A significant change from the past several days, most of today was spent traveling to a destination rather than spot to spot in a smaller space.

We left Rome this morning of a Feccirossa to Naples – at 298 kph or about 185 mph – and then connect to the Calabria regional which would be our best option to arrive in the Catanzaro region stress free.

The Rome train terminal was not stress free. It was utter mayhem. I’m familiar with trains in Belgium, Germany, UK, and even France. Italy takes the cake on poor signage and organization. The girls and Michelle were totally overwhelmed and confused. But all worked out okay.

The train to Naples was comfortable and quiet, taking about an hour. The bus ride to the Naples area for Pompeii took 3 hours. No comparison. As this was a first high speed train ride for most, I really enjoyed watching everyone settle in. Ry and I rode backwards as the two least likely to get motion sick. Chloe was an endless fountain of questions for the first 30 minutes. Most of which I have on video for posterity sake. One of the best parts is watching her eyes jump back and forth as things enter, come into focus, and leave her field of vision.

The terminal in Naples was chaotoc but nice, and had limited options for food for our 3 hour ride south. We did what we could and attempted to board, but Rylie found our seats occupied by a couple with a very young child and a baby. They had taken the seats as they were empty and the train was crowded, so they were hoping they could keep them. I politely explained that we were also a family of four and had purchased the seats. They were quite friendly and understood. Strangely, the whole conversation with him speaking a combination of Italian and Spanish and me responding in Spanish. Whatever works.

The three hour ride came to an end at Lamezia Terme where we got off the train and took a cab to the airport to rent a car for the rest of our time in the south. The nice woman at the rental company asked if she could upgrade us to a “tee one” instead of the BMW wagon I had rented. She explained it had more space, so I agreed and took the keys to our VW Tiguan SUV. Made much more sense regarding her pronunciation.

Our drive to Catanzaro Lido took us through some rolling hills and little industrial towns before dropping us in the odd little beachfront community. I was made fun of when I booked the Best Western La Perla del Porto, based on prior family related Best Western experiences in the US. However, this didn’t disappoint as by far the nicest place in the area. BY FAR. Now the hotel is quite nice and recently upgraded, but the rest of the area sets a pretty low bar.

We couldn’t find anyplace that seemed okay to eat as we are done with pizza and everyplace else embraces the Southern Italian cuisine of everything being seafood. Literally everything. Worked for me, but the others were not interested. Other options were very sketchy looking and questionably patronized. We decided to head to McDonalds (kids idea) and while not thrilled about it, we returned to the hotel to get the car keys. Only to find our gray SUV, blocked in.

Dinner instead came from gelato place and consisted of gelato and nutella crepe. Parents of the year. We went to bed a little hungry, but we can fix that at the hotel buffet in the morning.

Tomorrow brings a driving adventure into the hill country. Should be very interesting.