I made a post this week and realized that this post has been sitting for months. I was giving myself an “oh well” when I realized it was February, and that trip was in November. Shame on me!!! I had enough problems with the last post and its rush to “print”. I went back over it the next day and had to root out some grammatical errors that were ignored by my sleepy eyes. It’s a blog… So, some of that is forgivable?
I have waffled back and forth on this post because it can get gigantic if I let it. I was thinking about breaking it up into a few bite-sized pieces, but I believe I am overthinking it at this point. Forgive me for what I do now.
We arrived in Rome on Saturday, November 23rd… It was a fight, but we made it a goal to stay awake as long as possible so that we get over our jetlag. The best way to do that is to get out of the hotel and walk! We wandered up to the Spanish Steps and worked our way Southwest towards Trevi until we were ready for dinner. By the time 9 PM arrived… We were pooped! The mission for the first half day was completed.
Oh, did I mention we traveled with friends on this trip? Mark and Tammy from Mackinaw came along. They had no demands… They just wanted to go wherever we did, so it was easy!
Sunday was our first “full” day in Italy. This day had been planned for months with Rossana and the Giancarli family. We just had to get to Tivoli. Train, Uber or bus. All forms of transit were a consideration as I was planning this. The best option, by a long shot, would be a train from Termine Station out to Tivoli for a giant family lunch.
I will be the first to admit that I hate taking taxis, Ubers, or the bus when in town. We generally walk all over when in big cities. London, Rome, New York. We walk 10 miles a day when visiting. I think my phone said 29 minutes for the walk, the map above says 41 minutes. We gave ourselves an hour plus to make the hike that Sunday morning from our hotel to Termine station. It was a long walk to start the day, but I felt it was OK since we would be on the train for an hour afterward.
Before departing for Europe, Ang and I watched 10 videos about the train service out of Termine. Ang and I thought we had a grip on it, but everything about chaotic Italian public services was displayed that Sunday morning when we walked into Italy’s busiest train station. (5th busiest in Europe according to Wiki). There was a local train strike happening that day. We were slightly prepared for this. as our hotel front desk agent, Marco gave us a warning. When he heard we were taking the train, his eyes got wide and he looked at us over his bifocals, and said “let me look”. He looked at his computer and then said “We may or may not get a train to Tivoli” today.
No worries! I had done all the prechecks for prices. If the worst happened. We could take an Uber to Tivoli for 100 bucks. Not my first choice by any means, but it would work.
We left the hotel in full of blissful optimism that we would have a train. We are in Italy. The sun was shining. It could be a lot worse!
That was a hike. It took nearly 40 minutes of walking to get to Termine.
Inside the station, travelers were massed in large groups looking up at the electronic schedule boards. “Cancellato” was displayed across half the train routes. I know what that means. Fortunately, the tickets I had bought online saved me from standing in the mile-long lines that were forming at the information desks. We looked for our train information… I could find nothing. There was a small information stand in the middle of the floor upstairs and a very pleasant attendant stopped me from attempting to speak in broken Italian. She informed me that our train was “delayed”. She told us where to go, but her hand gestures and broken English landed us 2 floors below in the Metro area. We circled back, all the while panicking that our train was going to leave us… Finally, we made our way to the loading platform.
We were all staring holes through the train schedules… That was not working. Angela found another nice attendant who told us we were still delayed, but to watch the schedule board because it would be announced soon. I swear, as soon as he said that, our platform was listed on the overhead display. We made our way over to the train with little understanding of how long it would sit and took our seats. 5 minutes later, we were rolling. THEY DON’T MESS AROUND!
It was 3 euros each for our train fare to Tivoli. A bargain. The train was modern. Quiet, smooth, and clean. I just kept thinking “Why can’t we do this in the US?”. I realize we have much larger spans of territory to cover, but I could not stop thinking about the benefits of a train that ran a route locally around Peoria. Even a ring from downtown Peoria to Dunlap, I digress. (digressed so much that I drew a map of the area and my planned route… I’m sick)
The 5 (Ang, myself, Aiden, and the Brodahl’s) hopped off the train in Tivoli, gathered my head for directions, and wandered over to the park that was a few blocks away. Villa Gregoriana.
I was giddy, I am not kidding when I saw Mariano and Rossana standing by the gate to the park. With the little bit of drama and mayhem getting on the train, we had made it and I was now seeing friendly faces!
After a happy reunion, we walked around the park and visited with my family before heading off to lunch.
Last year on our visit, we met the family for the first time after wandering Hadrian’s Villa. I thought I had met everyone at that lunch, but I was very wrong. We showed up at the restaurant and found a giant mob of people wrapped around 3 tables connected in a U shape. Not only did we have familiar faces, but we had a bevy of young people I had never met. Luigi, along with his boys, Mariano, Pietro, and Enrico were all there with their families. I had not met a half dozen of these people. Bonus, a lot of them spoke English! I was delighted to sit at the “bridge” from the adults to the kids’ table. Aiden and the younger ones were having a great time over the hours it took to plow through course after course of food.
