Our vacation plan was four apartments London, Rome, Florence, a jog through the Swiss Alps and then Paris. Home after a night in London. To get from London to Rome we scheduled Euro star through the chunnel to Paris and the night train to Milan five hours later followed by a short jaunt to Rome. The plan was to arrive in Rome at 10am the morning after we left London and visit the Vatican museums that evening. The night before we left London our hostess in Rome sent us an email warning of a Italian rail strike the next morning followed by a Rome metro strike the day were scheduled to arrive. The next morning she said the press had d both strikes cancelled. Eurostar was uneventful and wonderfully civilized. Arriving in Paris we saw every rail station scam we'd been warned of the the space of fifteen minutes. It was actually pretty funny. We bought a couple carnets of Metro tickets since we knew we'd be returning to Paris and took the metro to from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon. Then we wasted most of our time finding the perfect cafe for lunch. Probably a waste of time except the we really did have fun menu shopping. The night train was on time. We had reserved four bunks in a six bunk cabin. In Milan our only room mate was a gorgeous young Frenchmen who insisted on helping us stow our backpacks. His English was as limited as our French, but we got along fine and the cabin felt cozy and comfortable. Our young teenage girls took over the open top bunks immediately and had a grand time. We negotiated an early bedtime without trouble as our room mate clearly wanted an early night too. The bunks are narrow and hard, but quite sleepable and we were all five of us out quickly.
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OP
Salem, Oregon, USA
209 posts
Part Two: When the train stopped, don't ask me where, an American woman in her twenties apologized for waking us up up and claimed the last bunk. She went out to stow her luggage and then started screaming and jumping up and down in the hall. She had lost her purse with passport, money, and train tickets. She spoke French and alternated loudly between French and English. The porter responded in English and asked the station staff to look for her purse. This went on and on. Then she discovered she'd left the purse in her luggage. The happiness was just as loud as the pain. I really am glad she didn't lose everything. But she really was loud. She came back in and asked our Frenchmen if he would swap bunks with her friend who was in a cabin with five Italian young men. I'm sorry to say, I lay there hoping he would not. One of her was bother enough. Two would have us up all night. He politely refused and all was quiet. I don't remember anything else until we reached Milan and the porter brought us all our passports. We all left the train, though some people were going on to Venice.
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OP
Salem, Oregon, USA
209 posts
Part Three: In Milan we learned the rail strike really was on but that some trains were still running. Ours was one of those. Easy trip to Rome where we arrived to a metro strike just started. Our apartment was in Sante De Mole, a suburb of Rome served by a twenty minute local rail ride. The woman at Tourist Information thought the local rail was covered by the strike. Fortunately, she was wrong about that and we reached S.D. Mole easily. Our hostess had given us a list of rail stations that she could pick us up at in the event of a strike, but we arrived at the closest station to the apartment without mishap. She met us there and drove us the couple blocks to the apartment. It was spacious, well furnished and blessedly cool. It was already 90 degrees outside. We felt very well looked after. She told us the metro strike would be off for rush hour 5-7 and so we used that window to get to the Vatican Museums. In the interim we grocery shopped and made a grand lunch and early dinner. I highly recommend Friday nights at the Vatican Museums. They are reservation only and the crowds are minimal. We were alone now and then in the Raphael rooms. The Sistine Chapel was full but not crowded. It was amazing. We took a taxi back to Roma Termini and a train to the apartment. We got in about 11.
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Salem, OR, USA
222 posts
Hi Jenny! Thanks for sharing this! Love reading other travelers experiences and advice. I'm alerting my son and his girlfriend about the Vatican - I didn't even know this was possible. When we went it was super crowded and hard to really see and experience everything. Do you make the reservations on the Vatican's website? Thanks again!
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OP
Salem, Oregon, USA
209 posts
Jaye, Yes you go to the Vatican Museum's website. You can make reservations for any of their normal hours there. It costs a four Euro fee per ticket. One of the options there is Friday nights. The only thing different about making a reservation for Friday night is that it's not open to people without reservations in the evening. That is what makes it less crowded.