On an impulse, sparked by a short notice invitation to meet, I ended up meeting A and M in Rome. It's fairly easy to reach from Geneva, with a 4 hour direct train to Milan, and a sleeping train to Rome. There was a bit of surprise when I ended up sleeping in a cabin with 3 other men, when the reservation specified women only cabin. Needless to say I lost my sense of smell and sleep.
Eventually I arrived in Rome around 7am, dropped my luggage at the hotel near the station and walked around to end up at the Vatican. It was 9am but there was already a huge queue to visit the place. So I just sent letter from the Vatican post office and went back to the hotel, admiring the old architecture inspiring multitude of novels on the way back, as well as the pines of Rome.
Then of course once we regouped, we got lost in a bus returning from the Coliseum when they recovered from their jetlag, sleeping heartily. I could not get a real look at the Trevi fountain but it was enough or me to look around the plaza surrounding it.
The next day was a fun tour at the Coliseum and the area, before leaving them to their Mediterranean cruise. It was a rapid train trip back for me, after an exciting weekend tour.
