Sunday, June 10, 2012

We caught the first shuttle from the hotel this morning, and they dropped us off at the train station. We waited just a few minutes for our train to Naples. This is the third time we made this trip, but it was the first time we’ve been going in this direction. We had seats, and that is about all I cared about.

We arrived in Naples and had a two-hour wait for our train to Rome. The station where we take the local trains to and from is a bit scary, but upstairs it is bright and pleasant. We enjoyed people watching before boarding our train. These were reserved seats so we didn’t need to worry about getting a spot.

This was new territory for us, but I struggled to keep my eyes open the entire ride. The country seemed well used for farming and I saw field after field of hay rolls. As I was wondering where the animals were to eat this hay we passed a couple of water buffalo ranches. We saw “mozzarella di bufala” on many menus when we were traveling, but I don’t think I quite believed it came from water buffalo. And there weren’t just a few animals (like we might see in bison ranching) – this was like a feedlot of water buffalo.

We arrived in Rome and then had to wait about half an hour for the train to take us to the airport. We are staying at a hotel near the airport because we have an early star in the morning. We had trouble figuring out where we were supposed to catch the shuttle, and after we found the spot we had to wait about half an hour.

We finally arrived at the Hotel Tiber and checked in. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast so we went looking for a restaurant. I don’t know if it is because it is Sunday, but everything seemed to be closed down for siesta. We finally found a gelato spot that also sold some sandwiches so we were refueled.

This part of Rome seems a world away from the Rome we saw on our previous trip – it reminds us of Steveston. Our hotel looks over the fishing dock with a long double line of large fishing boats. The big fishing boats give way to individuals fishing from the breakwater as we walked further down the pier. We never saw anyone catch anything though.

I need to do a bit of repacking tonight so I’ll be set for going through security and customs tomorrow.

Arrivederci Italy!

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