Day 34 - an emotional day on the train, and then at Cassino (remembering our Kiwi servicemen)

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A very wet morning, with a low over the entire region. Off to the stationale for our trip from Bari to Cassino via Caserta and shouted ourselves first class - well, slightly above 2nd class in that we had more room. Still no wifi. Sat next to an Italian couple. The gent tried so hard to communicate with us - wanted me to find an Italian/English translator on my ipad but without wifi and not able to connect the wifi through our phone, it just didn't happen. Each time a guard came through he used him as a translator to talk to us. Not much fun for the grumpy guard! We used the great italian phrase book Greg had given me - with limited success. In the end, just before we left the train and they were continuing their journey, I connected to the translator on the phone and sent him a note saying 'thank you for being friendly and talking to us. Here is a small gift from New Zealand (little silver ferm which he proudly pinned on). We wish you safe and happy travels'. He cried, and his wife started up in Italian and smiling. It was lovely. He took our email address so he could email a translated message to us. Had a coffee and some late breakfast at the stationale in Caserta and then walked around to then 'local' to fill in an hour. Rode a urine smelling ascendore to our platform. Stopped at a vending machine for a light coke but the machine spat out a full coke. Tried to get some crackers but it gave us a bottle of water. Laughing... we gave up.

Arrived in Cassino. Despite what booking.com advised, it was NOT five minutes from the stationale (well, at an absolute push it may have been in a taxi). We walked on very bad broken footpaths/roads for approximately 35 minutes! But we were excited to be in Cassino and our Hotel was nice. They even had a shoe cleaner. Dropped our bags, got a taxi (expensive, but we were Inglese in Cassino) to the Commonwealth War Graves. What an emotional visit. Roy did the haka and we cried. To see so many headstones, and so many belonging to young kiwis. We spent a couple of hours in the rain - looking at names, looking at Monte Cassino and wondering if it was all worth it (and when we read about it afterwards, it certainly doesn't seem like it was) but bet the lads thought they were fighting with reason. We wandered back through the town, stopped and had a drink and then headed back to the room. Dressed for dinner in the hotel ristorante, which wasn't really part of the hotel - "no! pay here, now". Our last evening in Italy.

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