Take the last train to Roma

Melissa here summing up our day of travel. After two days of drinking, waking up at 7:30 am is a little rough. Jerry definitely had the roughest night of us all. I think he put down about 5 liters of beer. But even with the hangovers we had, the entire Munich trip was fabulous. We got to drink with the locals and that was the best part. Now, onto Rome. The train leaves the station at 9:33 and we should arrive in Rome around 8:10. This will be a long day, but the scenery should be great. We get to the train station early, (believe that), but a few pastries and get on the train with no problem. The train leaves about 5 minutes late, but that is no big deal. This train will make many stops, about 12 to be exact. At first, it seems like we are stopping every 2o minutes. People are getting off and on the whole time. We all fall asleep pretty quickly after getting on the train. We then notice the train is making stops in the middle of nowhere. There is no station, just a stop. Ok, is that weird?

About 1pm, a retired couple get on the train and sit next to the three of us. We start chatting it up a bit. They live in Arizona and are going on a hiking trip in Florence with a group of people. They seem really cool, and it is nice to have people to talk with to make the traveling day go by. When we start talking, we learn they have been all over the world, China, New Zealand, Australia, and all over Europe. They are retired, so that is what they do. The three of us all thought that was great. They told us they started traveling about 20 years ago. They have three kids and six grandkids and there children are all travelers as well. Chad and I had a discussion back in France to start taking week long trips to Europe whenever the price is right. If that means traveling in October, so be it.

We also got to experience the dining cart. That is very interesting. We were served a pork dinner with a salad and water. The dining cart on a train is not the most luxurious eating experience you can imagine. Like I said earlier though, the scenery is gorgeous. The train rode through the Swiss Alps and the Italian footballs. If we did stop, the scenery was nice. As the day rolled on, the train seemed to be getting farther and farther behind schedule. By the time we got to Bologna, we were about 30 minutes late. When we stopped there, the train sat for about 10 minutes. We don't know why. An announcer would come on the speaker and explain something, but it was in Italian, so we had no clue what was going on. Needless to say, it was a long day. The train car was very hot and made more stops then it needed to. I just don't understand why we stopped in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason. We arrived in Rome about 9pm and took a little while to find our hotel. It was just a few short walking blocks from the train station. We went to the first little ristorante we could find. Man, I was so hungry and that food was so good. The Italians do there meals in courses, so we each had about three. You have an anitpasta, then a first course, then a main course, and the dessert. We I couldn't pass us the proscuitto. Damn good meat. I can't wait to try every Italian dish I can think of while we are here. Also, does anybody know if the Italians believe it a hot shower? If so, then it doesn't seem like it. I had a hell of a time trying to work the shower last night.