When in Rome

You are absolutely correct!!! Many places are not accessible for handicapped people or even people with trouble walking. I will say that Rome is better than Naples for cobblestones on the road and sidewalks, but it would definitely be a challenge. And even if you are not impeded in anyway, you still need to keep your wits about you as it would be very easy to fall. 

I was off to the train station early (but not too early). In a place that I don’t know, I do like to be in the right place well in advance of when I need to be there. I checked the board at the train station and yes, while the track isn’t announced yet — there is my train. 

Arrivals and departures at Naples train station

I think I got the hang of how the train schedule works. My first time, years ago, I was a bit “frantic” not knowing that the platform doesn’t show up until the train is there. Or at least close to the time. I managed to find a seat in the train station and read my ebook while I waited. 

Again, I took the first class train - it seems calmer, and is more comfortable. But I will say something — it appears that the people that are the least capable of carrying luggage are the ones that have tons of luggage. An older couple got on the train with two big suitcases, a smaller suitcase, a tote bag and a grocery tote bag. And they fussed on where to put the stuff until someone helped them put it up on the luggage rack. Then they struggled to get it off the train. I have no idea what they were all carrying (they spoke English), but it was way too much for them to deal with. 

As the train left the station, I got a picture of Mount Vesuvius. That is clouds at the top, not steam. 

Mount Vesuvius

We actually got free snacks on this train even though it was only slightly more than one hour to Rome. We were supposed to get snacks on the long ride from Sicily to Naples, but that never materialized. That’s why I carry snacks with me at all times. 

No need to use Google Maps to know where you were, as it was very clearly indicated on the screen in the car. One other thing they kept referring to on that screen was SAFTY, including beware of pick pockets. That is the first time I have seen any reference to that while here. 

You can watch the train move on the screen

This was our train - a much newer or at least a different style than the previous one. At the maximum and for most of the way, the speed was 299 KPH. You have to love the high speed train. It would be fun one year to buy a pass and visit as many cities by train as you could!!! 

The high speed train

I got off the train and spotted the colour coded garbage system in the train station. There are so many shops in this train station which is open at both ends. It’s huge and one thing I noticed immediately that the air felt fresher and the city is litter free. 

The color coded garbage bins

And now the fun part — finding a hotel. I started walking on one street and OH MY —- there are hotels everywhere. I guess I didn’t load the picture, but there are multiple hotels in the same building. One hotel on each floor. I don’t know how they work that out, but it was interesting. 

I randomly picked one that looked nice (I have good qualifications - None, other than it looks nice) and went in. There were two couples ahead of me, so I sat and waited to see if there was room. I’m not in a rush and it was early - around 1 PM. 

Yes —- they had a room, but not in this building. The hotel has several floors in another building down the street a ways and closer to the train station. I’m OK with that. 

I was given a very good explanation and a map of where everything is here in Rome as well as a caution about pick pockets!!! I guess it must be a thing here, but I have my body bag which I wear under my shirt and I just look a bit chunkier around the middle, but I’m good to go. We discussed getting to the airport on my last day and they will pack me a brown bag for breakfast and book a taxi for me. Seriously? It doesn’t get any better than that. The price? 140 Euro per night which is a very good price for a hotel. OH - plus city tax of 7 Euro. 

I have been so fortunate with all my hotel choices and let’s face it — they are here to cater to us.

You would not be able to do that with a group and I certainly would never do that with DH. The hotel is modern and clean, but it would take forever to find a place that suited him. Hence solo travel is the way to go. And the rooms are not big — the bed barely fits in the room so not much room for two but perfect for one. 

And there is the teeny elevator with the stairs wrapping around it. So common in Europe. Breakfast is in the main building which is a two-minute walk down the street. Who cares!!! Just got back from breakfast - it’s not even two minutes and YES — I take the stairs. 

The tiny elevator and the stairs

There is another hotel on the 1st floor of this building and my hotel is on the 2nd and third. Everything is operated by a key card and I would never have found my way without the guy from the hotel. Three locked doors to get into my room. 

