Saturday, August 04, 2018

So about that second tunic...

So the trip to the Specola was — to a first order approximation — smooth.  Yes, the plane left a bit late, but clearly it usually leaves a bit late, because we were on time to Rome.  I managed to buy my ticket on the express into Roma Termini and my ticket on to Albano on the TrenItalia app.  Woot!

But.  I managed to hit the daily gap at Roma Termini where it is two hours between trains to Albano. Any other time of the day, they run every hour. It's hot and muggy, but I discover the terrace upstairs where I can get a cold drink, watch the trains and the train board and most importantly, sit for the next hour and half.  The Albano train pops up on the board, and I know from experience just how long a walk it is out to Platform 18, so I grab my luggage and go. By the time I get there I am soaked, but the train is blissfully air conditioned and ready to board.  At which point I should be enjoying the cool air and 45 minutes to recruit my strength for the walk up the hill to the apartment where I am staying.

Except. Except they are doing track work, so they are bussing from Ciampino to Albano (I knew this when I bought my ticket). Twenty minutes and we're off the train. The conductor gives me directions to where to find the bus. I haul my growing-ever-heavier bag down from the platform and back up the indicated stairs and seeing a bus ask about the bus to Albano.  Not this one, but wait right here.  I wait in the sun.  No bus.  I check the time.  It should be here in a minute or two.  No bus. Five minutes?  No bus.  I go inside and ask about the bus. Oh, that bus leaves from the other side. Next one? In an hour. Back down and up I go. I find the spot and hope that the bus will appear. A bus arrives with a spate of TrenItalia personnel in bright red polo shirts. Yes, this is your bus.  Up goes the luggage.

It is icily air conditioned, so after a bit I look for my "second tunic"...only to remember with a start that I had left my nice sweatshirt on the bench at the station. I guess I didn't need a second tunic after all.

8 comments:

  1. Hopefully the person who found it needs it more than you!

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    1. I hope someone takes it while it is still "nice" - and enjoys it as much as I did.

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  2. No small feat traveling the steps at Termini with a suitcase (or two!). Blessings on your journey.....

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    1. The hardest haul was up the very small staircase onto that last bus!

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  3. You gave the shirt off your back. A welcome gift to someone who needs it?

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    1. I hope so! Though the gift was inadvertent, I still hope it lands in the lap of someone who can use it. Though right now, it's staying cool that is tougher for the poor in Rome than keeping warm!

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  4. Love the photo! You manage to make ordinary travel woes interesting and amusing -- though I'm sure not amusing to you at the time!

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    1. I really did get a laugh about the sweatshirt, which I had in fact dithered about a bit. Did I need both a sweater AND a sweatshirt? Certainly not in Albano's current heat wave!

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