Today, we said goodbye to beautiful Montefili Estate and hopped in our BMW station wagon. We drove out of the Tuscan hills onto the A1 autostrada and headed towards Rome. We drove for about an hour and a half before stopping in Orvieto.
The town is way up high on a cliff, so we rode a funicular into town. We ate pizza at a great little restaurant, walked around the town, rode the funicular back down to the station at the bottom of the hill. Then, bam! An Italo, the fastest train in Europe, roared down the track going 186 MPH!
Then we got into the car. We were driving out of the parking lot, when another high-speed train, a Frecciarossa (red arrow), zoomed by. We’d stumbled upon the Rome-Florence Dirretissima, one of the fastest train lines in the world!
Going way, way, way too fast (186 MPH, remember?) to get a great photo, but this is a Frecciarossa.
Then we drove to our apartment in Rome, which is on the top floor of a 1930 building. It’s huge! And it has a big terrace.
We then walked around Rome. Which, well, left much to be desired. As in, the Trevi Fountain was drained and scaffolded for maintenance. The Parthenon was closed. And the city was packed beyond belief! We just ended up eating dinner (I had risotto, and French fries) and going home. Meh.
- Hayden M. Strong
(This one’s for you, Ba.)