Having been to Vernazza 2 separate times and loved this charming village, we were anxious to see how it had fared with the rebuilding since the horrific storm of 2011. Our favorite trattoria il Baretto was opened and we had a marvelous meal and great service from the charming waiter, hosts and chef. The village was still being put back together and the beach was inundated with driftwood and garbage after a recent storm. I see a week after we were there , Save. Vernazza hard working crew had cleaned the mess up.Bravo!! :-) but here is a word for the wise..don't take the slow train to La Spezia as it goes through about 18 little towns with multi stops. There were no conductors for the 2 1/2 hr ride. We found at La Spezia Centrale when we went to get the tickets to Vernazza , the station ticket people told us the wrong bin # and it was a comedy of errors going up and down stairs to find the right bin. Finally we found the right one and started to board our car with an Asian family of 4 who didn't understand English or Italian and were being hustled from one car to another by 2 teenage girls. My travel pal was helped up the stairs and then it was my turn. The girl had her arm around me and inside my jacket where my cross body was. I grabbed her hand and she dropped something picking up and handing it to me. "Oh, you dropped this." It was my address which was in a zipped pocket on my cross body bag. My travel pal called them "thief" and they jumped out of the train were out of sight as the train moved out.
I guess my question is what kind of protection or security are travelers provided? Both up and back we never saw a conductor and at all the little towns we saw people getting off and moving from car to car. Beware of the Romas no matter how sweet they look or helpful as that is their "M. O. ".
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