One curiosity is the lobby of this building. It’s HUGE with this giant mirror in it. That’s a LOT of wasted real estate. It’s big enough, they could practically fit another room there. And it’s the only place you’ll find a full length mirror. But then — who cares what you look like on vacation?

A giant mirror in the lobby

My bug bite is calming down, but still itchy and I discovered another one on my butt cheek when I got to the hotel. The darn welts are huge but then my body doesn’t like bug bites and goes into panic mode!!! But that’s all I found so I’m good. 

There are TONS of motorcycles and scooters in this city and you’ll find rows and rows of them parked along the streets. I think this is the street that my hotel is located on. 

Parking for motorcycles

I decided to just wander around yesterday afternoon and do an Adventure Lab, which I managed to find all the steps. Some of them were very tricky, but it was fun. And it brought me to a street with a couple of small restaurants on it. I was going to go back to a “more popular” place, but then I decided I was on vacation and I always remember Neil, my Tour du Canada buddy, who said, if you are in a small town (or anywhere) don’t be afraid to try different places to eat. I checked the menu and saw they had this amazing salad with tuna and I was in. Thanks, Neil!!!!

This is. My favourite salad and I had it frequently when walking the Camino. You add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste!!!!

My favourite salad

Then I was off to explore some more and I found an Earth cache (geocaching) in a basilica nearby, so I went there. Yep —- visiting a city by geocaching. I do NOT need to go to all the most popular places — I’d rather visit places where there are no lines and no ticket fee. It’s all new to me, so why not? 

This is the Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore. As is typical of any basilica (cathedral or church), they are HUGE. I spent quite a a bit of time in this one and I will say that my church visiting for this trip is done! Granted, you will see different styles of gold on ceilings and statues and perhaps different stained glass, but one is enough for me. 

Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore

This is the ceiling in one part of the basilica. Amazing how much “wealth” is used to decorate these places. It’s almost obscene for a house of God. But I’m not going to go down that road. 

One of the ceilings inside the Basilica 

What I found weird was the HUGE sign by Samsung on the front of the building. I think it was advertising some event. I bet they get a lot of money for that to be there. 

It was an interesting visit and WAIT —- I discovered something that NO ONE (or not many would care about in this huge building. 

Can you guess? Of course you can’t, but look at this sign buried way in the back. Note the third point!!!!!

I recognize that symbol

If you are a pilgrim and walking to Santiago, Spain, you can get a pilgrim stamp for your passport!!!! The Camino has many routes across Europe and many stopping points and I spotted one of them buried in the back of the church. I haven’t seen any signs on walls or the road, but there is a Camino route here. Not the most famous part (that I know of). That was way more exciting than seeing more paintings and gold crucifixes!! OH —- I’m such a basic person!!

Then I looked at the map and saw a park. I’ve missed forest bathing and I needed a break so I headed to the park. Oh my —- the trees are pretty sparse and the grass was just weeds. But it was a break from the hard city scape and I meandered through it. I was going to stop and sit on a bench, but then I spotted something amongst the trees in front of me. NO WAY!!!!

A forest bathing break 

Yes - I had walked to the Colosseum!!!!! How cool is that? So I continued walking to it. What a fascinating building. 

The Colosseum

I stopped and read the signs on the outside of the building and there are 80 arches (entrances) on the bottom level. Two were reserved for the Emperor and the Authorities, while two more were reserved for the protagonists of the performances. The public went in the numbered entrances (76) with assigned seating. Can you believe? You could still see the arch numbers along the back of the amphitheatre, while on the other side, they are long gone as well as some of the fancy stone work. 

I got to see and learn a lot about the building without even paying to go in. They were still letting people in when I was there, but I was tired and I can just imagine myself falling from the top seating. I’ll wait and I may end up going today or I may not. I’ll see how it goes. 

An unexpected find

What a stunning building

Here’s a photo of the arches on the back of the Colesseum. See how the ridges of stone are still there and if you look close, you can see the Roman Numerals over the arches. 

