Ah, the elegance of rail travel. The only real item on today's agenda is getting on a train headed to Salerno, where we shall hop into a car and head to Amalfi. But first, breakfast.
To be honest, getting to breakfast was an ordeal. We tried one, two, three places that were either closed or not serving breakfast. Members of the crew were getting low blood sugar, and the cushion between the time we had to eat and the time we had to leave to the train station was narrowing.
We ended up walking to the end of Via Venetto, where we have stayed many times and know of a place that serves breakfast. They were closed. As we walked away, praise the praiseworthy, a neighboring restaurant had a sign that said, "Breakfast."
When you go through kind of an ordeal just to get breakfast, and then the word OK arrives atop your cappuccino, it makes you wonder.
We made it back to the hotel and soon enough we were headed to the train station.
A panorama of Roma's Termini train station.
Remember the ordeal with breakfast? We stood in the station watching our train on the board, waiting for it to be assigned a platform so that we could walk in the correct direction. Soon enough, it was five minutes after the train was meant to leave and still no platform. Ten minutes. Then our train literally disappeared off the board.
We had to go get in line at customer service, where we learned our train had been cancelled due to a strike. A very nice and helpful young woman used a little PDA and found us a train to Salerno that involved no switching, and she wrote with a ball point pen on our ticket that our train was cancelled and our ticket was now good for this new train.
And now we have twenty minutes to kill before train number two gets assigned a platform, and we really, really want to sit down.
Sometimes your order food as chair rental.
After sitting and enjoying more cappuccinos and croissants, our train's platform was assigned and we headed over to it. Soon enough, we were seated and ready to go.
Seriously. Am I crazy for referring to the elegance of rail travel? I think not. Rail travel is elegant and relaxing. Look at Barbie. She had nothing but annoyances in her way all morning, yet sitting on a train she is a portrait of elegance.
Our train car was divided into little rooms, not unlike the European trains you see in movies. (I know that you Americans do not take trains and only see them in movies.) A young man with dark skin came into our little room and sat next to me. It was the three of us with six seats, and we spread out a little. I did my best to smile at him, and he smiled back. When we tried to communicate, he threw out some Spanish, we threw out Italian, and English was a no-go. Finally we understood when he pointed at himself and said, "Tunisian." At this point I became most disappointed in our lack of common language, because there are few countries with a more critical recent history in world events than Tunisia. If we had had any way to communicate, Barbie and I could have learned first hand what a native Tunisian thought of the Arab Spring which was launched from his homeland. What he thinks of dictatorships and the future and yesterday's capture of his neighbor Ghaddafi.
But we could not speak to each other. At all.
The young man from Tunisia. He communicated one final way, which was to buy a box of cookies and hold them out to us. Offering to share food is a universal way to show kindness. And that is about as far as we got with the young Tunisian man.
The train arrived in Salerno, and soon we were tossed into the back of a car for the windy road to Amalfi.
Look closely. Do not be fooled. This is a narrow, winding road and that is a full-sized tourist bus moving full speed towards us. Just a few feet on either side, my friends. And that is why you do not rent a car and drive yourself.
The Hotel Santa Caterina, in Amalfi, Italy.
We were quite hungry, and sat down for lunch soon after arrival. This shot is meant for you to see that my menu has prices while the lady's menu does not. The Hotel Santa Caterina is classy like that.
Barbie got this amazing Home made Ravioli filled with zucchini and fresh buffalo ricotta cheese in lemon cream sauce. And that crisp up there? Almost solid parmesan.
For me the Lasagna Napoletana Tradizionale.
I wanted to show you our simple gorgeous room, with Mediterranean facing balcony.
The view from our balcony, looking South towards the town of Amalfi.
The view from our balcony, looking North.
It was time to be productive, and also time for a distorted panorama or our working in bed. You would not believe this, but our plan to do a thing or two and then have dinner was actually thwarted by sleep. We crashed. Crashed hard. We fell asleep around six o'clock, no joke. Six. That was that. No dinner. Just sleep.
We woke up around 2 AM, watched some television via Slinbox, and then... back to sleep. Sleep is good.
See you tomorrow.
To be honest, getting to breakfast was an ordeal. We tried one, two, three places that were either closed or not serving breakfast. Members of the crew were getting low blood sugar, and the cushion between the time we had to eat and the time we had to leave to the train station was narrowing.
We ended up walking to the end of Via Venetto, where we have stayed many times and know of a place that serves breakfast. They were closed. As we walked away, praise the praiseworthy, a neighboring restaurant had a sign that said, "Breakfast."
We made it back to the hotel and soon enough we were headed to the train station.
Remember the ordeal with breakfast? We stood in the station watching our train on the board, waiting for it to be assigned a platform so that we could walk in the correct direction. Soon enough, it was five minutes after the train was meant to leave and still no platform. Ten minutes. Then our train literally disappeared off the board.
We had to go get in line at customer service, where we learned our train had been cancelled due to a strike. A very nice and helpful young woman used a little PDA and found us a train to Salerno that involved no switching, and she wrote with a ball point pen on our ticket that our train was cancelled and our ticket was now good for this new train.
And now we have twenty minutes to kill before train number two gets assigned a platform, and we really, really want to sit down.
After sitting and enjoying more cappuccinos and croissants, our train's platform was assigned and we headed over to it. Soon enough, we were seated and ready to go.
Our train car was divided into little rooms, not unlike the European trains you see in movies. (I know that you Americans do not take trains and only see them in movies.) A young man with dark skin came into our little room and sat next to me. It was the three of us with six seats, and we spread out a little. I did my best to smile at him, and he smiled back. When we tried to communicate, he threw out some Spanish, we threw out Italian, and English was a no-go. Finally we understood when he pointed at himself and said, "Tunisian." At this point I became most disappointed in our lack of common language, because there are few countries with a more critical recent history in world events than Tunisia. If we had had any way to communicate, Barbie and I could have learned first hand what a native Tunisian thought of the Arab Spring which was launched from his homeland. What he thinks of dictatorships and the future and yesterday's capture of his neighbor Ghaddafi.
But we could not speak to each other. At all.
The train arrived in Salerno, and soon we were tossed into the back of a car for the windy road to Amalfi.
We woke up around 2 AM, watched some television via Slinbox, and then... back to sleep. Sleep is good.
See you tomorrow.
Hi Jeff and Barbie, I just checked the blog by chance and there it was, day 3! You two are efficient "and" still able to go with the flow. Catching up on sleep is a very good thing, keeps you alert and well. Looks like the trip will be a winner. Love Mom
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