Arrived in Rome

We had a really easy drive to Catania as we took the Autostrada, which is very fast.  The speed limit is 130 km/hr, but we don’t rip along at that speed in our tiny car.  We left really early as we did not know how long it would take to find the airport and return the rental car, but everything is so well signed and easy.  Also, the car rental return is right near the airport so we just walked across the street to the airport.  We ended up getting into the airport about three hours before departure and security is very quick, so we went for a cappuccino.

Our flight was delayed for about an hour and a half, so we were glad we had our Kindles, Sicilian cheese, and deli meat with us, we have learned to be prepared with snacks when flying.  We flew near Mt Etna, an active volcano near Catania, it is covered with snow.

We bought train tickets at the airport for the Leonardo da Vinci Express which runs non-stop from the airport to Termini, which is the main train station in Rome.  Since we have the system figured out, it was a breeze.  But we saw two bewildered people at the train station, so John went over and told them where the train would be and how to validate their tickets before boarding.  They were appreciative of the help.

We wanted to walk to our apartment from the train station as it is only about a 20 minute walk.  It was raining and of course our umbrellas were packed in our luggage.  We passed about fifty guys all over the place flogging umbrellas and plastic ponchos, but I didn’t care about getting wet, it was not pouring rain.

Somehow we fluked into the correct street again, this is getting weird.  I am usually not great with directions but figured it out. (John here, Marsha has homing pigeon instincts in Italy, weird.)  We had to go down a tiny street and then turn and go up another tiny street and there was our building.  We are very near the Forum of Augustus, we could see a few old Corinthian columns as we walked by, how exciting, Roman ruins!

Our apartment in Modica was made of stone and a bit on the cold side, we must have acclimatized to cold because we are boiling in our apartment in Rome, we turned the heat right down but it is toasty.

The apartment owner directed us to a grocery store to get some supplies.  Tomorrow we will look for smaller shops to buy our food.  Food is way more expensive here than in Sicily and of course, everything is better in Sicily, LOL!