The first part of the plan went perfectly. Well, almost. I got up at 5:45 and walked to Re di Roma. I thought I bought the wrong ticket, but I finally figured out how to get through the turnstile with it. I caught the metro to Termini. No problems. In fact, I was 40 minutes early for the train that I had purchased a ticket for the night before on the Trenitalia app. I had time for a coffee, but I wasn't feeling it yet. Not hungry either.
Once they posted the platform for my train, I found the platform and got on the train. Not crowded. Picked a nice window seat on the shady side. Made it to the airport in about 10 minutes. Caught the bus to the airport (there was a little confusion, but most of the people on the train were doing the same thing, so I knew if I just followed the sunburned British tourists with rolling cases I’d be fine.)
When I got to the airport, I first noticed the taxi stand that we had stood at for over an hour. There was no line, and plenty of taxis. The signage for rental cars was lacking, so I went all the way into the terminal and then followed the signs as if I had just arrived on a plane. The signs directed me out into the front of the airport past the taxi stand…and then nothing. I walked around for 15 minutes or so looking for any sign of rental cars. I finally asked a police officer and he directed me to where the car rental offices were. I didn’t see a sign for the company I was renting from, so I asked a lady from Avis. She said I needed to call my company, so I made the call and was told that I needed to go to the one and only gas station on the airport grounds and wait for a shuttle (no signs there at all). I waited there for another 15 minutes and started to wonder if I was in the wrong place, but finally the shuttle picked me up and took me off-airport to my car rental place. I had no trouble getting the car (other than a brief moment when he didn’t think he could give me the car because my driver’s license said Francis Wayne Eury and my credit card said Francis W Eury. They didn’t match. Are you kidding me? But he made a phone call and got approval from his supervisor.) The car was a station wagon, as ordered. Gasoline, stick shift. A Renault Megane. He said I didn't need to worry about taking pics of the condition because I had full coverage. He also gave me a free second driver. Cristina didn’t get the international driving permit though, since we didn't think she’d be driving. I asked him how much that mattered. “If you get stopped by police, just have her tell them that she was driving for you because you had a headache.” Will that work? I asked. “Yes, especially with as hot as it’s been.”
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| Renault Megane...our chariot for the next 25 days |
I entered the address into the GPS and hot the road. It felt strangely comfortable to be driving on the right side again. I had no issues getting back to the apartment by 10 am, despite the bad reputation that driving in Rome has. Everyone was ready to go with the luggage already downstairs. Jeremy had already picked up their car from Termini, so with all our luggage packed up, we stayed parked and walked up to Zama Cafe for one more Zama cappuccino and pastry.
The drive to our next Airbnb in Corsanico was about 4 hours. The GPS wanted to take us up the coast, but it was faster to go through the interior, so we did that. A few notes about driving on Italian motorways. The tolls are expensive. It cost about 30 dollars in tolls to drive from Rome to Corsanico. The other thing is sometimes the on-ramp doesn’t give you much room to merge, and people aren’t good about moving over when they see you coming on. There was at least one time where I had to stop at the edge of the motorway, at a full stop, waiting for a hole to jump in. That’s not great road design. But the roads are well-maintained, and there are lots of tunnels, which I appreciate because as much as curvy mountain roads are pretty, they are slow and use more gas. I like just cutting through the mountain and keeping things straight and level.
One consistency from our other European trips: Audi drivers still drive the fastest and are the rudest.
We stopped at an osteria (pub or tavern) for lunch. It was so hot and sunny. I couldn’t help but think We have four more weeks of this? We left jacket weather in Ireland for this? Cristina ordered a mixed antipasti, which was like a charcuterie board with meats, fruits, and cheeses, and even some beans. The rest of us ordered pasta, but unlike the other pastas we’d ordered, this one was a large plate-full. If I’d known it was going to be that much food, I’d have split one with Bella.
After the meal, I apologized (in Italian) to the waitress for my insufficient Italian. She very graciously returned the apology for her bad English (which was better than my Italian).
Fun fact: there was a shower in the men’s bathroom. I wonder if this restaurant serves as a kind of truck stop?
As soon as we got back on the road, the Hines realized they’d left Jeremy’s hat, so they went back and we went on. We later stopped at a service plaza for bottles of water.
When we got close to Corsanico, we stopped at a grocery store and waited there for the Hines. While we waited, we tried to find gelato, but were unsuccessful. We found a cute little book store cafe which warranted some photos for Sofia.
We could tell that our new place was a bit up a mountain, so we wanted to stock up on groceries before we got too far away from those options. The grocery store was huge, and it was easy to spend an hour in there looking at all the items. We decide to make Caprese salads for a light dinner (after eating so much pasta for lunch). The olive oil section was nearly half an entire aisle. We joked about it, but I’m sure foreigners to the US think our entire aisle of breakfast cereals is overkill. We are, after all, the kings of overkill.
We headed up to the Airbnb. The roads got smaller and curvier. There was one place where the road went between two buildings. It was a narrow space. So narrow in fact that I clipped the side mirror. The mirrors fold up and I decided then that I would fold both mirrors up before future trips.
We met our hosts, Lucia and Elisabetta, and they gave us the tour of the house. Huge is the best word to describe it. They made the same assumption that Michele did, that 6 people only needed 3 king beds, but they quickly made up a twin bed in a fourth bedroom when we explained Bella and Jacoby. A giant curving staircase led from the lower salon area to the upstairs bedrooms. The views were spectacular (though the sky was a little foggy). There was a large veranda that the front bedrooms shared, and on the ground level, a large terrace with picnic tables and umbrellas was the perfect place for eating outside.
We said goodbye to our hosts and got settled. I whipped up six Caprese salads and we ate outside. It had been a long travel day so as it got late, we just got ready for bed. There was no AC and it was pretty hot, and there were only 3 fans. Cristina and I served as tribute to be the room without a fan. We left the windows open, plugged in one of those bug things to keep the mosquitos at bay, and hit the sack.
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| Nightime view from our Airbnb |
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