InterRailing In Italy and Greece
Rome
Saturday 15th April 2006
Firenze SMN to Roma Termini
A Regional train goes direct from Firenze to Roma Termini taking 3 hours and 45 minutes. On arrival at the station it is about a 15 minute walk to Via Principe Eugenio where the Mi Casa Tu Casa hostel is located.
Mi Casa Tu CasaOnce we had located this very centrally placed hostel we checked in and were shown to our huge room. The room is actually designed for four people but we had it to ourselves. The hostel is very homely and friendly, it in fact feels just like staying in someone's flat. There is a kitchen with a fridge, crockery and basic cooking equipment. A basic self-service breakfast is included. You can help yourself to some mini toasts and bread. The breakfast isn't amazing so you may well want to buy some extra cereal.There are two bathrooms which are clean and well maintained. As with all the other places we visited linen and towels are included. The only real bad point is that at night the location is a bit dodgy. The streets between the station and the North side of the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele have many dodgy looking characters just standing around, not doing anything of any use. During the day all is fine, at night they can seem a bit threatening as they watch you walk past. We found that approaching the piazza and the hostel from the South side (as you would if you were coming back from the Colusseum) to be somewhat safer looking. During the day the location is great with all the sites of Rome in easy walking distance. The Colusseum is only 15 minutes walk away. |
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Sunday 16th April 2006
RomeWhen visiting Rome you are certain to have expectations of seeing plenty of Roman ruins and spectacular buildings. It does deliver.First port of call is the Colosseum. We didn't have time to get a ticket and go in but we saw plenty from having a walk around it and by peering in through the many pillars. As we pass the Roman Forum there are plenty of ancient ruins to see on both sides of the Via dei Fori Imperiali road. At the end of of this road furthest from the Colosseum is the somewhat pompous Altare della Patria. Other sites definitely worth seeing are the Fontana de Trevi, the Pantheon and of course the Vatican (passing the Castel Sant'Angelo) on the way. This was the day of the Pope's big Easter Sunday speech. We got there at around 5pm, well after it had finished. There were however hundreds of chairs still around which had been used for the earlier events. Getting into St. Peter's required getting into a five minute queue and then having our rucksacks X-rayed and ourselves scanned by a metal detector. It is however well worth it as the inside is amazing. Be careful of street sellers around Rome. Some can be very pushy trying to get you to by Roses / sunglasses etc. We saw the police scaring them off or confiscating their goods but they don't bother to arrest them. |
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Monday 17th April 2006
Roma Termini to Napoli Centrale
So far we'd travelled on Regional and InterRegional trains. Today we were to travel on a so-called Direct train. It is basically the same as an InterRegional train. In fact I have no idea what the difference is. The train numbers start with a 'D' and these trains are included in the InterRail ticket.
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