Moving Day

We made what I hope will turn out to be our biggest blunder of the trip–agh!

We spent an hour when we got back to our room finding a hotel conveniently located near the train station in Naples. Then we called Katie. No, do not stay near there, remember I told you it was a dicey area?? No in fact neither Mike nor I remembered, in fact we assumed that because they stayed there it was fine.

Mike spent another hour researching the location only to realize, as he exclaimed, better to lose $150 than to get robbed. Oh good grief!

So we canceled our non-refundable room for 2 nights and we will let you know if they bill us. Aghhhhh!

Then Mike spent another hour trying to decide if maybe we should wait and go to Naples in a couple days. We were planning to meet Katie’s in-laws (Alec’s brother and wife) on Thursday. Maybe we should stay in a little town along the way and rest and relax.

Great. Except there are train strikes and other problems we could not sort out. We found one cool place, but to get to Naples from that town you had to go back to Rome.

At midnight Mike declared that we would “be somewhere” and we would figure it out in the morning. Maybe we will go to Formia because he found a train in and out. Oh my goshhhhhhhhh!!!!! I put him on secret probation as our travel agent.

At 7:30 we were up and packing. There was virtual gridlock with the Tuesday traffic which was pretty entertaining below our 5th story window. People were blowing their horns and one guy even got out of his car and reached in the window of another car and shook the driver’s arm while yelling at him. Cars were weaving and darting around every nook with scooters squeezing in on all sides.

At 10:00 a.m. we checked out and the hotel employee called us a cab (!!!). No walking to the train station with all our stuff!

By 11 a.m. we were in Roma Termini, the main massive train station in Rome. It is open on the sides so it was quite cold.

Mike determined that yes, in fact, there was a train leaving for Formia at 11:26 a.m. He was able to buy us tickets from the machine, despite it not taking his card, but luckily we had the 36 euros for 2 tickets with assigned seats. We found platform 13 and BAM! we were on our way woo!

Traveling by train is my favorite! Imagine going to St. Petersburg for the weekend and getting there in 2 hours while reading a book instead of taking I-4.

After only about 10 minutes on this medium speed train, we were outside the city. Soon there were fields filled with vineyards, olive groves, sheep, cows, an Amazon warehouse, and small towns. Then we were in small mountains, scooting through tunnels that sucked the pressure right out of your ears, like the opposite of flying or something! We only stopped one time; we were in Formia in an hour.

Yay! Mike had found a cool looking hotel only a 6 minute walk from the train station.

Except we could not find the entrance. We could see the sign. We walked around the block. 3 times. 3 different people sent us in different directions, with one actually walking us to the entrance, reaching through the gate and unlocking it–yay! Except there was no office. She even beeped her horn as she saw us walking down the street to another hotel and said “Go in the big door!” Ok! Except they were locked. No name on the doors said anything related to the hotel on the map.

We called Katie. What had she and Alec experienced? She had to “meet a guy” even for a hotel, or what now seemed to be called B&B’s.

We kept walking and started thinking they were more like AirBnb’s, meaning you have to make arrangements, which I’m really good at but not standing in the street, more like the night before.

We walked the other way and found a name on a door along with many other names that said Dall Architetto; on the map it said that was a “hotel.” Hmmmmmm……I buzzed a button……….we were ready to walk back to the train station where supposedly there was a hotel with “front desk service.” Suddenly we both heard a man’s voice saying “Ciao.” !!!! I blurted out, “Hotel??” “Si. Level 2.” We heard a buzzer click and we were in!

Remembering that in Europe the first floor is level zero, we marched up to the 3rd floor with our backpacks feeling much heavier than before, and a man opened a door and greeted us! In pretty good English he explained that he is an architect and his dad owns the busy and was the senior architect. This was a working architect firm, with blueprints and pictures of buildings on the walls. Yes, they have a room for 2 nights!

They got us tucked in and the dad explained in very broken English with Mike’s bit of Italian that there are several old areas in the city to see. He scheduled to make breakfast for us at 9 a.m.!

I realized as we got into the room that it was America themed all in red and white with USA flag pillows and décor. I thought, how appropriate for the blundering Americans!

And on this very week in America Ms. Katie Taunton, 8th grade history teacher, had to remove all her personal history books from her classroom, or try to catalog them while worrying that she will face felony charges if she inadvertently had a book that someone has successfully complained about. USA indeed.

We had a lovely coffee, this one a macchiato, in a nearby café. The little tart was yummy strawberry!

So the good thing about being here in the off season is it is not crowded and rooms, if you can find the building, are available. The bad thing is the Ancient Roman Cistern we were eager to see is only open on Friday/Saturday/Sunday.

It turned out ok though because in our search for the cistern we ended up in an old area of the city. Much of the rest, the son explained, was destroyed during WWII. We wound our way through alleys with apartment homes 3 stories high.

As we were walking through this neighborhood we stumbled upon a lone restaurant sandwiched among the apartments. A man was walking out with a pizza, like just stopping in to take Papa John’s home to the family! They greeted us warmly and we had yet another excellent meal! Mine was a pizza with…..I don’t know, but it was covered in very thin ham strips. Mike’s was like a calzone only much lighter.

We noticed a glass cover in the floor where you could see the cellar. The waiter turned on the lights below and there were wine barrels and pretty lights. As we stood outside making plans to return tomorrow, the waiter ran out with Mike’s hat awwww.

So the day turned out okay despite my moving anxiety. Maybe in southern Italy you have a book a room ahead of time, but Mike is definitely off probation haha.

And………..I didn’t mention this before but I’m pretty sure I was pickpocketed, like Day 2, another travel blunder. A young woman got my attention to tell me my backpack purse was open. I NEVER carry those type of purses, but I hadn’t yet switched to my small side shoulder purse. I was being super careful because I know this is a serious issue in Europe. In fact when I was in Paris in high school my friend Sharon discovered an 8 year old girl with her hand in her purse! Anyway, I wasn’t worried because I zip my money inside another pocket….except that pocket was unzipped too. We searched and my debit card and 60 euros were missing. We hoped when we moved today and repacked I would find them, but they have not turned up.

So…….traveling challenges. Like when I was in Japan, it is a bit like work in a way. Maybe we will squeeze in some vacation too haha!