The Cubicle is empty!!!

Where: In transt from Rome to Conegliano
When: Wednesday, Sept. 7

Today was travel day. We’re going to visit my sister Maria in Conegliano.

We left the Hotel Alimandi early, like 7:45 am. Early enough so Don and Mary didn?t even have breakfast. Although Maria Sue packed two slices of cake to give to them while we were waiting for the taxi. We had the hotel call for a taxi that can fit 5 people and luggages. You would think that they would have some minivan. But they had a small minivan the size of a midsize minivan in the U.S. We did fit all 6 people including the driver in that small “minivan” which took us to the Centrale Statzione.

I picked up the reserved tickets. My sister Maria reserved the tickets for us. I just went to self-serve window to pick up the tickets. The teller had a little problem understanding my english even though I asked him if he spoke english and he anwered alittle. They have these people that roam around certain area to assist anyone that needed help. Most of them speak english really well since a great majority of the travellers are english speaking people. Although Germans do alot of travelling too.

We got on the train, the Eurostar, so yeah it was fast, and it was even better since we were in first class. The guy that was across from me, some business man, fell asleep immediately and by no time was snoring away. It was pretty much like that with intermittent stops. He finally got off in Padova. But our first stop was in Firenza (Florence). Half of the original riders got off and was replaced by American tourists. So english was a predominant language on our car all the way to Vinezia (Venice). The ride to Vinezia (Maestre) was uneventfull until we got off the train. An american from another cart lugging two HUGE luggage asked me if this was Venice. I said no and that the next stop (Venezia (Santa Lucia)) was his stop. He got back on and the door literally closed on his ass. He just made it and probably saved him a minor headache. That was my good samaritan deed for the day.

At the platform, I checked to see what regional train we needed to catch. By the time I knew for certaind what train to take (3 min) I turned around to see the train leaving. Back to the board to see when the next one is coming, 20 min on track 2. Showed Deanna how to read the train schedule board for when she travels next time.

At Treviso, Maria, Deanna and her parents got off the train and I luckily peered out to see if they were ok. And they were not on their spot. So I looked out side and saw them on the platform and yelled at them to get back aboard, which they did. Headache averted. We do have a plan for missing the train and that is, if you’re separated. The people on the train always get off at the destination and wait. The person left behind get on board on the next train and get off at the intended destination to meet up with the party. Hope this scenario does not happen.

Vito and Maria picked us up. We then headed to the castle on top of Coneglian to have some drinks and gelatto. Just to relax with the view of the small towns in the valley and the Dolomites on the distance. It’s always a breathtaking view. One of many to come I hope.

We got to my sister’s house and got settled in. Vito had to go to work for a spell and when he came back we had some prosecco to get the festivities started.

For dinner we went to Castel Brando. This castle was an old monastarty and a millionairre bought it from the monks and renovated it to have a pizzaria, hotel, spa center, convention center, etc. everything that business people would need. Had some great food as usal here in Italy. We took a stroll at the castle afterwards and called it the night.

Overall a long day of fun! which is a good thing.

Ciao!!

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 8th, 2005 at 7:59 pm and is filed under C The Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.