Time goes on, on to Rome

Margaret’s sister Emily arrived, and we spent a week entirely in the Umbertide area, giving attention to the house and, if we ate out, staying nearby.  One day we took off for Assisi and, before getting on the superstrada to go that direction, decided that instead we would go nearby to Montone; we had a nice visit and lunch in that hill town. During the week we also had nice times with friends.

And then it was time for our planned trip to Rome.  Since Margaret and I would be returning, we decided the best way of doing it would be to take the train from Ponte S. Giovanni.  We went there, with multilevel parking, and into the station.  Now we’re pretty well forced to buy tickets from a machine. Emily was buying, and I pretty well knew the procedure, but a car service driver was guiding us through it.  We decided to get first class tickets.

The station had been remodeled since I was last there to have an underpass, but only to the more distant platform; for ours we still needed to cross the tracks.  We saw a car go by towards the front with a 1 on it, and went in that direction, boarding another car first during the short stop. As we went forward, there was a sticker on the car saying  2nd class, and there was no first class car at that end, only in back, so we settled in that car.

The train trip went well enough with a nearly empty car--one thing I noted, different from my experience on Regionali, was how announcements were made of the stations and connecting trains and buses-- and I needed to awaken Margaret as we arrived at Roma Termini.  We were at track 1 Est, to the back of most of the tracks.  Wanting a taxi, we exited to he right, and still needed to get to the front of the station to find a taxi stand; we got a woman driver.

She took us to the apartment we’d rented, close to where I’d lived my first year in Rome, near Regina Coeli prison.  Our ride was slowed by vehicles entering the prison.  When we arrived, a man on a motorcycle across the street spotted us, escorted us u[ a few flights to the apartment, and checked us in.  This included reducing our stay tax, since two of us wouldn’t be staying the whole time.

Once we were checked in, we settled in and appreciated the air conditioning.  While Margaret stayed home, Emily and I started looking at the shopping area I remembered from 45 years ago.  The area was mostly  deserted with things closed for siesta; we found one bar to get small water bottles, and then crossed the river.  We found a small Coop market for provisions.

After going home, we went with Margaret to an expensive caffè as one enters the busier parts of Trastevere.  Then back to our area, we had dinner Da Giovanni, a place that our friends of that era wanted to be kept secret, because it was such a good deal.  Even though they now have credit card and website stickers on the door, they were still a good deal.

The next morning, most of us didn’t feel like doing that much. I went on one outing on my own, including the Villa Farnesina which I hadn't seen in spite of living so close, and late in the day we went up the Gianicolo hill.  We had dinner at the other restaurant I’d spotted near us , the Miraggio, costing a little more but nice.

In the morning we had a little more of a walk in our old school area, continuing to Campo de’ Fiori, today pretty much all a tourist-oriented market, avoiding hawkers from restaurants.  We had a quick look at Piazza Navona before going through the back streets to our apartment, and Margaret and I were to leave for Termini station. 

We used the IT TAXI app to get a cab, which was there within a few minutes.  We were left off on the Via Marsala side, where our track was.  I bought first class tickets again from the machine; although we were plenty early, the train was there, with the first class car towards the front (as it would be leaving, away from the front of the station) contrary to what one would hope.  The first class car was pretty much the same as second, just with more room between facing seats and a tray with a power outlet.

This trip went well enough, we had our car at Ponte S. Giovanni station, and were back to Umbertide and our easy-going activities.  Just a couple of days to close up the house and later rejoin Emily for the next stage of things.