My husband had class/training in Italy for a week, so my son and I decided to tag along. My husband had his itinerary set for him, I bought tickets for our son and me on a ticket website. The big cheapie airline here that you always hear about it RyanAir, but it has many restrictions. The fees can kill you, one of them is that our tickets would cost us each an extra 15,50EU because our place of origination was in Belgium. I was able to get our tickets with a bigger airline, we could check bags up to 50lbs each without an extra charge and we still saved 50EU.
My son and I left the day after my husband did. This gave him time to check out the airport a little bit, get to the hotel and settle in before we invaded. We travel pretty well together when there aren't timelines that have to be met. We would have been fine traveling together, but the tickets for a Sunday leave date would have lost me my 50EU. Anyway, we had to catch the train from a neighboring town, about 15km away, at 0624. I had the car all packed except for my personal carry-on and us. My son wore his pajamas, and was still groggy most of the way to the station. I had bought the tickets the day before just in case we were running a little behind. Now, this train station we use is undergoing some construction, but we use it because the people are so nice and it's small. Because of the construction, there aren't ANY trains that use the platform nearest the station house. To get to the platforms, you have to climb about 80 stairs. 80 stairs, early in the morning, with a groggy 3 year old and a 30lb bag was going to present some challenges. Fortunately, for us, a good Samaritan helped us out and carried the bags for us up the stairs, down the stairs and over to a good standing place. Then he climbed up and down them again to get to his platform. Thank you!! It saved me so many problems because little boy was not going to climb them himself at 0620.
The train was very nice, a double decker with great seats, so both of us were happy. We got to the station in plenty of time, through check-in and security. The little boy was an ace at security, taking off his shoes and coat and walking through the magnet alone and putting every thing back on. Excellent.
We had time to get breakfast and eat before we went to our gate. Everything was great. The plane trip was ok, he did well, but the descent really bothered his ears. We flew into Milan and out to Rome with no issues.
Then we got to Rome. I knew I had to get the train from the airport into Rome's Termini Station. There are no trains from the airport going anywhere else except Rome. This was no big deal, but it was out of our way. The other option was to wait for my husband to get out of class and drive the hour up to the airport to get us, waiting for 5 hours, or we could get a taxi and pay about 100EU. Getting from baggage to the train terminal is easy, everything is well labeled.
The Leonardo Express from the airport Termini was fine, we sat with some very nice women from Romania that spoke great English and were entertained with the antics of a cooped up 3 year old. He was quite the ham on the train.
THEN, we tried to find the stupid train from Termini down to Latina. "Good Gravy!" to quote a friend of mine. It was a pain in the rear. Thank the lord for a bag with wheels, big enough to cart around a child too! He hopped a ride until we got to the movable walkways, then ran, then hopped back on. We walked and walked and asked and asked (don't ask Interpol, they were rude, unhelpful and unfriendly) until we finally found the customer service counter. Termini houses the metro lines and the train lines, they ARE NOT THE SAME. We were able to get our ticket, kids ride free, and got to our train with 3 minutes to spare. Ahhh. All that craziness tired the little boy out and he fell asleep about 20 minutes into our hour long train ride. He was a great boy, but he needed the rest.
When we got into Latina, I knew that we'd need a taxi to get the 10km into town. I was going to take the bus, but he was still sleeping and with the bag and him, it was easier to part with the money than waking him up and wrestling the bag. A very nice man took it upon himself to carry our bag down and up the stairs to the taxi station and helped with get the price right for the trip. He only spoke Italian, but the girl sitting next to us translated some questions between us and he was a blessing. Many stairs in train stations and the escalators don't always work. No IDEA in Europe.
When we got to our hotel and the husband was getting ready to hunt us down. I'm not sure how he ever would have found us. My phone only works in Belgium. There's some quirks with jail breaking it, so I have no communication when we're not in Belgium. A problem that will be remedied before we travel separately again.
We could not have been luckier with our traveling that day. We learned many lessons about traveling on public transportation in Rome, who not to ask, and the generosity of strangers when you are carry a whiney and/or drooling toddler.
10/17/11
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