travel journal: Berlin to Rome to Pacentro (Sulmona)

Berlin with Leif & Family

After a wonderful last day in Berlin with Leif and his family (who had arrived for a visit) we started our trip to Rome at about 7:30pm. We originally had planned to fly into Fiumicino, a small town with an airport about a half an hour from Rome, spend the night there, and then head into Rome on Saturday. Being Easter weekend, we found one room in a B&B close to the airport with a lot of difficulty. When we got to the airport we found out our flight was delayed about 3 hours, getting us into Fiumicino around 3am. We called the man at the guesthouse we were going to stay at and cancelled, knowing we couldn't check in at 3am and he could probably still fill that room, and then began one of the longer nights of travel on this trip. Our flight left Berlin around 12:45am Saturday morning and we arrived at the very small Fiumicino airport. When we landed and got our luggage it was about 3:15am so we found out the bus information to Rome and settled into the airport cafe. After reading and snoozing for a bit, we grabbed the first bus to the Termini train station in Rome. We left around 5:30am and arrived at the train station at about 6:15am. We had decided to skip spending time in Rome until after our time in Abruzzo with Kevin and the farm we plan on working with, because we wanted to avoid the Easter crowds, so we found the earliest train going to Sulmona (the town closest to Pacentro where Kevin has been staying).

The train left at 7:15am, with one quick transfer at the Rome Tiburtina station 15 minutes away. Sleepy and pretty disoriented at this point, we grabbed our things at the first stop and poked our heads off the train to see if we had reached Tiburtina. There were no signs or any kind of indication we were in the right place so Elliot jumped off first, looking down the platform. As he started saying something like "This is probably it" the train doors slammed shut automatically between us. In a real moment of panic we both tried to wrench open the instantly locked doors between us. Confused at first I tried again... these were not the sliding doors of Bulgarian trains that just needed a firm tug to unlatch them, or the heavy metal doors of a Vietnamese train that required a little extra push to get out, or the rickety cage doors of Indian trains that threatened to break off with a mild wind. We were definitely stuck, and a little sway told us the train was ready to continue on to Florence. As I started frantically asking for help, I saw Elliot run down to the front of the train towards the conductor. In seconds he was back, waving me to the front of the train. I sprinted down the compartments (we were originally almost in the last one) not so gracefully flinging passengers to the side as I barrelled through with my backpack. I finally found a very disgruntled looking conductor next to one open train door and threw myself out onto the platform. Totally stunned as to what had just happened, we grabbed our things and looked for our transfer. Today's lesson, always stick with your travel buddy (and/or do not trust Italian train doors.)

Termini Roma

On our way

We found our next train and got to Sulmona at around 10:40am, kind of amazed that about 10 hours had taken us from beautiful Berlin to surreal Italian countryside. It's been so great to see Kevin and he and his friend Jay have been wonderful guides of this amazing area of Abruzzo. We spent the morning walking around the market in Sulmona, the larger town surrounded by mountains. We then headed into the mountains about 15 km to Pacentro, where we had a delicious lunch of meats, olives, bread and cheeses from the market and then headed over to the apartment we'd be staying in for the next few days. On the way we got to see the really incredible house Kevin and Jay are working on and really appreciated the view of the rest of Pacentro.

Walking through Pacentro

We dropped by Taverna dei Caldora, the Michelin starred restaurant we've heard a lot about from Kevin and were hoping to try. Because of Easter weekend their only availability was that night, so after a couple hours of down time we very excitedly went to dinner around 9. It was delicious, the perfect remedy to a long day of travel, and because pictures are often better than words..