Another dreary day – there are some streaks of blue, but mostly clouds and a humid wetness. The temps are cool enough, it’s just not the best of days for sight seeing – we’re glad that we are just taking it easy and visiting Paolo at Hosteria Antica Roma for lunch.
We take our time getting up and out. But do manage to hop on the free port shuttle just before it leaves. Good timing! They drop us off way away from the port gate though – there are a ton of ships in port and obviously we didn’t get the closest drop point. Just a little bit more walking – for us – it’s not an issue, but for some of these people it is definitely going to be harder for them.
We trot ourselves up to the rail station in no time, passing all the ticket stands selling “fast train” tickets to Rome for 15 euro. That’s the direct train that lets you out at St. Peters/The Vatican and only leaves at 9:30 am and returns at 4:30pm. We don’t want that because we’re going to Appia Antica – a long way from the Vatican. And as it typically is, when you do your own thing, we get round trip tickets to Rome for only 12 Euros each, we can take any number of regional trains at any time of the day and we can also use the tickets on the metro and the buses. So really? That’s the way to go regardless.
There is a train in the station when we purchase our tickets, but we don’t want to rush and get to the restaurant too early, so we wait for the 10:02 train – which is there, just on another set of tracks. We pull out right on time and watch the countryside give way to the magnificent city of Roma!
We take the train all the way to Termini, then walk the 100’s of miles of tunnels underneath to get to the metro. Sheesh – it’s further to the metro than it is to walk from the Civitavecchia train station to the ship! Wowzer! But – again, we’re in no hurry, so we amble along. We get to the metro turnstile and Ed’s ticket won’t work again for some reason (this is getting a little disturbing 2 days in a row). Odd – it was validated and everything, but it won’t open the turnstile. Thankfully there is an agent there who takes the ticket, tries it at every turnstile and finally gives up and sends Ed around through some open gateway. Phew! That would have been ugly!
We think we’re close to the train – but oh no – just because we’re in the Metro station doesn’t mean the track is close – seriously – another 5 minutes of walking and traversing stairways and escalators and we’re finally at the train tracks. No wonder no one is fat here! You can’t be with all this walking.
We hop our designated subway train and alight at Colli Abani – on the other side of the Parco de Appia Antica. We’ve done this before, walked through the park to get to the old Appian Way, but today it’s just an icky hot and sticky day, so even though it is a lovely oasis away from the city, it’s a little bit of a trudge. And the sky is threatening. Yikes!
But Team ELA’s prevails! And we make it to Hostaria Antica Roma just before the deluge comes down! Even though we tried to time our arrival, we’re still a bit early and Paolo’s first customers. He greets us, as always, with his infectious grin and big warm hugs. We sit inside (a first in all the times we’ve been here) and trade stories and chat amiably as the restaurant begins to fill up with a few more diners.
After reading some reviews – and talking about the restaurant being published in the upcoming NYTimes 36 hours in…book, we finish our meal and have to say a fond goodbye. We end up exchanging t-shirts – a new Hostaria Antica Roma shirt designed by Paolo’s wife (and really awesome design at that!) for Ed, and a Lowcountry Harley Davidson shirt for Paolo (who has lost so much weight on his diet, I’m a little worried we should have brought him a medium!)
We end up calling a taxi because it is still raining and we don’t want to stand outside waiting for the bus (there is so little room on the side of the road, and with all the rain, we’d be a soaking mess by the time the bus came). The ride to the Ostiense train station takes about 5 minutes and is well worth the 10 euros it costs. Once there we have 30 minutes for the train, so we shop in the little grocery store, picking up beer, wine, chocolate and cookies (which I end up giving the cabin steward so we don’t eat them all!).
Back on the train, we snooze our way to Civitavecchia, then wake ourselves up with our walk to the shuttle, and hop aboard – after a very relaxing day in Rome –well –outside of Rome!
Tomorrow – Livorno – where we will head into the interior of Italy for Bologna!
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