Early morning and off to catch water bus to Ferrovia the train station in Venice. Checked a couple of times to make sure we were on the right train and settled in for a long train journey. Train was full and seemed to be going pretty quick. It wasn't until a monitor display and gps showed we were travelling 180kph. We stopped a couple of times and after Bologna the pace increased to 250 clicks. Never seen a train passing cars on a freeway before but I didn't see a car go past this train. The countryside is much like France and Switzerland of light coloured but probably not as stoney. They must flood irrigate as water channels were in every paddock about thirty metres apart. Similar to the land around Werribee and the paddocks with more uniformity than other aforesaid countries. Rail lines don't even seem to be as good as home yet here we were hunting along at 250kph. After we stopped at Firenze it was express to Rome. The 545 Klms from Venice took 3.5 hrs with five stops and when going through smaller towns the train slowed to about 200. Got to Rome in what seemed not a long time and had lunch at station as we had to wait till three to get into apartment. We had a conman take us to apartment as it was raining and just wanted to get there. Eventually when we did find it we were greeted by a very old woman who couldn't speak any English and explained the workings of the apartment . It is about 500 mts from the Pantheon and walking distance to the Vatican. Will have to take bus to some other sights. Did a walk around block and everything required is close by. Haven't done any photos today as when on the train if you wanted to take a photo of a town you actually took one of the next town. Weather is ordinary and rain forecast for tomorrow - have to look on net for that as all tv is in Italian. Some interesting sights in Venice last night but won't go into that here. The Italians would be on par with the French as far as excitable and gesturing with arms. The apartment is again like Fort Knox with this time three security doors to get through. On one hand you feel secure on the other you wonder why so much!
Off to visit the Pope tomorrow not sure if we'll get lunch.
Had dinner at an Irish pub and good to get some meat into the stomach. Irish stew while not a ridgy didge version still pretty good.
By the way the "chef" at the restaurant at the station was a dead ringer for the shearers cook in Sunday to far Away!!

The other thing at the restaurant was that if you had a receipt you could go to the toilet free - how about that - what a bargain!!