I hurriedly took the metro to the main stazione, where I bought a ticket for Monterosso (via Genova) leaving in 20 minutes. 

This was cutting it close and I ran up the multiple levels of inclined escalators (think airport people-mover on an incline... like a Whole Foods cart transport).  

I waited through a security line where tickets were checked, then found the Bin (binario) where my treno was already parked. The tickets had no class designation, so I found a nice single seat with room in the aisle where I could park my rolling bag, and was shortly joined across from me by a nun in full habit. 

And we waited for our train to leave... and waited... and waited.