused to take card payment and insisted on cash 💷 only. In this post Covid world it is completely unreasonable to insist on such a thing. I tried to keep cool but, as you can imagine I was hurting inside. What an arrogant bitch she was. As you may imagine I was at the stage that I felt like telling her to stick her water where the sun don’t shine but I needed it more than I needed air at that point! 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ This entire ‘shit show’ reminds me of my experiences in Paris. This sheer arrogance, self entitlement and dismissive nature of the residents who rely on us to exist simply turns me off! 👎🏻

I composed myself the best I could and reminded myself where I was, how lucky I am and decided to go for a swim. I felt instantly better as I frolicked in the water. Yes! I did use the word frolicking because I need to have some sense of positivity within this blog…😉💪🏻

Richard and I met at seven, as arranged, and looked for a suitable place for dinner… Every single restaurant was discovered to be way overpriced, knowing the captive audience they have. Regardless, we chose one that looked nice; up on a platform overlooking the main street. We ordered the shared seafood platter… It consisted of 5 SMALL PLATES: rubbery octopus, two different kinds of anchovies: one fried and one boiled 🤮🤮 some paste that resembled fish roe dip mixed with grated carrot and some morsels of boiled fish which was passable. Oh! Hang on, I forgot to mention the bag of stale bread that was thrown…yes…THROWN upon our table as we sat down… I’m not exaggerating, it was stale and it was tasteless! Robyn, do you recall the gorgeous bread bag I shared with you and Mike in Lucca?We experienced how wonderful real ‘bread 🥖 in the bag’ should be! 👎🏻 Second course of AVERAGE pasta with what tasted like store bought jar pesto mixed through it 👎🏻 Not a patch on the last couple of nights. Not even fucking close! 🙄😡

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse there was a huge thunder clap & lightning ⛈ very, very frightening…🫤 and some rain began to fall. Everyone ran for cover, even though it was really just a passing summer shower. Once again Robyn, you will recall our rain experience in Florence? Where we were able to put up our umbrella and enjoy the moment… We weren’t even given that option in this case. I would’ve happily put up the umbrella and waited the 10 minutes until it passed. ☔️We were ushered into their less than adequate indoor seating space resembling a spare room at grandmas which was also as hot as hell! I kindly asked if the air conditioning could be put on & the owner only saw fit to open the door slightly. 😭 Tight ass! 🤯

By this stage I had an absolute gut full of the whole afternoon and night. The service was crap 💩😩particularly when compared with last night. To try & compose we went and got a gelati which was also average compared to what we had in Rapallo. 🥺

Everything was closed by 9 pm! Richard decided to go up to his room but I sat on a bench by the beautiful waters edge to compose myself and practise some mindfulness to alleviate the burning disappointment that had been generated deep within me… 😢

I suppose, essentially I am just sad and disappointed more than anything else because I had built-up the Cinque Terre so much in my mind & from watching you tube, research & reading that it just wasn’t living up to any of the hype and well below expectations 😥 I have a feeling that the shop owners and proprietors in Vernazza think the immense beauty of the location & landscape will overshadow their arrogance & self entitlement. Newsflash: it doesn’t! 😖 😥

Anyway, I feel better for getting it off my chest but you probably won’t even get to read this in real time until I am (hopefully) feeling better… because it seems we won’t have phone 📱 access until we leave! 🫤

Think it’s important to demonstrate that not every day can be good, even in ‘paradise’. And, may I say this afternoon was about as fucked up as it can get! 😢😠😡

I remain positive and hopeful that things will turn around tomorrow… but once again, you may not know until this leg of trip is over because Richard and I both don’t have wifi in our apartment and none of the restaurants will let us use it…🤨🤯🙄

I don’t quite understand why these places that rely solely on tourism need to be such cunts to the tourists! 🙄🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️Especially after the Pandemic 😷 You’d think they’d be bending over backwards to offer exceptional customer service rather than treat us like nuisances!

As I said, let us hope that tomorrow is another day and a better day… Fingers crossed that this is one bad afternoon and that is all it is…🙏
Also, I hope Richard forgives me for my grumpy and irritable attitude…🥺🥺🥺

PS: this is an update to the above… I have woken up early at 5 am because the ‘double’ bed that was advertised is two beds; shabbily pushed together that have moved apart in the night… The bed is as hard as the floor and the air-conditioner sounds like an aeroplane ✈️ taking off! Oh! And the bracelet I purchased at the market yesterday had broken and fallen off in the bed. 🙁🤦‍♂️💩

I am going to have to practice calling on my inner strength & summoning my positivity and resilience deep deep deep from within today. Mindfulness will hopefully save me as it often does. I can’t let this experience sour the rest of my trip because there are so many more wonderful things still ahead of me! As the little red caboose said, I think I can, I think I can!🤞🤞🤞🙏

PS: Enjoy the pictures… As you can see it is a beautiful location. But as the old saying goes: not all that glitters is gold. 🙅🏻‍♂️😢😢Read more