An International Experience

It takes a long time to get from Columbia, Missouri, to Rome, Italy...and while it takes many hours to get to the Eternal City, even the traveling itself can be an educational, if not international, experience.

After trusting the airline with my large suitcase, I kept the essentials with me in a carry-on bag - toothbrush, contact solution, glasses and extra sets of clothes just in case of lost luggage. In addition, I packed books and magazines to quell any boredom that could come from a fourteen-hour trip.

The nice thing about a long plane trip is the food and the occasional - or frequent, depending on the individual - sleep.

After nearly fourteen hours of dreaming of Rome, we finally arrived in the Eternal City.

Well, right outside Rome, anyway.

Roma Fiumicino Airport is about 45 minutes by rail outside the main city...but considering we had traveled from Columbia, Missouri, it was certainly close enough.

After exchanging some lira and picking up our bags, we raced through a series of airport subways and escalators to buy tickets for the train that would take us from Roma Fiumicino to the Rome of ancient artifacts and priceless art.

As we fumbled with credit cards trying to purchase rail tickets, there was a clock to which I kept glancing. The train would depart at 10:30 and by the rail station's clock, we had but seven minutes to go.

Thank goodness we had exchanged some of our money already as that turned out to be the easiest way to purchase our rail tickets. With just a few moments to go and heavy, unwieldy suitcases throwing us off balance, we ran toward the train and found seats next to other travelers.

As if making the train in time wasn't an adventure, the ride that followed would be interesting to a traveler who had never before seen Europe.

Just about five feet behind me, I overheard conversations in French. A German couple affectionately cuddled about 15 feet from me. Next to me, I noticed a woman and her family spying a travel guide written in Greek.

Perhaps the only similarity between these European travelers wasn't the way they acted, but what they had brought with them for their trip. Each seemed attached to their own cell phones, designed in geometric shapes and fantastic colors.

I kept fighting sleep to witness the Roman countryside. Of course, some of the countryside was covered with signs for companies I knew well: Coca-Cola, Lycos, and Blockbuster were a few of the companies whose advertisements stretched from the airport to Roma...even inside the train itself hung a sign advertising Febreze!

But advertisements are just a small part of the train trip to Rome. Old apartment cities decorate the landscape. Coming from America, which boasts of large, open plains and lands, I was stunned to see the amount of people that fit so well together in compact villas and apartments. The buildings didn't tower like a New York complex, but the skyline was still dressed with antenna gardens atop Spanish-styled roofs and plaster-speckled walls.

As I peered through the train's windows, the scenery would drift back and forth from apartments to Ancient ruins and then to lush green hills and once in a while, I'd drift off to sleep.

But I was usually awakened by the semi-symphonic crescendos of cell phones going off around me. It would seem everyone has a cell phone in Italy. The phones are smaller and more colorful, complete with games and interesting ringing tones.

(On a side note, I recommend bringing a cell phone to Italy. Granted, you probably won't need it and the international rates are very high...but if you walk around with a cell phone propped against your ear, people may think you're actually Italian, instead of a tourist).

It would seem that what I saw on that train was a great preview to what I would see during the remainder of my travels in Italy. The influence of other cultures through architecture, food and shops is just as much a reflection of the way the Italians have influenced the rest of the world.

Still, two thousand years after a time when "all roads led to Rome," people from all over the world flock to the Eternal City...and all this you can find out just by traveling on a Roman train.