7/4/2008

Happy Fourth! My Independence Day was spent on a train ride from the extremely warm city of Rome to the cool coastal city of Genova. Overall I think we spent about 8-9 hours on the train when it should have taken around five hours.

We got to the Rome Termini station in plenty of time to catch our 10:30am train. However the one thing that we did not know about the Italian train system is that they frequently change platforms on you. So we sat there until about 10:28am noticing that our train had not shown up yet. Scott went down to ask someone at the other end of the platform if our train platform had been switched…it had been switched to the platform right across from ours. We both scooped up our backpacks and luggage, turned around only to see the train departing! Everything turned out to be fine. We caught a later train at about 11:30am. Only this train was a regional train (not as nice and a lot slower) that was about to break down. About five hours into our journey to Genova the train did indeed break down and we were told we would have to switch trains. I immediately asked the older couple across from me on the train, in Spanish, what we were supposed to do and how long it would take for the next train to come pick us up. One of the beneficial things about being able to speak Spanish pretty well is that I have been able to communicate with many Italians. Even though we’re not in Spain yet I figure I should try to communicate somehow….good thing is that pretty much all Italians understand what I am asking them or saying to them!