Friday May 24 off to Rome

On Friday morning, we arose early and got finished packing.  Vincenza at Piccolo Grande had told us to call Massimo (who workes the front desk at night) in the morning to come and get our suitcases and that he wold also fix us a cup of espresso since breakfast was not opened yet.  And we did and he did! Barely had we finished our espresso that  Conchetta arrived with the van to take us to Lamezia Terme, the train station.  It was a short ride, but she was a joy.  (With the exception of two cab rides in Rome, all our transportation had been prearranged and prepaid as part of our package with Cherrye Moore at MyBellaVita.  Every ride was exactly on time and as promised.  What a great service!)

At Lamezia, we traversed the stairs again, and again someone took my suitcase and carried it up for me (not a worker at the station, just a kind Italian).  This time the name of our train was the Frecciargento train to Roma Termini.  Per the Web site it is one "step up" from the Freeciabianco that we took from Rome to Lamezia.  It is a bit faster (a slant train) and has less stops. But just saying the Frecciabianco was perfect for our arrival in Rome and on to Calabria.  Our carriage was almost empty and we could stretch out and rest and kind of transition from traveling.  So both trains were perfect for what we needed at the time.

We were in carriage 2 in first class.  This train had less luggage space so we ended up with the luggage under our little table between our seats.  There was a "Welcome Service" provided by an attendant who came around with a cart (kind of like an airline steward) so we got some sort of snack and an espresso!  It was a 3 hour ride I think.

I was showing you a screen shot of my I phone to share the name of the train we are taking; but look what time it said trash call was, Way Pubbers!  I guess it changed my calendar events to local time!

We arrived in Rome about 11:30 a.m. and then took a wild cab ride to our hotel.

Cabs lined up outside Roma Termini train station

The ride was wild because there was some sort of protest going on at the moment we arrived in Rome and many of the streets were closed, so the cab driver had to keep changing course.  I tried to take a selfie with him after he finally got us to the hotel, but he said he "no like" photos.  It cost us more money than is worth mentioning, but as I said it was only one of the two cab rides we had to pay for.  All the rest of our transportation was prepaid and arranged.


Several people told us that nobody even pays attention to the protesters any more because there are so many of them all the time in Rome, often coming in from other areas of the country.  See the "Important Note" in the attached Hop On Hop Off brochure. .

When we arrived at the hotel, our room wasn't quite ready so we went up to the terrace and had lunch.  By the time we got into our room we were both bushed!  And we fell sound asleep, both of us.  Upon awakening from my nap, I noticed that my legs and feet were quite swollen so we decided to just stay home, not go out to dinner, not go to the hop on hop off bus.  Instead we got room service and called it an early night.  (We may have been a little overwhelmed also by the "busy-ness" of Rome compared to the casualness of Pizzo and Calabria.)

It was a really good decision.  We had a big day of walking come tomorrow.