Sunday 20 August

Later … well, praise God! I was very aware of the power of prayer. We got in at 10.01, off and into the baggage area by about 10.15; my bag had been checked through from Sydney with a PRIORITY label because I was on Premium Economy on the first flight, so it was about 5 minutes to wait and it was there on the carousel. Super fast from the other other side of the airport. I had no idea of the time until I finally looked at my watch to find out the bad news and saw that it was only 10.20 and my train was 10.53. So off I ran, got to the station (wonderfully efficient airport) and was on the platform when it came in. The train headed for Rome city. Around the airport it appears to be rural and then industrial. Very fast train, pretty quiet except for the bunch of young Italian men – after all, it’s a Sunday. Not packed but plenty of people.

When I got to Termini Roma, that’s where the world exploded! People rushing everywhere. Similar country style station to Central but bullet trains everywhere. I couldn’t find my train on the indicator at first so I discovered Maccas across the road and bought a cup of tea. Nowhere to sit so I headed back across to the terminal – easier said than done with huge suitcase, trolley  and very hot large tea. I miss the Aussie helpfulness: there’s no chivalry here! So I sat on the ground because there aren’t any seats in these public areas and had my cuppa with a roll I brought from the plane. I caught a very impressive looking high speed train - 247 kph all the way!

Florence Station was just as frenetic, and again no seating, but I found the meeting place and soon my friends were waving excitedly at me from the other end of the platform. It was pretty hot walking the short distance to our mini bus. The driver took us on a little drive around the city (Florence: Firenze), the up to Piazzale Michelangelo, a little height above the city where you get an amazing view.