Rainy Day to Rome

I woke up during the night to the sound of thunder and heavy rain. This just confirmed our decision to leave by 0830 even though the car did not need to be back until 1045 and our train tickets to Rome were for 1138. I do manage to sleep,a little more before the alarm goes off. We are downstairs for breakfast a little before 0800. It is a pretty nice spread and all the people here are very nice. They surprise us by making eggs to order with bacon and hash browns, which has not been the norm anywhere in our travels. After our breakfast, we are ready to go and check out. It is not raining at the moment but the skies are very grey and dark. The drive is very uneventful as we travel along the coast at the very unwarp like speed of what equates to 30 mph. The GPs does lead us to a dead end but after I turn around and go up a different road it recalculated and we are back on track. We stop for gas and then within 10 minutes are back at the rental agency. The car check in goes without a hitch and we walk across the street to the train station.

Waiting for a Train

It is only 0955 and our train is not until 1138. I ask if we can get on an earlier train with our tickets but we can’t. That is because we were able to get these tickets at a great discount, two for one, and they are not changeable. It is like a forty dollar savings so it is worth waiting for. If it had not been for the weather forecast, we would not have been here this early. We are only waiting about 10 minutes, when the skies open up and the torrential downpour starts. As we see traffic come to a standstill around the station, we are both glad that we left early and the rain gods held off their crying until we got here. A little after 1100, we grab a bite to eat by the station, just a slice of pizza each to tide us over for the three hour train ride to Rome.
The train arrives about 10 minutes late and we are on our way. The car where our reserved seats are is closed and so we just find seats in the next car. When the ticket guy comes, he is all frazzled, and takes our tickets, sits down nearby and starts fiddling with his machine. He crosses out the seats and car and writes down new ones and points down to the end of our car. We are in the last seats and facing backwards but do not have a lot of choice. We can not believe that we are on our way to Rome, the last stop in our grand adventure. Only three days and we will be flying back to New York. It is a bittersweet feeling with a kind of happiness that we will be getting closer to going home and a sadness that the joy we have felt in the last three months is coming to an end.

From the Train

On the bright side, there is only one more train to catch and that will be to the airport and runs regularly so it is a now worry deal. After about an hour or so, our train stops in Naples. When we leave we find that we are no longer sitting backwards as we have changed travel direction so that is a nice thing. I don’t know why but I like watching the upcoming scenery rather than what we have just passed so it is more pleasurable facing in the same direction we are traveling. It rains the whole way and when we arrive in Rome, we decide to take the metro to our BNB instead of walking the 1.25 miles in the rain. It drops us off about 2 blocks from where we are staying. We find the street and the address and ring the bell but no one is there. I told them that we old be there between 1515 and 1430 and it is just 1520 so we try and stay dry in the narrow doorway. We wait another fifteen minutes and just when I am starting to undo my pack cover and get my phone, Francesca shows up with her daughter. We get all checked in and Francesca was very helpful with showing us on the map how to get to different places from here, a few places to go that we have not been, and dinner possibilities that are nearby. When she leaves, we settle in to our very nice room. We had planned to just hang in the afternoon when we got here, the rain just solidifies that decision. We spend some time trying to decide on which of the four restaurants she recommended to eat at.
As it approaches dinner time, we brave the rain and head up the street. It is just a short block to Rigatoni and we get seated. In looking at antipasto, I want to try their baked octopus, but Carol is resistant to the idea.

Octopus Eater

She does eventually say to get it and she will try it. We also order two pasta dishes, some focaccia bread, and a bottle of the house wine. The octopus comes and Carol tries it and really likes it. It is extremely tender and tasty. The rest of the meal is very good also and we get a 10% discount because of where we are staying. After dinner, there is not the usual stroll because of the rain and we just head back to our room for the night. It is supposed to clear up a bit tomorrow so we hope to find some new spots in Rome to explore.
Expenses
Pizza at Train Station 3.1E
Train from Salerno to Rome 29.5E
Metro to BNB 3E
Dinner at Rigatoni 41.4E
Relaid 155 BNB 83.5E
Walked 1 Mile