The arches on the back of the Colosseum

And on the front side, most of that decorative detail and definitely the numbers are gone. 

The arches on the front side

By this time, it was getting late, so I wandered back to the hotel. I wore my sandals rather than running shoes which I won’t do again today. My feet were tired. But that’s OK — you are supposed to be tired on your vacation. 

I spotted this table close to the train station where they were selling souvenirs (JUNK) for 1 euro per piece. Good grief —- how much of that will end up in the landfill. It was just a table with junk with Rome on the pieces. 

One Euro junk souvenirs

But there are some neat shops along the way and I may even have to purchase something. It’s time to up my game from wearing bicycle themed T-shirts all the time. OH — and I spotted a shop where you could have a leather bag made. I’ve seen several neat items of clothing, but didn’t try anything on. Since I have two days to decide - I’ll see how it goes. Clothes shopping is not my thing, but these looked fun.

And here’s the open air train station. It’s huge and open at both ends. I did not mention that Rome is MUCH more civilized than Naples. The air is fresher, the streets are not littered and getting across the street is NOT nearly as dangerous. There are lights, which most people respect and the traffic is much calmer. I like this city!! But it has pick pockets — you can’t have everything!!!

The train station

Here is the tiny hall to my hotel room. Imagine if you had a lot of luggage. How would you get it to the room and then where the heck would you put it once you got it in the room. And once you open it - it would explode!!!! And here’s another reason for not having a lot of luggage. Let’s suppose that you make a mistake and you tell your hired car the wrong address for pickup. And that wee mistake makes you late for the airport. If you have to check luggage, they close that window 60 minutes before the flight. If you only have carry-on? You don’t need to worry about that. I will ONLY travel with checked bags in Canada for work. Never for pleasure, unless there are special circumstances. By the way —— the late check in thing did happen once to me on my way to Spain one year. It was NOT my fault and after begging, they let me on the plane!

The narrow hallway outside my door

When I got back to the hotel, I spotted a little sidewalk cafe very near the hotel door. So I stopped there for dinner. It was AMAZING!!!!!! And I splurged and had a beer as well. 

The pasta was AMAZING!!!! Simple but amazing

It was an amazing day. Again — one of the huge benefits of solo travel is that you are always happy. There is no one to worry about if you want to visit the Basilica or not, or do they want to wait while you research the information needed to do a geocache, or want to shop for clothes or anything else. If you are tired, you can rest, if you want to forest bath, you can do so. Yes —- it can be lonely since you have no one to talk to, but if you are comfortable with yourself, that isn’t an issue either. And if you choose to stop and read your book along the way? You can do that. No waiting for the bathroom. There are no ends to the joy of solo travel. 

The other thing I like is the spontaneity of traveling alone or with another very flexible person, who travels light. If you decide you don’t want to stay in that city, then you get a train and move along. Nothing is booked so you are not married to that town. Just don’t travel in high season and you should be just fine. I love this way of travel, but I’m dismayed at how much extra crap I brought that I don’t need. But I’ll get over that!!!! And my bags are pretty light, so it isn’t an issue. But I sure wish I had my backpack instead of dragging a suitcase along the sidewalk. 

It makes it super handy now that everything uses the same charge plug - thank you Europe for making Apple see the way!! My USB-C charge cord works like a charm. I had to charge my Fitbit once which takes its own charge cord, but I only have one plug. I have a fast charge cord which is short and a slow charge one that is LONG. Both were well used on this trip. 

I see it’s time to get the day started — and I still have to edit the post, but I’m going to find breakfast first. I get back to the hotel in the evening and I’m tired, but then I can’t sleep so I’m up half the night. Then sleep in in the morning. NO idea why that is happening. But I’m not worried. I have ZERO expectations of the day and if I get to see things I do, and if I don’t? I don’t really care — just being here is enough for me. I see there is a whole pile of stuff around the Colosseum that I didn’t see yesterday, so I may head there first. 

I only have one thing that I really want to experience and I need a ticket for that, so I must book that today for tomorrow. 

On that note, I’m out of here. 

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!!