Jan and I are experienced 'Trainers' now. We took the train from La Spezia to Cinque Terre and back, as well as in France from Avignon to Marseille and Cannes to Nice. Now it is Firenze to Roma. It is easy. This time we took the Euro Star, fast and smooth, about an hour and a half. We could have taken a regional train but it would have taken nearly four hours as it stops at a bunch of small towns along the way. We were willing to pay the extra (over double the price) for the ease and convenience this time, so we got a direct connection, one-way ride from Firenze to Roma.
I know that we are early in the season here, but we did not expect to see the snow. The train was over 110 minutes late, nearly two hours, coming in from Milano and bound for Naples (Napoli) with stops in Firenze and Roma. In the leg from Milano to Firenze the train was seriously slowed by the heavy snow in the Appenine range. The train's nose and the wheel areas were caked in snow when it rolled into Firenze. It didn't cause us a problem, as we hoped to catch the Eurostar at 11:27am. What we caught was the 9:15am train which actually got us away at just after eleven am. Along the way, up in the Appenine mountains, we saw snow on the Tuscan hills as you can see from Jan's pictures.
On arrival in Rome we enquired about 'last minute hotel bookings' and got a great deal on a hotel which turned out to be a ten minute walk from the Trevi Fountain. As usual we dropped our gear and headed out into the streets. Temperature in low teens, cool but not cold, big storm clouds and lots of big blue sky, a day of weather changes and we took our umbrellas with us, folded up.
We were here about a year ago as part of the world cruise. We had landed up the coast a short distance and then were bussed into Rome as part of the tour we were on. The nature of the tour called for us to be on a tour of The Vatican City, St Peters, and the Vatican Museum in the morning, then lunch, then a tour of the Coloseum in the afternoon. It was fabulous of course, but we always remember that we had no time to wander the city sites and were sorry about that. This time is different, we see the rest of the city now.
Our first stop of the day was the Trevi Fountain, the '3 Coins in the Fountain' one made famous in movie and song. See the pictures, google the website, its as good as advertised. But .... Is there always a 'but'? In this case it is that while the fountain is huge and white and the water sparkling clear, the area is not what dreams are made of. Looking forward it is lovely, but look back over your shoulder and you just see hawkers and gelato stands, and the crowds. The trick is to hold the dream, and don't look back, keep focused on what we are seeing and the fact that we are in Rome, and THIS is the Trevi Fountain. Then, all the stuff over our shoulder goes away very quickly and doesn't return.
A short day today, up early this morning in Firenze and trains and cold and all that. Tomorrow we'll go further afield. Tonight, a great salad dinner, with wine, at a restaurant about 50 yards from the Trevi Fountain. How romantic is that???
