Willkommen Wien

We’re back to buses and trains. It’s an early rise to catch the bus to Manarola, train to La Spezia, and connecting train to Pisa. Monica races to the bus stop; we’re there 15 minutes early. The metro bus (not ours) is taking locals directly to La Spezia, just 20 km away. Monica negotiates with the driver. It’s OK, we pay €6. and hop on. We save ourselves the ‘milk run’, save my back from the extra abuse and get to La Spezia in time to catch an earlier train to Pisa. Sometimes it just works out.

Still, the trip to Vienna takes a full day. We change trains in Florence and get a direct passage to our destination. In northern Italy, we pass through the Dolomites, a UNESCO World heritage site. This unique part of the Alps formed the line of defense between Italy and Austria-Hungary during the 1st World War. Many visitors climb the protected paths to Vie Ferrati, one of the many carbonate rock peaks that rise anywhere from 7000 to 10000 feet.

We choose to eat in the dining car. We’ve crossed over to Austria and the language has changed to German. We struggled with French, we’re hopeless with Italian and now we contend with the German menu (die Speisekarte). I point to an item and mumble something that no linguist could interpret. Fortunately, our young German-speaking waitress rescues us by switching to English.

I have curried chicken with rice and Monica has a more regional and more satisfying crepe with pumpkin and mozzarella. For wine, we settle on an Austrian dry (trocken) Riesling. After dinner we have a few more hours until we reach Vienna. We spend the time wisely on our English/German phrasebook.