Venice to Rome Sept 19

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Venice to Rome - September 19

(Geoff) Today we leave Venice. We are not due to get on the train until 2:55 so we have a little time to kill. We ask the girl (Ambre, just like our daughter in law Amber) on the front desk about luggage lockers at the railway station and she kindly offers to mind our luggage for us - what a marvel and thankfully we don't have to drag our suitcases with us through the peak hour human traffic.

We head out into the maze of alleys and lanes that is Venice, though this time we have a far better idea of where we are and how we can get places. We spend the morning meandering around and having a look in the shop windows and also at the people mingling in the street - quite an interesting pastime and one that we have enjoyed previously before we embarked on this exodus and which we have continued with since we arrived in Scotland.

At midday, we decide to head to the railway station anyway so go back to the hotel and have a lovely discussion with Ambre, including how she would love to come to Australia. She has been so helpful that we ask her to get in touch so that she can stay with us if and/or when she makes it. She even helps us down the stairs with our luggage - no mean feat given the heavier bags weigh in at 20-25 kilos. We will have to email her when we get home to thank her for being so helpful.

We then head to the Grand Canal to pick up the water bus for Ferrovia Station. Not such a crush of people on this bus so we enjoyed the trip a lot more than when we arrived. We had the obligatory wait and then boarded the Eurostar train for Rome. Interestingly, the trains don't tell you the intermediate stops so our train was labelled for Naples (Napoli) - a bit confusing really as the train actually went from Venice to Bologna to Florence, then turned around and went from Florence to Naples via Rome!

What a fright that was, as we arrived with the rush hour! Imagine trying to find our way through the terminal with thousands of other commuters whilst carrying and pulling our luggage with us - we are starting to feel like turtles with our worldly goods with us every where we go. When we got to the appointed meeting place outside the terminal, our driver ( to take us to the hotel) was nowhere to be seen. Great fun really, us with little Italian trying to ask innocents close by if they are looking for the Notts.

Finally Sue worked out how to contact the company and they sent the driver to where we were. He picked us up in a nice new Mecerdes and after working out where we needed to be, he then drove like all the other lunatics in Rome. Once we got over the initial language problems he couldn't have been nicer - pointing out the sights along the way (one hand on the wheel, the other gesticulating and pointing). It took him a little while to work out where Vicolo Della Campanella was but once he did, he was impressed that Sue had gotten us so close to the heart of the city. Not far from Castel Santi Angelo, St Peter's and the Vatican and about 20 minutes walking to the Colosseum!

When we finally found the apartment, there was no-one there to meet us. We checked the address, phoned the company to no avail and finally found the contact number of the apartment owner and the driver took over, explained what was going on (in machine gun fire Italian) and we arranged to meet there and then. The driver was fantastic. He waited till we were all organised before departing with best wishes. The owner was also great. She met us, opened up, showed us how the apartment worked and even spent 15 minutes with a city map to give us our bearings. After a bit of a hiccup start, it turned out really well. The apartment is great - a bit of space after Venice and we are looking forward to exploring the city of Rome shortly.

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