We started Thursday with a delicious Italian breakfast of
cappuccino and fresh pastries (significantly different from a full Irish
Breakfast), then the three of us stopped by a few last sights in Rome. Such as
the Pantheon, Trevi fountain, Piazza Novena, and the Spanish Steps—with
daylight, and then we tried to see the bone church with the capuchin crypt, but
when we found it the 11:30-3:00 lunch hour foiled those plans. But hey, you have
to leave something to see next time right?
After finding a store for lunch and snack foods, we
took the metro to Termini to catch our
train to Florence. The board listed platforms for all the other trains
departed; all except our train, of course. That’s where the adventure comes
in! Our train to Florence departed from not one, two, three, four, or thirteen, but from
“ES2”. I asked the nice Tren-Italia-man what that meant and he said that ES1 and
ES2 are the platforms all the way
down past all the other platforms, and then to the right, and all the way down past trains at the very
end. We had time to calmly stamp our ticket and board the train, if our train departed from a normal platform. Instead we got to briskly-but-not-quite-full-panic-ly walk from one
corner of Termini to the farthest possible point of Termini, completely with a
short more-like-panic-full-run at the end which got us boarding the train at
exactly 3:13 for our departure of 3:14. It’s not nearly as romantic as all
those movies make it seem to hop onboard right as the train pulls away, but
that could just be because there was no rain, dramatic music, or beautiful boy
waving goodbye to us as we left him behind.
We very much enjoyed resting
on the train and then we arrived in Florence around 7pm. Star’s friend from
Grove City met us at the station to show us back to their flat, which is up so
many steps it makes one appreciate the “Mt Everest of stairs” up to Star and
Monique’s room in Galway. We enjoyed the sunset from the roof with a sea of red
terracotta roofs all around us, quite a wonderful spot to sit. For dinner we
got heaping servings of amazing Italian anti-pastas and pastas galore. It was
family-style loads of food for 15 euros, including really nice house wine too, so it was very much worth it. Plus there was a quick stop for gelato on
the way home, of course. Although it is always sad to leave the Eternal City,
Florence is great as well.
o |
| One last Old Bridge Gelato before we left town |
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