I slept until around 2am local time and needed to take a bio break. I fell back asleep until around 5am at which time I wasn't sleepy any more so I commenced my search for flights. As we fly standby, this requires us to be flexible in our choice of routings. I found a likely prospect in a flight that went to Rome via Berlin on AirBerlin. It showed a number of open seats, so I booked it with an 11am departure to Berlin arriving at 12 noon and a 2:20pm departure from Berlin to Rome where we would catch a FR1 local train to our stop (Tuscalano station) near our AirB&B reserved location. I sent a message to our hosts indicating we likely would be to their place around 5:30-5:45pm. While I was at it I booked our train tickets for Monday from the Tuscalano station to the port of Civiavecchia (4.60€ or about $6) where we'll board the Koningsdam for our 3 week cruise.
After showering and dressing we finished packing and caught the 8am shuttle from the hotel to Terminal 2 which Air Berlin flies out of. At the terminal, the first Air Berlin clerk sent us to Alitalia for our boarding passes. The clerk at Alitalia then sent us back to Air Berlin's counter where a second agent said we were at the right spot and checked us in for our flights. She couldn't give us seat assignments, but after we cleared security (they did a full search of our backpacks), our seat assignments were waiting for us at the gate for both legs of our trip. While waiting for our flight we had a light breakfast at the only cafe in the terminal. The scrambled eggs, tomatoes, cheese, and bacon was quite good along with some green tea. Angela's fruit salad was also quite hardy.
We were bused from the terminal to our A320 airplane and we had an on-time departure. The one hour flight went quickly and there was a lot of scenery since we flew rather low at around 20,000 feet. At Berlin we were bussed a short distance to the terminal where Angela went souvenir shopping. The two hour layover went quickly and this time we walked out to another A320 and boarded.
I should mention that Air Berlin seems to be a lot like Alaska Airlines with really friendly staff, clean planes, food for sale (cash or credit cards) and generally regional routes although they have expanded their routes to include the US, Central America, and Australia.
The two hour flight to Rome went well and once again we were bussed to the terminal where it was at least a half hour wait for our luggage. After that we acquired our train tickets from a commissioned vendor for 10€ each. They were available at ticket machines, but that would cost us an international transaction fee or from the train ticket office (long line). The train was waiting for us after we navigated the labyrinth of hallways, tunnels, moving walkways, escalators, and one elevator. It was probably 1/2 mile walk in total. The train took about 45 minutes to arrive at the Tuscalano station and was very full. We had seats in the upper deck that were nice.
From the Tuscalano station we followed a screen print of a Google map on my phone directly to the apartment. At times it was challenging as many of the streets were not clearly marked. We did ask for confirmation directions at one point and we were right on course. We met our hostess, Celeste, who greeted us warmly and gave us introductory information about the room and navigational tips. She also recommended a local pizza shop, il Pomodoro (tomato) which was very good.
And so our first day in Rome was soon over and sleep beaconed. But first I located a source for Vatican Museum entry tickets.
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