We love to travel light. For a one or two week trip we’ll bring one carry-on piece of luggage and a small day pack. We could probably live comfortably for a month with the occasional trip to a cleaner. This trip is different. We will be taking a two week cruise and need a variety of “resort style” and formal clothing. For that we purchased a modest sized bag. As for garages, stuff expands to fill the space. All five pieces of luggage were filled to exploding.
Why a discussion about luggage, that’s not talkin’ Roma. Well the luggage became an annoyance once we arrived. Connections and the flight into Fiumicino Aeroperto was smooth. Baggage collection was a bit more challenging as the baggage was slow to unload and it was “fun” to find the correct carousel. With baggage in hand, we next searched for the train terminal.
The train terminal at Fiumicino is very well marked and easy to find. It’s a very short walk (relatively…). The luggage was a minor annoyance.
Not knowin how to use the ticket machines, we asked a charming young fellow at a ticket counter for two tickets on the local train going to Trastevere. No problem. The tickets were 8 eruo each and the train was arriving in 12 minutes. Great. Luggage and passengers made it on the train, no problem, train stops are presented on a marquee making it darn near fool proof. We got off at Trastevere station and made our way out to the street. Again the exit was well marked, but required going down stairs, through a tunnel, and back upstairs to the station house. The “how to” described getting tickets for the #8 tram which runs from the train station to our stop. Again this was not a problem. The tobacconist sells all manner of things and we easily bought two tickets for Roma’s wonder bus and tram system.
Tickets come in 75min, 1 day, and 3 day increments. A single use ticket is $1.50e. Here we found our first hassle. The tram stops outside the station. Our “how to” guided us to our left. The tram stops to the right. I guesss that’s the difference between facing train station going in v.s. going out. We were hauling our luggage all over the place across cobble stone sidewalks with no idea where we were going.
The Italians are a very fun loving and gracious people. All we had to do was ask. A fellow pointed to a tram waiting to load passengers, it was the #8 and it was nearly full. It is no fun pushing onto a nearly full bus or tram. We did not win over any friends for the Stati Uniti on that trip.
The next issue was finding Via De Genovese #38, “our” building. Once you know where it is, it is still difficult to find it without a few side trips. Not knowing was hell with a 44lb weight on wheels. Glad for the wheels. It took probably 30 minutes to find the building with help from a local then local police. Rosie, the woman we were to meet at the flat was nowhere in sight. We were over 30 minutes late and had no reasonable expectation that she would wait that long.
Rosie answered on the second call, said she was busy at the moment but would be there in 20 minutes to welcome us. Casting about for what to do with our luggage, we walked the 30 meters to a local restaurante. The owner came out and suggested we could have something there and he would watch our luggage. We ordered two cappuccinos and I must admit, the Italians do know good coffee. My cappuccino doppio was superb. The 30 minutes it took Rosie to arrive went very quickly, though I call out, “Rosie” to any woman who seemed the bit lost and got some puzzled looks back.
Rosie arrived and she and Ellen scrambled to the 4th floor. Ellen might take issue with scrambled, but that’s what it looked like to me. Carrying my day pack, carry-on, AND the oversized bag was not a scramble. I was in a panting sweat at the last of 68 steps.
We arrived. The apartment was exactly as shown on the website. It is small, cozy, well appointed, with a view over the roofs of Trastevere. It does not overlook a monument, which is OK for us. We’ll go to the monuments and use the apartment to sleep.
Thus far renting from Homeaway.com has been great.
What was not prominently mentioned in the flat’s listing: it is located two short blocks from the #8 tram. The #8 tram ends at the Vittorio Emmanuel II monument and very close to the colosseum. We now use the #8 to go anywhere. You purchase tram/bus tickets at any tobacconist: single use for $1.50e is good for 75 minutes, day passes for $7.00e, and 3 day passes.
We have been stuck out after tobacconists close and not having a ticket we rode the #8 anyway. This can work as tickets are seldom checked, but the fine for riding with an invalid ticket is $100.00e. Now we buy tickets ahead.
We have seen more Smart Cars in Italy than any other single car. It is the national car of Italy (or at least of Roma) and it makes sense. They are small, inexpensive to operate, inexpensive to insure, and inexpensive to purchase.