Dear Rick Steves: Vernazza

Dear Rick Steves,

I know you love Vernazza, it appears to be one of your favorite places in Europe. Your photo is in establishments all over town. I have however a few points you may wish to note in future guides.

An eatery may to the untrained eye be open. The door open with menu board displayed outside, lights on with tables laid. It is not (it opens in 10 minutes apparently, because 6:40 is an unnoted, but obvious time for it to open).

An eatery may be advertising breakfast, it does not mean it will open for that meal, or if it does, it does not mean that they will have any components they advertise.

Most importantly, I was looking forward to a quite walk through the unspoiled hills, however all I found were hoards of loud geriatrics with ski poles.

I would also like to add here a word on Italian trains. Sometimes they don’t exist! They are listed on timetables, and you can buy tickets for them but they can mysteriously vanish when it comes to arriving at a station. This is doubly irritating when it leaves you to linger in an Italian railway station, which, with some kind of national pride, are the worst in Europe. When a train does exist, it is likely not to exist according to the times laid out for it. Unfortunately the journey to and from Vernazza is a complicated one, not one to be undertaken on Italian trains.

Rick, please help

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Comments

  • This Steves guy sounds like a complete hack. Maybe there was some sort of genre mix-up at the warehouse and he is actually a fiction writer? If he has a website I think you should forward your comments to it. Adios, Vernazza.

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