What a day! Started off with a surprise. Scrambled eggs and bacon were available at breakfast. European breakfasts are full of cold cuts and sweet, very sweet pastries and cakes. Cereal and canned fruit is OK, but the selection never varies. Cosmos had arranged a transfer from the hotel to the main railway station in Rome. Another couple were also going to Venice shortly after our train, so we shared the cost, €15 each. We were picked up half an hour before we were expected to be, but the driver said there might be a lot of traffic. Well it wasn't too bad. Somewhere after the Vatican, the car went down a tunnel and we drove underground almost to the station. There were other tunnels going off in other directions, so it seems there is an extensive tunnel system under the centre of Rome. Naturally we were a bit early, but we stood watching the departure board, firstly to confirm the time and number of our train and secondly to find out which platform it was leaving from.

So we said goodbye to Skye and Terry from Sydney and headed to platform 4. We were in coach 1 in first class. Naturally we had to walk the full length of the train to coach 1. We were nearly there when a woman rushed up and asked our coach number. She took Edie's suitcase and went on ahead. She manhandled both cases into the train and put them in the luggage area and then asked for money for helping us. It was all a bit of a con of course, but there was no way we would have been able to get them on ourselves. So it was worth a couple of euros. The coach only had about 12 people in it when we set off. The ride was very smooth and fast. We reached 249 klms an hour. Being first class passengers we were offered a free drink with some biscuits.  It was very comfortable. We were sitting next to a window and didn’t have anybody sitting next to us. We had a table between us. Edie sat facing the engine as travelling with my back to the way we were going does not affect me at all. Guess it’s from years of travelling to work by train and you took any seat that you could get. Only one stop on this express and thats at Florence.