Blog post No. 50 ...

Wow, I can't believe this is the 50th post and I've only been gone 27 days.

Well, I am in Volpiano now and I've dropped off more than half of my luggage at Giusi's place so I can travel light for my first true road trip of this adventure. Sure, living on my own in Torino was an adventure, but in many cases that was work related ;-)

I leave on a morning train to Rome from one of the Torino train stations. It's a seven hour train ride so I will be equipped with two books as well as some planning materials for when I head out to the other countries next week.

The Rome portion of my trip, because of travel times, will really be only three full days of sightseeing. I get in in the early evening on Wednesday and my train back to Torino on Sunday leaves in the afternoon and I arrive around 9 p.m.

I am excited about the things I will see in Rome. All I've heard is that you need a lot more time to fully experience Rome but hey, I want to see more than just Rome on this trip. I heard there are something like 900 churches alone in Rome so if you see only one a day, that's a few years you're committing yourself to and even I don't have that kind of time.

I am debating right now which way to start on the country trek because train travel is going to eat up a lot of my time as it is. Leaving from Torino also limits me a bit. I've thought of going to Paris first and then going to Barcelona, Spain. I've also thought about going to Switzerland first or even go through more of Italy, head up to Austria and Germany and then over, but it's all a matter of what kind of train schedule I can find to make sure I am back in Torino the day before I fly back to the U.S.

Then again, I may also take Barbra's advice and use Easyjet. Then again, perhaps I should use the airline service Ryanair, the airline I never knew I owned until now!

We'll see what comes of it all. One thing is for sure: I'll have had my share of trains for awhile after I get back to the U.S.


Ciao!

P.S. For those who wanted postcards, I mailed a batch of them out earlier today. I hope I get to the U.S. after they do.