Strangers on a Train

So, I’ve never really travelled by train before, let alone for 24 hours.

I had a 5-hour journey back to Paris, from the south, followed by a two hour stopover and then a 14-hour overnight journey to Rome. I’m sure many millions of people have done this journey without batting an eye, but for me, it was quite the romantic-sounding adventure. 

The 5 hour journey passed quickly, I got work done for the deadline that was rapidly approaching. My friend M had sent me a sweet message saying she’d love to see me if I pass through Paris again, so I texted her asking if she wanted to meet up for a quick coffee before the next leg of my journey. She immediately wrote back, one-upping me, and offered to feed me dinner before my overnight train.

So sure enough, the train was delayed, then the metro broke down, and I finally arrived at her place with only 45minutes to an hour before I had to run for my next train. She fed me delicious food, wine and chocolate and then accompanied me to the next train. I’m hoping that somehow she will become part of my family… A sister in law maybe?

I got on the train, with no idea of what to expect. I found my compartment, realized it was pretty much full and walked right by it to the next empty one, right beside it. I sat down, spread my stuff out, grabbed my book and started to read. Two pages in, I was politely interrupted by a young Ozzie gentleman who asked if I minded if he sat. We got to talking and as soon as I found out that he was a carpenter, I started drilling him (hahahhahahahahahhahah) for information about the trade.

We were having a great conversation until the train attendant came by to ask for tickets. Turned out he hadn’t bought one and had been told that they eurorail pass was enough. He left to deal with that and I remained to see if I could sweet talk Massimo, the Roman attendant into letting me stay in this roomy, empty car, instead of joining the 5 others who were going to share the other car. My Italian sweet talking skills aren’t great, but they were adequate.

I met up with the Ozzie in the bar car later on and we shared some vino and chatted. The train jostled and rattled and really made me feel like I was in one of those great old movies. I had to keep a firm hold on the wine so that it didn’t go flying. We made plans to do some typical touristy things the next day. I never seem to have trouble falling asleep in moving vehicles. Just thinking about the rocking motion is enough to put me to sleep. I had a relatively decent night’s sleep, considering the bed was barely wide enough to lie on my back without falling off.

The next day, we disembarked and I called dad to find out where the apartment was so that we could drop our stuff off before exploring. As it happened, A and dad had forgotten to mention that I was arriving before them, so I went with the Ozzie to stash my bags at the hostel he was thinking of staying at.

We took off on foot to the Colosseum and spent the day walking around the city’s main attractions. After having covered a lot of ground, we headed back to the hostel so that I could pick up my stuff and I hopped in a cab to go meet my dad and A at the apartment they had rented. The cab driver was sooooo Italian. We were barely able to communicate, but he fell in love with my name and would say it before he pointed out any famous location."Emma, Pizza Venezia! Emma, Mussolini house! Emma, Tivere Riverrrr! Emma, Israeli Church (he meant synagogue)!"

 









We pulled up to Viccolo Moroni, in Trastevere and I hopped out and walked up this great little street and saw dad standing there, in the setting sun, in front of this incredibly old wall. Good moment. The apartment A had found was from the 1500s and had been redesigned by this woman who rents out various flats around Rome and her architect son. 

The wall outside of it was from the time of Marcus Aurelius, who you may remember from Gladiator where he was played by Richard Harris. When I mentioned this fact to A, she laughed at me. I don’t understand why. ;)

That night we all caught up, went out to explore the neighbourhood and had a botiglia de vino in the Piazza Santa Maria and then went out for supper at a great little restaurant around the corner from our flat. When in Rome…