Sud Tyrol Roll Day 8 (16)

Day 8: Farewells

We said our goodbyes at breakfast this morning and began our journey home.

Dave and Molly, Suzanne and Rich, and Jeri and I piled into a van with Silvia (our Italian guide) for the 40 minute drive to Roverto. We got to glimpse the steep long downhill we had taken 2 days before to get to Riva del Garda. It was pretty impressive! What was also impressive was the traffic coming to the lake. There is only one main road from the north, and it seemed like all of Europe was on it at 10 in the morning. Traffic was backed up several miles and just barely crawling.  Fortunately, we were driving in the opposite direction.

We made it to the train station in Roverto with plenty of time to spare. Silvia was traveling to Verona with us (our next stop), but then we had to take another regional train to Bologna, followed by a high speed (not sure the Italians actually know the meaning of the words) train to Rome, then finally a train to the airport. Silvia had a direct train to Rome on another rail company. 

Our train was delayed 5 minutes, the 10, then 25, and finally 45 minutes.  This had the domino effect on our plans causing us to miss one train after the other. 

The train to Verona had no AC and no air movement.  Combine this with 90+ degrees and screaming kids (who seem to have been following Molly everywhere since she boarded  a plane to Zurich two weeks ago) and you had the makings for a very unpleasant trip. Silvia was a lifesaver. We finally got to Verona, but found out the trains to Rome from Bologna were fully booked until after 5 which would have gotten us into Rome after 8 and then to the airport well after 9. She was able to get our tickets refunded and rebooked on her train to Rome direct from Verona even with seats together.  When we reached Rome, she even got us tickets to the airport and got us on the right train. We tried to convince her to take us home with her, but she wasn't bitng.

We got to the hotel at a reasonable hour thanks to Silvia, and had a nice dinner at the hotel. 

The ordeal, though, was not over for our friends.  Molly and Dave's flight was cancelled by Lufthansa and supposedly rebooked on AlItalia.  When they got to the airport, AlItato  told them the booking had been cancelled.  They then spent a couple of tense hours fighting with Lufthansa and Al Italia, finally able get  a flight a flight home. They arrived in Miami shortly after we landed at JFK.

Rich and Suzanne had a direct train to Munich, but some technical problems caused them to have to evacuate the train and to take a bus from Innsbruck to Munich.  There was a German couple who took pity on them, and helped them navigate the murky waters of travel in a foreign land. I guess they had their own Silvia.  Their flight the next day was delayed sufficietly that they missed the earlier bus and had to take a 9pm  (that's 3 am in Italy) bus.  Haven't spoken yet, but my guess is that they didn't get to bed until after midnight (6 am Italy).  A long couple of days was had by all!