Traveling is exciting, interesting, amusing, intimidating, educational and exhausting. It tries you, challenges you, and expands you in many ways.
The media often portrays the world as a freighting place: criminals and terrorists around every corner. Although I hate to admit it, I buy into it a bit; not enough to cause me to stay at home in the safety of my own living room but enough to make adjustments to how I travel.
This time I wanted to downsize what I was taking with me. I thought having the suitcase along with a shoulder bag instead of another rolling carry on would not scream “I AM A TOURIST” as much. Well the lovely shoulder was packed with at least ¾ of what would have gone into my roll aboard. I quickly found it to be heavier than expected trekking though Atlanta airport from Concourse B to E and ten hours later arriving in Rome without sleep (I can never sleep on a plane) it felt like an anchor. Now we must get two trains to Terni and a bus to Torre Orsina unless I can contact our host.
Waiting in the Rome Tiburtina train station I was exhausted. I downloaded WhatsApp to be able to call and text via wifi without cell service but without cell service I couldn’t get onto the free wifi to let our host know when we would arrive (they text or email you a code to get onto the wifi). Even in other countries, there are no pay phones to be found…anywhere …anymore. Vittorio ended up borrowing a phone to call our host.
Thankfully, after a 1 hour train ride from Roma to Terni, our host, Corrado, was there to transport us to Torre Orsina but not before another 2½ flights of stairs with my suitcase and anchor. Oh, did I mention that it was 98°F? As the Italians say, “Fa caldo”. Corrado’s car was large enough for all of our luggage and it had AC, wonderful, glorious AC.
Let me first explain, Corrado’s home was not our first plan. Four months earlier we originally had arrangements with our friend, Enrica, to stay at her vacant family home but 3 weeks prior there were electrical problems that could not be fixed prior to our arrival. Enrica put us in touch with her cousin who has recently started a rental business in his unoccupied family home. One unit is completely renovated and renting but was not available for the whole month.
This time I wanted to downsize what I was taking with me. I thought having the suitcase along with a shoulder bag instead of another rolling carry on would not scream “I AM A TOURIST” as much. Well the lovely shoulder was packed with at least ¾ of what would have gone into my roll aboard. I quickly found it to be heavier than expected trekking though Atlanta airport from Concourse B to E and ten hours later arriving in Rome without sleep (I can never sleep on a plane) it felt like an anchor. Now we must get two trains to Terni and a bus to Torre Orsina unless I can contact our host.
Waiting in the Rome Tiburtina train station I was exhausted. I downloaded WhatsApp to be able to call and text via wifi without cell service but without cell service I couldn’t get onto the free wifi to let our host know when we would arrive (they text or email you a code to get onto the wifi). Even in other countries, there are no pay phones to be found…anywhere …anymore. Vittorio ended up borrowing a phone to call our host.
Thankfully, after a 1 hour train ride from Roma to Terni, our host, Corrado, was there to transport us to Torre Orsina but not before another 2½ flights of stairs with my suitcase and anchor. Oh, did I mention that it was 98°F? As the Italians say, “Fa caldo”. Corrado’s car was large enough for all of our luggage and it had AC, wonderful, glorious AC.
Let me first explain, Corrado’s home was not our first plan. Four months earlier we originally had arrangements with our friend, Enrica, to stay at her vacant family home but 3 weeks prior there were electrical problems that could not be fixed prior to our arrival. Enrica put us in touch with her cousin who has recently started a rental business in his unoccupied family home. One unit is completely renovated and renting but was not available for the whole month.
While where we are staying is quite acceptable, it has no real living room, it’s more a large dining room with a table for at least 16 including chairs, 3 hutches, 4 buffets or sideboards, another small table and a fireplace. There is no couch, so lounging around is not an option. The art pieces depicting the local area adorning the walls are touching, since this town is rich with artists of all kinds. We thought we would have a washer but 3 weeks was not enough time to get it installed. We are finding it difficult using the electrical outlets, since older Italian retrofitted homes have sometimes 2 or 3 different configurations of wall sockets, then there are adapters and converters…oh my. The bathroom has a tub as well as a shower. In the bedroom, the bed is comfy, they even took off the footboard to accommodate Vittorio and there is more than enough storage. We haven’t used the kitchen much yet to know how it works for us. The view is breathtaking and the breeze we get from being up on the hill is wonderful, especially in addition to the fan. It has rained the past two days in the afternoon so we haven’t been able to take advantage of eating al fresco with the beautiful view of Arrone, Casteldilago, and the valley below.
And the adventure continues…