Arrivederci Roma

Early Thursday morning, Ida and JoAnn drove me to the railway station in Roseta. Had I known that I could have taken a bus and been in Rome in less than 2 hours, I wouldn't have opted for the 4.5 hour train ride. On the other hand, you see a lot less when traveling on super-highways as opposed to meandering through the countryside and stopping in a lot of little towns along the way.

As I was dragging my luggage and a long, bulky, heavy box (impulse buy!) down the inevitable stairs into the station, three young women came up behind me and took the luggage and box for me into the station. They then found what track I was supposed to be on and took me and my luggage to the platform. One of the girls spoke excellent English and told me they were going to Pescara which was where I would be changing trains. They stayed with me and took my stuff off the train into the station, found which platform I needed to be on and then even though they weren't going any further, they insisted on bringing me and my baggage to the platform for my train to Rome. I was so very grateful for their help.

The train to Rome was 30 minutes late but the scenery, once we were underway, was spectacular. There are a lot of mountains and it was interesting to see towns off in the distance on the side of a mountain and maybe a kilometre from the town would be 2 or 3 large windmills catching the downdrafts from higher mountains in the vicinity providing the town with its electrical energy. At least the Italians don't install these things in someone's back yard like we do here.

One minute the train would be drifting through a plain and the next minute you're holding your breath as you traverse a tressle with nothing below it for 100's of feet. There was one curve that was so tight, the train had to slow down to an absolute crawl. The trip may not have been speedy but it was most enjoyable.

After arriving at the station in Rome, I hailed a cab to a hotel right near the airport. The driver wasn't very familiar with hotels in the airport area so I told him to stop at the first one we saw. I didn't care which hotel it would be. I just wanted one with shuttle service to the airport as my flight the next day was around noon and I didn't want any hassles getting to the airport on time. The hotel I ended up at was the Hilton. It's very large, impersonal and over-priced. I wanted to catch up on my blog so I inquired about WiFi service - 22Eu for 24hrs. That's a lot of money for a visitor like me, but I guess most of their business is corporate so they charge as much as they can.

The next day, after breakfast, I boarded the shuttle to the airport and settled in to wait for my flight. Pearson has free WiFi for travellers, not so at Fumicino in Rome. You want to work on your computer while you wait - you have to pay. I read instead.

The flight was 9.5 hours long but smooth and on time.

And so ended my journey and with this I end my blog. I am so glad I did this. I had an amazing time even when things didn't go as well as one would hope. Thanks for taking this journey with me.

Love, Marlene