I offered to go to the bakery for fresh buns for breakfast but Greg insisted on coming as long as we walked down the road. His knees are sore and the bruising from his hamstring has spread. We sat on the promenade beside the beach and ate warm brioche and pastries. I wanted to feel the water temperature so I paddled for a few minutes. It was quite mild.
Most of the beach is private ie you have to pay to use it but the waters edge is open to the public.while the water was pleasant the pebbles were killers. I could only walk a few steps before having to put my shoes back on. No wonder the staff at the paid beaches spend hours grooming the sand to remove the pebbles and make it walkable for guests.
Monterosso private beach
We'd arranged for a taxi to take us to the station. Although it was only a short distance, the 2 alternatives were not very appealing - a walk down hill along the winding street, or the back way short-cut down 150+ steps with our wheelie suitcase and several pieces of hand luggage. When we got to the town at the bottom of the hill, the taxi driver asked which way we were going because he then drove us up a ramp and onto the platform end. Thank goodness because platforms are accessible only by pedestrian subway and ... more steps!!
Train trip to Milano was very disappointing because we'd shouted ourselves the luxury of 1st class, which turned out to be very poor substandard and uncomfortable - sharing a cramped compartment with 4 other people and all their luggage. We actually had to leave our bag outside in the passageway. And the toilet, I won' t describe it but if that is 1st class I hate to think what 2nd class is like.
Arrived in Milano on time and had to buy our tickets to Como (couldn't pre-purchase online because Milano - Como is only "regionale" rail service (suburban). Fronted ticket window with a printout of the timetable we'd printed off the internet before we left, and pointed to EuroCity train that actually stopped at Como San Giovanni and left in about 15 mins - perfect timing. Tickets were printed and off we head to the train.
But things didn't look right. Other passengers had ticket "wallets" and it appeared seat number reservations were required. The train staff were very rude and unhelpful. As it turned out, we'd been sold ordinary suburban tickets and the next train wasn't for over an hour.
Milan station is very impressive but 1 hour not two in the place would have been enough!
At least when our train arrives it's a modern Lombardy Region train, easy to access (don't have to drag bags up 3 or 4 impossibly steep steps - station platforms are at nearly ground level, carriage doorways are not always at that level), clean toilet, open plan carriage and luggage racks. In 30 mins we are in Como, taxi to the apartment and Alessandro the son of the owner responds quickly to my text and was there to meet us and show us around the apartment. Very clean and well equipped apartment, we'll be comfortably here.
It's started to rain but we can still do a bit of grocery shopping for dinner and breakfast tomorrow. Supermarket was only 5 mins away so we didn't get all that wet.