When the train arrived, it was already full, all 10 carriages of it packed with passengers who got on in Milan Centrale…We was forced to stand during the 3 hours ride…. With Peppe being mad at me not saying word! I was tired, and sleepy as well, but not able to sleep so I followed the coversation of a family in front of me..
At 10.30pm, we finally arrived Genova train station running 30mins late. And so were my friends from Lucca. They were supposed to pick us up and share the ride to Ventimiglia from Genova. An hour later, they finally arrived with a Mexican girl who had her bags together with all her documents stolen during her trip with them to Livorno. Anna is now staying at Roberta and Fabio’s place, working here and there as a cleaning lady and helping them with shopping and housework till she gets her new passport done.. What we didn’t expected was that the highway was packed as well and we barely moved more than 50m every 15 mins… Ventimiglia is 1 ½ hour away from Genova and we were supposed to arrive around midnight. However, we found it impossible to make it there before 3… We called Silvio, telling him that we are stucked in the middle of the traffic and the last train to Ventimiglia has just left an hour ago…which was the one we had taken to come to Genova..He sounded upset but was willing to wait for us. We were so sorry but being stuck in the middle of the traffic in a gallery, there’s nothing much we could do other than to wait.
In the end, we arrived at 3 in the morning, by following Silvio’s instruction driving trough all the small cities instead of taking the highway. Apparently there was an accident at the border to France… Lucky us.When we get there, Silvio and Tecla were still awake waiting for us. We all apologized and soon started to look around the house. Their house is like a modern art museum, painted by Silvio himself with pink and light blue varnish, decorated with objects brought from all the places they had visited. Silvio worked on the train and is known to be a great cook. Tecla instead is a lawyer and very intelligent women. They knew each other when she was separated and with him still married 16 years ago on the train!! It was a romantic story. :D After 2 years of courtship, they get married and till now, they are still madly in love with each other.
That night, Tecla saved my grumbling stomach serving it with warm milk and biscuits. We were so grateful but it was late so we left all the conversation for the next day and went straight to bed..
‘ Svegliartevi ragazziiiiiiiiii….’ ‘ Alzarteviii……….’ ‘ Guardate che bel sole e il mareeeee’ That was Silvo’s morning call with his rough voice the next morning. Me and Peppe got up 1st and had breakfast with Silvio and Tecla while Roberta, Fabio and Anna instead were still in their dreams. That doesn’t take long for Silvio to pull up the blind and let the sun in to get them out from their bed. Like a father… :P
Ventimiglia lives for the market, Tecla told us. They have the house right in front of the beach and the market was just downstairs. We went for a walk but found nothing interesting except a kind of ‘modern knife’ that can ‘screws’ vegetable and make a hole in it for stuffings. Roberta got a pair of it and we were tempted as well! Other than that, the market is just full of French, towels, sundresses, privated handbags and sunglasses. We didn’t buy anything. We met up with Silvio, Tecla and their Cuba’s friend later at noon to the top of an abandoned fortress. Silvio had already prepared his famous Napolean’s style pasta (He’s origin from Napoli) and we weren’t able to resist the seduction of it. The pasta was delicious and it’s just the introducing of Silvio’s cooking skills. (Lots of compliment Silvio!!) We had salsicca(Italian sausage), riso freddo(Cold rice with tuna, cherry tomatoes and olive), spedini d’agnello (lamb’s stick), maiale al forno (Oven baked pork chop) as well as paella and lemon marinated fish during our stay. All prepared by Silvio the great cook! He can makes a dessert using a 20cents cake, some liquor and panna and it tastes just as good as any cakes you find at a pasticceria!
We went to Monaco together one evening. Eza’s garden with it’s old medieval town on the hill was pretty. We drove through the race track at Monte Carlo and gasped at riches’ sail boats and race cars. Thinking that when will I be able to own one myself..
Silvio sent us to Bussana Vecchia, a hill ruined by an earth quake years ago. Going through small alley, where houses are abandoned and some small art gallery still survived by selling souvenirs and painting to once-in-a-while passing by tourists like us. The collapsed church on top of the hill…I wondered how were they once used to be. The air here was humble, the opposite as it was in Monte Carlo. I got a piece of cactus and hope that it will survive till I get back home to put it back into the soil..
On our journey back home instead we had some little problems with the train as usual. The information counter gave us wrong information telling us that there’ll be a regional train in the afternoon while there was actually none. There were no results neither online nor the timetable at the station. We wasn’t able to change our regional ticket to an Intercity because it was full. We rushed to the station for the last Intercity train right after lunch and instead of giving us more information on what we should do, the controller hushed us to get on the train. We then talked to a gay couple who had the same problem. In the end, we found us sitting at the corridor and were fined 23euros for getting on a train that we weren’t supposed to. Trenitalia, I really don’t have a good relation with it.
However, other than that, I would say that our stay in Ventimiglia was a pleasant one. Being fed like pigs with good food, spending time on the beach and swimming in the sea that still had not more than 20degrees like a fool, ending up in Monte Carlo and Bussana Vecchia unplanned. Spending great times with friends that I haven’t see for 3 years as well as making new friends from other part of the world.. How could it be better than that?
For all this, thank you Silvio and Tecla, the lovely couple who made our stay at Ventimiglia a wonderful one.
