Day 4: Villa Borghese and Train Ride to Venice

Today we checked out of our booking.com rental and dropped our bags off very close to Termini station for just 5 euro per bag per day. The website bagbnb and drop site worked really well.

True to form, we barely arrived on time to collect our tickets for our reservation at the Borghese Gallery. It really takes way longer to get places in Rome than expected. 

This gallery limits the number of visitors and time allowed inside. Also, no pictures allowed. It has amazing sculptures by Bernini. Look up “Apollo and Daphne” and Canova’s statue of Paolina Borghese. I have never seen marble look so squishy and soft as the cushion Paolina is sitting on. A grown man near us actually brought his hand to his jaw-dropped mouth when he rounded the corner and saw the “Apollo and Daphne.” Yes, it is that breathtaking. Raphael’s “Deposition” was amazing. The entire place is decorated with amazing art everywhere, including the ceilings. I am glad we didn’t miss our reservation.

We tried to get to the National Museum next to see the frescoes on the 2nd floor, which are supposed to be amazing, but didn’t make it.

We picked a metro entrance that led to a randomly closed subway entrance/exit. Everyone was redirected elsewhere. We popped out near the Spanish Steps and agreed to walk to Trevi Fountain to try to throw coins again “the correct way” to ensure a return trip to Rome. Right hand over left shoulder. Video evidence shows I didn’t quite do it right, again. Guess I will have to come back and keep trying.

We decided to walk to our bags and Termini station, rather than risk another botched public transportation ride. We easily collected our bags and found our track number at Termini station. Due to a planning mishap back in FL, Ezi and I had tickets to Venice for the 2:15pm train and John and Edon have tickets for the 6pm train.

I forgot to get water on the way to the train, but everything else went smoothly.

The train seats are nice. The ride is fairly smooth. No internet though. The Italian countryside is absolutely spectacular. There really are rolling hills and distant mountains with vineyards and olive groves everywhere. Amidst these picturesque scenes are clumps of stone houses. It is beautiful, even in winter. This trip doesn’t really include the Italian countryside, but a future trip will. 

Ezi and I will arrive in Venice just after dark. We need to buy some vaparetto (water bus) tickets and track down our Air Bnb. That may be challenging without internet. We probably should have figured out some sort of phone/internet thing while here. Our US service won’t work here, but we probably could have got new SIM cards or cheap phones or something. Oh, well. Then, we are supposed to take the 1 hour vaparetto ride back to the train station to meet John and Edon at 10pm. As an added bonus the beautiful 60 degree weather of Rome is to the south of us and it will literally be freezing in Venice. Another oversight in the planning department. Should be an interesting evening!

It is nearly midnight. We have all arrived safe and sound in Venice! There were real, live people to talk to about the public transportation and there were also timetables, so we actually made it where we needed to go and when. Yay!