Attempt to get to Italy #2: Again we arose from bed early in order to catch a train to somewhere in Italy! It doesn't matter where, just a place where strikes were not happening. We arrived at the train station at 8:30, and our train was to leave at 9:49. We didn't account for the people that didn't get to leave yesterday (like us) and the people trying to leave today gather at the train station together. So, needless to say it was packed with a line out the door. I jumped in line and waited for over a half hour before I decided Laura and I were going to get to Italy "Guerilla Style"!
I jumped out of line grabbed Laura and our stuff and we made our way to the trains. We jumped on a train to Monaco, which was packed and we bearly squeezed on. When we got to Monaco we got off and quickly discovered that the next train we needed to get on was the one we just got off. We got back on and headed to Ventamiglia (This is in ITALY)! We actually got to sit down on this one. When we arrived in Ventamiglia we got off, and headed to the main part of the station. However, on the way we saw the train that we needed to get on and it was running a little late. Like late enough for us to jump on! So we did. We shared a cabin with two nice girls from Kansas who were skipping Rome to go to Venice. Ironic because we were skipping Venice to go to Rome. After a four hour train ride we arrived in Milan. Only one more train to get to Rome. I waited in another long line to get reservations for the train that was to leave less than an hour after we arrived. I got the reservations and Laura and ran to get on the train, despite having a half hour to before it left. We could taste victory on our tongues! We boarded, put our bags up and got in our seats. By the way, it was the nicest train ever! I found out later it was a EuroStar train which is a luxury train. The weight of entire strike had been lifted off our shoulders and we could relax for the next 3 and half hours while we traveled to Rome. At 8:00pm, almost 12 hours after we left Nice, we arrived in Rome.
We took a short taxi ride to our hotel, checked in and because we hadn't eaten all day we asked where a really good, but really close restaurant was. The wonderful receptionist pointed us in the direction of "La Famiglia" (meaning The Family I believe). We sat down and looked over the menu. We were in heaven! It was filled with all types of pastas, Italian dishes, and of course Italian desserts! Laura ordered canniloni and I ordered tortellini. Afterwards we had the house special, tirumisu! All of it was very good and very filling. I think we will eat just fine here in Italy. We walked back to hotel stuffed like turkeys on Thanksgiving. We waddled up to our room and crashed for the night. We are finally in Italy and were finally not stressed out.
-Kyle
Lessons Learned Today:
1. I am the greatest Map Reader in all the land! (and train schedule reader too)
2. Italian food in Italy is better, but they just called it food here ... weird ... I know.
3. Laura was a brave little soldier and the best travel partner!
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