roma - the departure

the last morning in rome was rather frustrating. we had awoken real early to visit the fruit and flower market at the campo del fiori, only to arrive at the square, after a 45 minute walk mind you, to find pigeons. the square was empty, not a person in sight (we later learned it was a national holiday).

we decided to have a quick breakfast at a cafe at the piazza della rotonda; we needed the energy for another 45 minute walk. back at the bnb, we packed up our items and said our goodbyes to rome.

we arrived at termini station early to await our train, but ten minutes before our scheduled time of departure, the platform was eerily empty, no signs of any train approaching or people waiting to board. we asked around, a policeman and some local italians, and were informed that we had misread the departures board. our train was to leave from a different platform, fortunately only half a kilometer from where we were. we gathered our bags and ran.

the policeman and local italians were wrong: the train wasn’t leaving from the new platform. it was emptier than the previous one. by the time we made it back to the original platform, it was already time of departure and we still had no idea where to go. we never did find out where the train was to depart from.

missing the train meant a two hour wait for the next one.

that morning, my feelings towards rome were lukewarm at best. while the last few days had been so much fun, the city had a little too many difficult idiosyncrasies to deal with, like the un-navigatable streets (which resulted in walking more than I needed to and subsequently my blistered feet) and the number of cold showers I had to endure (two out of four). oh, and trains that don't leave from posted platforms!!

I clambered onto the train to chiusi, two hours later than planned, just a tad bit annoyed.

a two hour train ride later, I fell in love...