I swear Mariano was laughing at me as the food kept coming out. So much food! The trick is to take small portions and drink water! Too much of any serving or wine and you will get out of rhythm!
As dinner was winding down, I had a chance to wander away from my seat. I had spent my day talking to David. Rossana and Marianos son. His English is VERY good and we had a lot to talk about. When I got near Luigi, he started talking to me. Luigi is very soft-spoken and I leaned in as close as I could to understand what he was saying. Impossible. David was within arm’s length and I pulled him into the conversation for help. Even David said that his grandfather’s dialect of Italian is hard to understand. Wow. I cannot even begin to equate this to any situation of English speakers in the United States. It would be like someone in Illinois not being able to understand someone from Indiana. Luigi only lives a few hours away from Roma and has lived his whole life 3 or 4 hours away. How can there be that much difference?
David gave me some translation… And I felt a little sad after hearing what Luigi had to say. I will say this because this is a blog, and it’s a diary to some extent…. Luigi wants to know where the Detroit Giancarlis are. He made that clear. So, if you are a Detroit Giancarli… You have family wanting to see you!!!! And it seemed urgent!
When dinner was over, we hung out outside the restaurant until 30 minutes before our train departure back to Rome. The boys posed for the picture above. They all got along very well and that made me very happy to see connections being made with the younger generation.
Remember that train strike? I forgot all about it after we made it to Tivoli by ourselves.
When we arrived at the Tivoli train station for our return to Rome… Mariano was quick to see the “canceled” notification for our train. (I never saw it and would have waited all night). Oh boy. Enrico and Mariano, who had driven us back to the station were talking in Italian… I had no idea what the plan was. “We will drive you in”. Oh boy, I felt like a terrible person inconveniencing my family with this. They swore over and over that it was not a problem.
The ride was a lifesaver. I am not sure I would have been able to UBER from Tivoli very well… Plus, the other thing that was going on… I didn’t realize it at the time… But I was running out of gas. We had arrived the day before and had done a really good job of fighting jetlag on Saturday after our massive flights. But, my internal clock was kicking my ass. It was between 1 and 2 am our time as we hopped in the brother’s cars to head back to Rome. Because I had barely met him, I decided to ride in Enrico’s car. His English is like Pietro’s… Nearly non-existent, so I did my best to use a translator app to ask questions and chit-chat to find out more about him… But I was fading. I could feel myself sliding down in my seat ready to close my eyes! I should have downed more coffee!
Eventually, we pulled up to a train station at Rebbibia. The last post I made was about taking the train makes it sound like I am full of confidence on the Roma Metro. That only happened because of this little side adventure to get back from Tivoli. Mariano explained that this Metro was the last on the line and would take us back into Rome. “How do we get tickets?” I asked… “Just wave your credit card over the reader” was the answer. OK, we can do this.
This was our parting with the fam. The visit was too short. Even with the bonus time in the car, I was sad that this day was over.
We headed down the slope to the underground. Stood by on the ramp and waited for our train. I was looking at the stops ahead. We could get back off at Terminne… But we could also go to the Colosseum if we went a little further… And frankly, that’s closer to our hotel. Mark agreed with me. That’s all I needed. We passed 11 stops to come up from the underground looking at an illuminated Colosseum. It was a great splash in the face to stay awake. Honestly. You feel like it’s not even real every time you see it. I laughed while we were in Rome last year about how odd it is that places like the Colosseum could seem boring or just another building to walk past. People dream of coming here their whole life, and to locals… It’s just another old ruin. This walk from the Colosseum to the Monument to Victor Emanuel is one of my favorites. At night, they block it all off, and it’s just a bunch of tourists strolling casually up the road looking over the darkened forum and the Ceasar statues that line the road.
Again, we were exhausted, but it was still a great time to lollygag and walk slowly back to the hotel.
There is more… Most notably, our missed opportunity to see Gianna again in town. She invited us to a “march” and wanted to hang out on Wednesday or Thursday. Both days, we were jammed with touristy things. I promised myself I would slow down this time, but I still ended up in some spots that feel I have seen a million times. Even if its only three times that tI have been to Palatine Hill… It felt like I was not prioritizing my time. Family first.
I am still quite upset that I did not make that happen!!!!
Plans are being knocked around for another trip. Aiden wants to do my idea of heading up to the national park and touching the Grand Sasso glacier. Go to Venice and travel down to Rome… Grab a rental car. Who knows? Its not like I lack ideas.
It’s awesome that you, Angela and Aiden are getting to know your family in Italy!!