First week in Italy
We arrived at Fiumicino Airport after 18 on Sunday 27.4. We knew we were in hurry to catch our train at 19.07, so as the first thing when we got out of the plane we searched for ticket stands and train platforms. We soon found out that they were only accessible after the Customs, so we returned to the luggage claim to wait for our luggage impatiently. Our luggage was among the first, so we grabbed them and ran through the Customs and out. We saw Trenitalia’s stand and went straight to it to ask for tickets from Fiumicino Aeroport to Roma Termini to Castiglion Fiorentino. Everything went smoothly; she spoke English, we followed the instructions to the platform 2, stamped our tickets and had still time to wait for the Leonardo Express train. In the train we had a moment to catch our breaths and eat a little. When we arrived to Roma Termini, we looked our train up from a big screen of departing trains – platform 2 est. We once again stamped our tickets on our way through the tube underneath the rails and to the right platform and ran – even though we were supposed to have 18 minutes to switch trains. From a distance we saw a train standing there – and leaving without us.
We went there and asked some men in uniforms and that was truly the train we were supposed to catch. We went back to ask around if we could switch our tickets to the train that should arrive in Arezzo 00.45 (we checked it online earlier), but we were told there was no such train leaving. Luckily there was this wonderful tourist guide, who must have seen how lost we were, who came to our help. Together we went to a ticket stand and we discovered that the next train to our destination would leave at 06.03. He also called a hotel for a room for us. We were really lucky to get a room – the very same day two popes were declared saints in Vatican and 5 million people were there to witness it. The hotel was only 5 minutes from the station – great location for us. The hallway though reminded us a little too much of a movie “Taken”. On the walls there were wall stickers of horses, roses and bees from Winnie the Pooh – real classy interior. On top of the shelf there was the top part of a Christmas tree and the knobs were a little off even for someone without OCD. We stopped by a supermercato to buy something to eat and enjoyed our meals in a hotel room.
Next morning we woke up at 04.45 just to be sure to catch our train. The 2½ hours trip through morning misty Italy took us to our stop at Castiglion Fiorentino, where Marta picked us up. She showed us our apartment and gave some time to settle in before the first day at work. We met our neighbor, his old dog in a red sweater and his other, younger dog. Our co-worker showed us how to clean apartments and we tried our best to help her. She also has a dog – real sweet little black sausage that has a zigzag over its back – aka Melita.
The first days were practically learning the tasks, like cutting the grass, cleaning the apartments, doing the laundry and ironing the sheets. On our second day we had a wine experimenting, which is organized every year. This year it was all about white wines and there were approximately 50 people there to evaluate them. We’ve had a couple of funny situations when people came to Fattoria asking about buying the wines and we first started to explain in English and then realized they were Finns, too. The weather has been chilly – we’ve been forced to put on every piece of cloth with long sleeves or legs and we’ve used the gas-heater whenever we’ve been home.
On Saturday we got to borrow Marta’s car and we went down in Pozzo to Il Tempio, the bar/restaurant to eat some pizza – she was glad that we finally wanted to go somewhere instead of always going to sleep at 22. On Sunday we headed for Valdechiana Outlet village – a journey not so simple. We first went to Castiglion Fiorentino, which was plain horrible with almost vertical hills and tried to find our way to the Outlet. After a couple of times stopping and asking for directions and a couple of times of going back and forth we managed to find our way. We were supposed to buy some warm clothes to work, but we found everything but. Over three hours and numerous shopping bags later we sat down to enjoy our 2,50€ two-flavor gelato. We bought some groceries on our way home and made grilled asparagus wrapped in prosciutto with cheese topping. In the evening we went to Pozzo again, where our friend picked us up and took us to a nearby mountain to see the panorama of the city. We enjoyed ice tea and guitar music in a pitch black national park and saw some deer, too.
Until next week! Ciao!