Wow how long can I drag out the end lol well in my defense, it is a bit emotional, the end of this entire month here. Will we choose to ever do such a thing again? Spoiler alert: probably š
We had one final dinner left in Todi, which we chose to spend in the Warm Pizza Restaurant for obvious reasons haha
The next morning, everything happened in a hurry. We woke, packed up everything after literally a month living here in our 700 square-foot flat, we walked into town for the last time, saw frightening Nonna for the last time (we really did!), then our rental hostess finally showed up to drive us to our mysterious bus stop — no one seems to know where it actually is.
Our hostess was not overly reassuring: āI talked it over with my husband last night, and weāre pretty sure this is where the bus will be!ā
We rode down the various streets out of the hilltop town, down some other roads fairly far away, and suddenly we were dropped off.
The view across from the potential Bus Stop
We got here super-early, being super-nervousā¦ there is nothing saying a bus canāt breeze by twenty minutes early and you missed it. Remember the freaking airplane from Rome which left fifteen minutes early for Malta, and so we missed it? #NeverForget
There are our long-suffering bags, including the Hartman which will never ever be checked again š Have to admit to being a bit proud at the size of our luggage: all our computers, etc, everything for an entire month! When we first arrived, our hostess couldn’t believe this was all we had, she was worried she’d have to bring an extra car for us lolSam in her natural element: a bus stop?!? šš Naturally it was raining, I blame the emo kid at the far right lolNewly-discovered Euro vehicle!!And here we wait in the rain opposite the no-doubt luxurious Hotel EuroPalace, for a mythical bus which may not ever appear…But lo: a bus appeared! It was suspiciously early, but it did seem like the right one, maybe? At least we were finally out of the rain!Last view of Todi… our flat was three short blocks away from the tower, dang we’re more than ready to go but it’s still kind of sad to say good-byeI an so happy NOT to be driving here for once!!Apparently it was the correct bus, we’ve made it all the way back to the Terni train station! So far so good, remember this bizarre edifice? Travel hurdle number one accomplished!Travel Hurdle Number Two: We may be waiting at the right platform. Remember how in Italy they donāt post anything at all until ten minutes before your train is due to leave? So yeah we’re on Platform 2, which may or may not be the correct one: the display is of course completely blank.Nine minutes before scheduled departure time, and a train pulls up! Is it or isn’t it? Somehow we managed to push & shove our way onboard, and then weāre off, everyone seems to think weāre Rome-bound so maybe this is the right train after allA long while later, we disembark; you can see the big sign way down at the end of the line, āRoma Termini.ā Our puny train from out in the boondocks doesnāt deserve a central track, it stops WAY far away and we so we have to hoof it maybe half a mile in.
So we deserve what happens next!!
Oooooooo baby, a cheeseburger & a hamburger, four euros! I’m Lovin It!!!One horrifying cab ride later, weāre at the final hotel of the trip
Getting the cab was fairly straightforward (for Italy), but getting to the hotel was not. No, the problem was not the several gruesome deaths we narrowly avoided on the way; turns out the road was closed a few blocks from the hotel. We unloaded all our bags and kind of randomly picked a direction to walk, and hope our hotel would magically hover into view.
Which it pretty much did! This was a really nice hotel, loved the staff–we’d stay here again for sure.
The building on the right is our hotel, you can see the lit-up rooftop patio–sorry, I took this pic much later and messed up today’s narrativeView from the hotel, pretty insaneStill hungry, we immediately went up to the (frigid) outdoor rooftop patioāwhich is apparently a pretty happenin destinationāand Sam, desperate to taste anything different, ordered chips & guacamole. She gets an A+ for effort lol but yeah… the guac turned out to be pretty much dank green hummus.
Bad quac or no, we have made it back to Rome! For a couple of days I had been stressing about packing everything up into our tiny bags, finding our driver, then finding the right bus, then finding the proper train, getting on and off at the right times, finally getting to our hotel somehow… but it all got done, it all happened, and if bad guac on the rooftop patio is the worst part of the day, I’ll settle for that.
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