Trip to Italy, Day 7 Meeting with Kate

 On my way to Rimini to meet up with Kata to visit San Marino, I’m taking some to reflect at least in fragments if not deeper, as I’m sitting on the bus. I had a simple plan taking the train from Ferrara to Ravenna, leaving at 7:08am and arriving at 9:47am, with a quick transfer I would take the train from Ravenna to Rimini. I got to the transfer on time but the train to Rimini was cancelled. When I got to the top of the stairs on platform 4, there was a Trenitalia member of staff  explaining that there was a problem something something the tracks are “blocada” so there were replacement buses running outside the station. With this, I just want to say how funny it is that of course due to the circumstances and the similarities combined but I can make out so much of what they are saying that makes me wonder how long I would have to study this language to arrive at a deeper understanding.

Now that was interesting. The replacement bus to Ravenna was actually until Cervia, not to Rimini so the guy sitting next to me informed me, when we had to get off at the end stop – Cervia. He also informed me that the reason the trains were cancelled is that there was a dead body on the rails “blocada”. I thought it was a tree branch of some sort... How to get from Cervia to Rimini? Noone could tell, so I immediately called Kata to let her know I was stuck. Just when we wanted to figure out how to solve this situation, the dude from the bus dashed out to inform me that there might be a train going to Rimini after all. Dead body removed, I guessed. What a day! Is this the local conversion of the escape room: escape train? I wondered. If only I had know this was an adventure to solve, I would have left earlier. Either way, I’m having fun as long as I get to Rimini. And I did:

Ferrara-Ravenna-Cervia-Rimini – what an adventure!

And the day was not over yet. We finally met with Kata at the train station, throwing each other a big hug upon the much awaited arrival, while my head was still spinning not knowing where I was after getting in at 10:20am instead of the scheduled 9:47am. I barely got in and we were on our way up to the small hill San Marino was sitting on. Not that small in reality. But the way she described it, I thought it would be much smaller.

Best part of the trip came – Processing

We managed to catch up on every aspect of life that would come to mind as we talked. Some of the things we talked about, really helped with processing all the emerging thoughts that came over me during my trip and letting them take their final shape.

Being a tourist – what does it mean to me? How do I see sights?

I checked some sight in the classical way, like in Verona and Ferrara, involving walking to every single sight, admiring them from the outside. Some I had the tickets for or the interest in (since many sights are free to enter), I walked around on the inside, as well. Some days I was so enthusiastic that I walked until my feet were acheing and walking would hurt so much that I would barely make it back to the train station. Some days, I took it slow and did only 2 sights per day but those in depth. The worst part is the best part in one: you see so much in such culturally rich cities that it is hard or impossible to process and I find that really upsetting. That was also what we agreed on with Kata, whether you are an expert, be it an art historian or anything else, sometimes even one sight is enough for a day, if you want to take away anything from it.

That being said, I have a lot to be done in the way I am a tourist. I evolved a bit but my work is not done here yet and I am definitely not convinced if there is one way of doing right or wrong.