It’s not even been a week yet and I’m already confused. Did I stay in Milan or come straight to Rome?

We left Landstuhl, Germany about 90 minutes later than I had planned because when we got on the train, I second-guessed myself and I walked us in one door and right back off. Turns out I should never second guess myself because I was right. It was the train we needed. Oh well, we just had to wait another hour or so for another one to come around. But… before that one came around again, I found another, that took us through Basel, Switzerland, where we had to change trains. Another country? Why not!

Once we got rolling, Steven fell into his old routine… sleeping on the train. There’s something about the gentle rolling that just lulls one to sleep!

When we stopped in Basel, we saw that we had about 30 minutes in between trains, so we stopped at a station Thai restaurant and grabbed some food to take on the train for dinner. €16 a piece, which after the past few days in Germany was expensive. After I paid we decided to grab some water for a total of €7. I gave her back the change she had just given me and I had a few euro in my pocket to make the difference and brought it out to count. The clerk just grabbed it all out of my hand and said thank you. I looked at Steven confused, thinking WTH, because I swear I had more than seven in my hand. I asked if that was right and she just waved me off, said okay, and went on to the next person. I really think I overpaid but we had to leave to go catch the train.

It was a very beautiful ride through the area and you could see snow-cover mountains… it felt very Heidish and you could almost imagine the von Trapp children singing in the mountains.

The clerk was so sweet and helpful, giving us a rundown on what we could find in the area and telling us even though we were in a second-class hotel in the expensive clothing shopping district his prices were “normal.”

Up in the room, I was pleasantly surprised to find such a spacious room. I expected something much smaller but it was a very nice space. I mentioned that to the clerk and he must have thought I was being (imagine that!) facetious like he knew me. But I told him I was serious. It was more than expected and perfect!

We walked around a bit looking for cigarettes for Steven and found restaurants still open with tons of people everywhere. We hadn’t had dinner yet and sat down in an outdoor one and had a wonderful meal and dessert at 11pm at night! Steven had a much-needed beer and I was brought an embarrassing, ridiculously large coke. Steven asked the waiter when they closed and he said whenever he stops drinking.

There was some kind of incident across from us. A man threw a bottle down and broke it in front of the restaurant. It sounded like it exploded and then we heard yelling and then all of a sudden the bouncer/bartender/waiter went sprinting after him, but unfortunately, I wasn’t close enough to get any action shots. The restaurant guy came back and was talking to the others about what happened, but alas, it was in Italian and I couldn’t understand him.

It was after midnight when we walked back to the hotel and the streets were starting to clear. It had been a very long day.

Today we were heading to Rome, but before we left I wanted to see the Duomo so after we checked out we made our way to Duomo Square. It was magnificent to see! Absolutely beautiful and the Square was so full of people. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many pigeons and the square hawkers were placing food on the arms of tourists to draw the birds to them for pictures. It looked cool, but I wasn’t about to play that game though!

Now, off to Rome!