Back in late May 2017, my wife and I went to Italy for a lovely spring vacation. It was our first time in Italy and we enjoyed it immensely. We definitely want to go back. Since this is a train blog, I'm not going to talk about all of the vacation aspects, but instead cover the train-related parts of our trip... and there were a lot!
Getting to Rome
We flew in three phases - Winnipeg to Toronto (YWG-YYZ), Toronto to Frankfurt (YYZ-FRA), and Frankfurt to Rome (FRA-FCO). It's always a little sobering to think that you are flying 10 km above the ocean, hundreds if not thousands of kilometres from any land, at a large fraction of the speed of sound. I often take air travel for granted, but it's pretty amazing when you think of it.
In Frankfurt I saw these little automated airport trains zooming around.
Airport trams in Frankfurt |
To get from the airport (the Leonardo da Vinci!) to downtown Rome, we took the airport train, the Leonardo Express. The station is in the airport itself, which is common in Europe and very convenient.
Train station in Leonardo da Vinci airport |
Pericolo di Morte |
After a little wait in the airport, our train arrived.
Leonardo Express train |
Inside the Leonardo Express |
Maintenance equipment at Ponte Galeria, Italy |
We passed a few small diesel locomotives.
Diesel locomotive in Italy, with graffiti (sigh) |
There are several train stations on the line between the airport and Rome, including Roma Trastevere, seen below. We didn't stop at any of them.
Roma Trastevere station |
Trains at Roma Termini
My long suffering wife was OK with me spending a few minutes photographing the trains in the station before we set off to find our hotel.
(Above) Locomotive E464-226 is a Bombardier E.464 class, the most common locomotive in service in Italy. 728 were built. It's capable of 4700 horsepower and a maximum speed of 160 km/hr. On that train, it was coupled to a regional train of passenger coaches. I've tried to find some information on those coaches but I can't find anything. My Google-fu has failed. :(
(Below) This is a "Vivalto" train set, manufactured by Hitachi. This is a six car consist, with one motor car and five trailers, with a total of 725 seats and a total capacity of 1,300 people including standing passengers.
Trenitalia "Vivalto" trainset in Rome |
Trains in Roma Termini |
We stayed in Rome from the 28th to the 31st of May, hitting the highlights, like the Colosseum, the Forum, the Vatican, and so forth. Rome is a marvelous city. I remember that it was very hot and I was glad that Rome has many free water fountains scattered around the city that you can refill your water bottle from. We drank a lot of water!
I did take a few photos of the outside of Roma Termini, but to be honest, it's pretty boring, in my opinion. The station was built in the 1950s and definitely has a modern look to it.
Roma Termini - exterior |
Trenitalia arrivals/departures board |
I won't bore you with a bunch of vacation photos, but here are two that I like.
Panorama of the Colosseum (L) and Arch of Constantine (R) |
My wife and I in the Gallery of Maps in the Vatican |
Let me tell you, it was pretty crowded when we went in! I have no photos, because photography is not allowed in the chapel, even though a lot of people were sneaking photos. sigh
Coming Up
After Rome, we boarded a train to take us to the Cinque Terre area of Italy, which is a set of five ("cinque") small fishing towns. This is a beautiful area of Italy, and although we only spent one night there, we fell in love with it. It was also a great place to do some railfanning!READ MORE
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