Romantik Hotel Villa Pagoda

As we pull into the narrow gated driveway, discerning the front of the hotel is a little challenging, but after getting in and out of the car and putting it in drive and reverse a couple of times, we figure it out. It’s overcast, but I think that it may be clearing up a little.

The hotel itself is picturesque and the grounds a lush. A little new paint might not hurt, but this place definitely has its charm. As we finagle the car to the front of the hotel and get our luggage out, someone from inside greets us and helps us carry some of the luggage up the steps and inside. We check-in and Nancy takes the elevator to the next floor up with one of the suitcases. The elevator looks small, even for her. I wait for slightly less than a minute and then call the elevator back down for assistance with the luggage.

The doors open up and I look at my coffin, the worn wood paneling and brass welcome me to my impending doom. I wheel the luggage into the lift and then step in. I hear the cables and springs snap taught and echo in the shaft. As I look at the boilerplate stating the unit’s capacity, I realize that I have no idea how many kilograms I weigh. Figuring that I could probably survive a 1 story crash if I had to, I press the button for the next flight up.

I live, and quickly exit the deathtrap, deciding it’s best not to tempt fate. As I round the corner, Nancy is just wheeling her suitcase to the door of our room and I’m greeted by a huge chandelier, suspended in the middle of the floor and exposed to the great room below us. It’s easily 10 feet across and after marveling at it for a moment, I get on with my life an we enter our suite.

…which is in need of redecorating. I always marvel at people’s taste in decorating. I never would have picked these colors, and I can’t believe that anyone that wasn’t colorblind would have done the same. Shit. Even someone who was colorblind might have had a better chance at getting the colors right. Still, the room is quite large and looks onto the sea. It’s a little stuffy, so we open the windows and let the breeze flow into the room. There’s a huge walk-in closet and the bathroom is a pretty good size. This is probably the roomiest suite of our travels yet. If the sky wasn’t overcast, the view would be great.

We put our suitcases in their place and take a minute to unwind and check out the room and its views. Then…

WOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHN! WO-WOOOOOOOHHHHHHN! CLACKITYCLACKITYCLACKITYCLACKITY. The hotel has suddenly become less “romantik.” As we look out onto the courtyard below us and extend our gaze toward the sea, somewhere between us and it are train tracks. Train tracks that shoot trains past the romantik hotel every 30 minutes or so until around 12:30am. Not so romantik. In the hotel’s defense, the multi-pane casement windows do an excellent job of keeping the noise out. But considering how much we’re paying per night, I expected a less….  locomotive… experience.

As usual, we want to make the most of our day, so we decide to head to Camogli (one of Denise’s recommendations). We head downstairs to the front desk to see if we can get a map of the area, but there’s not much. We take what we can get, and with a minimal amount of information, we head off to Camogli!