TRAIN # 17 – 00:02 Padova to Rome Tiburtina
Running more than twenty minutes late, the train, which turned out to be a motorail express, finally arrived. It was pretty full, but we eventually found a compartment occupied by two old guys who were sitting opposite each other on the corridor side of the compartment. They raised no objection as we converted the other four seats to beds. I quickly fell asleep and when I opened my eyes at around 03:00, they had gone.
Despite the relatively comfortable arrangements, I didn’t sleep well and woke up with bad neck ache. The train was about a half hour late arriving in Rome and it deposited us at Tiburtina station, the motorail terminal. I then made a mistake with the connecting train; instead of heading to Termini, Rome’s central station, we ended up at Ostiense. It was almost 09:00 by the time we had arrived at Termini by metro.
ROME
We left our luggage at Termini and caught a bus in the direction of the Colosseum. We had a good walk around the Colosseum and then visited the Roman Forum Square where we bumped into the Irish couple again.
We walked through the cobbled back streets to the Pantheon, to the Trevi Fountain, and the Piazza Barberini. We went inside the Trinity Church and walked down the Spanish Steps. We ended up visiting two more churches in the Piazza del Popolo. There seemed to be pigeons everywhere we went.
After sampling wonderful cheesecake and refreshing bitter lemon, we walked across the Tiber towards the Vatican and the castle. We went into Vatican Square, toured St Peter’s and then climbed up for a spectacular view from the top.
We came out of the Vatican passing the Sistine Chapel Museum. We bought a copy of the Times newspaper and then tried to locate a bus that would take us back across the Tiber.
Eventually we made it through heavy and noisy traffic, every other car seemed to be a Fiat taxi, back to Venezia Square. We found a wonderful pizza place near the Trevi fountain and got mushroom and pepper pizzas which were absolutely delicious.
We bought bread, cheese, sausages and, feeling a little flush, beer for the next train journey. We couldn’t find a bus to get us back to Termini easily and walked around a while before we found one. We retrieved our luggage and changed some more Pounds in to Lira.
TRAIN # 18 – 20:45 Rome Termini to Sapri
Having changed the original schedule once by swapping the order of Venice and Rome, we now decided to alter it again. We were enjoying Italy a lot and as it seemed our funds were holding out, we decided to add in an extra day. Instead of going directly to Munich, we would head first to the historic ruins at Pompeii.
We boarded the 20:45 overnight express. The train was bound for Reggio di Calabria, 660km away at the southern tip of mainland Italy on the “toe” of the Italian boot. Pompeii was only 240km away but I had devised a plan that I hoped would enable us to get some kind of rest.
We would continue on to Paola (485km), where the train was due at 03:03 and then catch another express to come back north to Pompeii arriving at around eight in the morning. It wasn’t ideal but there weren’t too many other options.
The train was rammed full. We found a compartment with an Italian couple and their two children. As we dined on the bread, sausages and cheese and drank the beer, we watched the corridor fill up with people. I started to get the feeling that it might not be such a good night.
Wednesday, 12th September 1984
Forty Years Later….
- The fastest daytime high speed train links Venice and Rome in 3 hours and 47 minutes.
- Italy has now discontinued all its domestic and international motorail trains.
- There is still an overnight train linking Rome with Paola.
- I have been back to Rome a few times since.
