So we may not have seen the snow capped mountains we were hoping to see in Zurich, but on the train ride from Zurich to Milan we saw lots of them. That train ride, by far, has been the most scenic ride of my life. I think it was more breathtaking then Alaska. You would have thought we have never seen a mountain before, but we were just blown away by the scenery. It was a perfectly gorgeous sunny day with bright blue skies. It just really made the grass seem greener and the clouds and snow that much whiter. Of course we took a ton of pictures, but it was hard to get some of the quality photos we wanted because of the reflection off the window. None-the-less, it was a great ride to Milan, where we had about 5 minutes to catch our connecting train that took us to Rome. We made the train and decided to eat lunch in the formal restaurant car. It was good, but expensssssssive. We arrived in Rome around 4:45 and once again visited the tourist information center to receive some assistance in finding a hotel. A couple of men that looked like they worked for the tourist information people were standing right in front of the tourist information desk and asked us if we were looking for a hotel. We said we were, but we also wanted to buy the Roma Pass (a pass that gives discounts to the sights and transportation around the city). They said the person behind the desk could help us with the pass, but were asking us what we were looking for in a hotel. We talked to the person behind the desk and she said she could not help us with hotel information, but a couple of counters down they could do that. So we bought our Roma Pass and decided to move on. The men kept asking us about our hotel needs and when we told them that we weren’t interested they kept on pushing. I didn’t like their vibe, so we decided to leave and see what we could find. After walking around for 10 minutes or so we found another tourist information center where they told us they could not help with hotel reservations and that the best place to go was back at the train station. So we went back and talked to the person behind the desk (and ignored the men who tried to help us), and found a nice hotel called Hotel Roma 2000. It is the most expensive place we have stayed on this trip, but not out of our comfort range. I think it will be worth the extra money. It is tucked away in a secure building with no real visible signage out front and the room is a decent size with a queen size bed, jacuzzi tub, free wi-fi, breakfast, and a nicely sized bathroom. I’m glad we went back to the train station to ask. Once we were settled in, we roamed around Rome and found some dinner. I’m disappointed to say we have had better Italian food in Paris and Prague then tonight, but there is always the next couple of days. I’m looking forward to hopefully getting a good nights sleep and a long day of sight seeing in much warmer weather tomorrow!
