Santa Marinella

We reluctantly left Il Palazzo this morning after having breakfast on the terrazza with an Italian family who was also staying there.  We had a private tour of the wine cellar where Hectorre the owner gave us a lesson in how to make wine.  He was so kind to drive us to the rail station in Faenza, where we could get a better connection. Lucky for us, since the train we were originally supposed to take was late and we would have missed the connection.  We caught the Eurostar to Rome where it was a zoo, as usual. The funniest thing happened.  Some locals  asked us directions in Italiad we answered them!  Anyway, the Eurostar was mobbed with tourists coming to Rome from Venice.  It is very crowded here.  I thought nobody had any money to travel.  There was luggage all over the car,  the biggest pieces I ever saw, like steamer trunks!  You couldn't even move.  Fortunately, many of them got off in Florence.  When the train finally arrived in Rome we had to walk 20 tracks over to get the local train to Santa Marinella.  What a schlepp!

When we finally arrived here in Santa Marinella, a tiny town on the Med, we found that nobody speaks English, there are no taxis on weekends, our hotel was miles from the train station and I am about to strangle the next person that so much as looks at me!  Jerry got direcrtions in broken Italian while I babysat the luggage. We took the local bus and finally made it to the strangest hotel I ever stayed at.  I think it's a sports complex that hasn't open for the season yet.  There are tennis courts, a pool without water,  and various sports fields and equipment lying around.  The place we had dinner and will have breakfast is not on the grounds but about 500 yards away down a big hill.  There are private houses all around and everyone is very friendly and they come out of their houses to talk to the crazy Americans.  The dinner was delicious and our waitress was from Cuba of all places.  This trip is getting crazier and crazier.  We decided to move to a hotel closer to the harbor tomorrow so it's another schlepp day.  Hopefully, we will be able to hop the train to Rome for the day.  I am beginning to fell like I am in a Fellini movie.