Thursday

Today I truly fell in love with Italy. What was dubbed as “Visit to Naples Maintenance Yard” (honestly sounded like a potential snooze-fest) actually was awesome! A 70 minute ride on the Frecciarossa took us from Rome to Naples where we got to see the newest train in the fleet – one the Prime Minister will ride on for Expo Milan next month. The engineers ooh’d and aah’d at the cockpit and other technical parts while I checked out the business class luxury seats. Pizza on the water’s edge (and a menu!) capped off our day and we headed back to Rome. We all got to visit the cockpit while the train was in full speed for this stretch – 300kph (186mph). 

We spent the evening with friends, walking around the Coliseum area and checking out ruins, dinner at an Irish pub that played American head banging music and then phased into karaoke, gelato and window shopping on the two mile walk back to the hotel. Great night. Terry is asleep and I am listening to the sounds of the city through the opened windows (we are not smart enough it seems to make our AC work): a man and woman laughing over a game, a group of young people singing and walking down the street together, tinkling of dishes from a restaurant. It is a different world from Clovis, for sure, and we are enjoying experiencing it.

More as I have time…

Tomorrow: shopping. 🙂