Rome to Tuscany

Today was the day we were to say arrivederci (goodbye) to Rome and also the day of Katies birthday.

The start of the day was when the birthday girl woke and went straight to the phone to call Melanie for birthday wishes.

Followed by presents from The Hayes,The Chins, Melanie Wayne & Jackson.

Next was our breakfast, delivered to our room. Yum!

And then on the train to Tuscany. Termini train station was very busy and of course we needed to wait and queue again. One thing italians are good at is creating queue systems, again it was just a matter of pressing a button for a ticket and then waiting while watching the numbers slowly tick over, then rush to the counter when it is called otherwise they call the next number. We would have used the self serve ticket machines but as it was the first time to use the Eurail pass we needed to queue, sweat and wait it out. Once at the counter it literally took 1 minute to activate our pass. 

Next we had to run to the train. We did allow two hours to get to the train station, process tickets and board the train, and we made it but only with about 10 minutes to spare. We also were approached by a young man asking if we needed his help, in the end we did take it as we couldn't find our train. It was at the far east end of the station and with his help were able to get on in time. Of course when we got to the train he wanted money, but in this case he was helpful. I gave him the coins in my pocket which happened to be 3 Euro 20 Cents.

Once we boarded i realised we were on the wrong carraige, we were in 2nd class, not first! But on the other hand as the train was only a regional one I didn't know if it even had a first class. Leaving Katie on the carraige I run up the platform and was able to confirm the train did have a first class. 

Going back to get Katie i was then approached by the girlfriend of the boy who helped us. She also wanted money, but she didn't realise it wasn't going to happen. She followed us, got on the train with us, was of no help (even though she thought she was) then when we got to sitting down, put her hand out and just kept on saying "money".  We weren't going to weaken, and after me saying 'no' and katie saying, "we have already paid your boyfreind" she left the carraige.

The train ride to our villa in tuscany was pretty uneventful, but here are a few shots taken from the train window.