Roma, Day 23
The challenge for this morning was to get back to Florence from Monteriggioni in the Merc. On the way to breakfast we chat with a whirlwind of an Italian lady who has been heavily involved in the Winnebago Conference. Turns out that she is actually coordinating the Conference on behalf of Fiat and that she is 30 percent up on budget for this year. Nice one. Wish we could measure the effectiveness of service based industries as easily as this.
After our supplied breakfast we head up to reception and settle our bill. Then its time to bring the vehicle around, throw in the luggage and hit the road. Before we actually put the foot on the accelerator, we fire up the sat nav. This really has to work if we are going to get back to Florence. We drive out of our rural setting, cover the car in dust and start tuning into Miss Sat Nav. On to the motorway and then……….zippo. Turn the unit off, fire it up again, off we go, and then zippo. We are connected to the charger, whats the deal as Jerry Seinfeld would say? We finally work out that its the battery, man. The rental dudes either forgot to charge up the battery properly, or the battery itself is faulty and operating at such a low level that Miss Sat Nav can’t speak. As we get to to the outskirts of Florence, we manage to get the unit going again. We only need 5-10 mins out of the thing and it actually hangs in there. As we scoot through the narrow one way streets and head into the Avis garage we both give a huge sign of relief. Time to sort out the money owing. We’ve put a small scratch on the hub cap. No liability. I indicate that I’m not paying for the sat nav. Its written off the bill. We square up a small amount of money and head for a coffee zone. Done.
We walk our luggage up to the Florence station. We’re early, but that’s cool. Train to Roma. As we are putting our luggage on the train (always a bit of a bunfight) another young female passenger seems to be helping, until I realise that this person is not a passenger. And the hand goes out. I give her a couple of Euros, smile to myself and we take our seats. We get up to 240kph. The countryside is spinning by. I read Duff McKagan’s (Guns ‘n’ Roses) account of life in the early 1990s and develop a new found respect for the guy. From the prospect of death to Mountain Biking to Martial Arts to business courses to a new family. Pretty impressive. At the Rome station we navigate our way to the exit, wave away more help from randoms and hail a taxi. Sue makes sure that we get off the train first before others board, with a hearty “excuse me”! 10 Euros later we are at our hotel. The way to go. We dump our stuff and start walking. We are right in the heart of Rome. Our travel agent has been brilliant in putting us into really nice secure and very comfortable central locations. We grab a meal at one of the many bistros, buy a few things from the supermarket and head back to HQ. No CNN. No BBC. Whaaaat? We find an English version of Law and Order, SVU. Another big city. Tuscany to Florence to Rome. In one day.
armani junior
classic view up one lane
piazza
mignanelli
gazlington 