Our first stop after leaving London was Cinque Terra located in Italy. We got from London to Milan and met up with three other friends. We had train tickets from Milan to Cinque Terra which was several hundred miles away. As we waited in the station for our track number to appear, it finally got to the top of the listing and shockingly reported “CANCELLED!!! Train strike!!! There were no other trains going to Cinque Terre that day, nor was there an airport. The five of us got our heads together and booked an Uber van to take us on a six hour ride to the beach – for $1,000!!! I didn’t know the Autobahn was also in Italy. But it is, and we are all grateful to have made it.
We drove to a small town called Alba for lunch. We didn’t know it, but there was a musical festival that week in town. Exploring the town on an extremely hot day we darted into a church for cooling to find an entire string orchestra rehearsing. They were fantastic and I would have loved to see the concert that night.
