forum | Lori Crane

Is there any place more awesome than Italy? The food is amazing, the people are gorgeous, and the sites are…well, straight out of a history book. I spent the fall of 2014 working on a ship in the Mediterranean, bouncing back and forth between Barcelona, Naples, Civitavecchia, Livorno, Cannes, and Majorca. I can’t wait to go back next fall!

A co-worker and I took the train from Civitavecchia to go to Rome and see the Colosseum. We were told to take the train to Termini, but another friend said if you get off a few stops before, you can go to the Vatican. Since we return to the port each Wednesday, we decided to go to the Vatican the following week. I looked at the train route but couldn’t make heads or tails out of which stop would be the Vatican. I asked an elderly Italian man by pointing at the train route map and asking “Vatican?”

He shook his head as he didn’t understand.

I continued. “The pope?”

No.

Not one to give up. “Jesus?”

No.

I even tried to make a cross with my fingers, but he didn’t understand. How about “Sistine Chapel? Michelangelo?”

He took the map and pointed to each stop, saying each name as he did so. He said “San Pietro.”

“San Pietro! Yes, Saint Peter! Graci, Graci, Graci!” I took the map and showed the stop to my companion. “San Pietro!”

A few stops later, we were at San Pietro. I thought the man was going to give himself a heart attack trying to push us off the train. “No, no, we’re going to Termini. San Pietro will be next Wednesday.” I’m sure he didn’t understand me and probably told his wife about the stupid Americans who got lost trying to find the Vatican.

Anyway, we stopped at Termini, boarded the Metro to Colloseo, and behold! This is the site we saw upon climbing out of the subway.