On the train

So after landing in Rome and taking the Lenardo express to the Rome termini station we hopped on the 90 minute train down to Formia. To our surprise there was standing room only, and the word room is used quite loosely. The train was so crowded that we didn't even attempt to enter in the main seating area, we stayed in the compartment where you first step onto the train. 

There was a good 10-12 of us standing in this area all cramped for space and just enduring the heat of the day. And for those of you who have traveled public transportation on a hot day know all too well the stench we were all soaking in.

I looked around and most people in the train car were trying to advert their eyes, choosing to look either at their phone, or out the window. Most it seemed, were just the local commuters heading home after a long day of work in Rome. One gentleman took up a position directly in front of me. 

I have really tried to learn as much of the language as possible and so had taken up the habit of packing my moms Italian-English dictionary around with me, and when I wondered what certain words were in Italian I would take out the book and look up the word. 

So being stuck quite literally in a corner of the train I pulled out my book and began just picking pages at random. (I'm sure Kyle was shaking his head at me pulling out my "I'm a foreigner and have no clue how to speak the language book")     

The gentleman across from me glanced at the book and then when he realized that I was noticing him noticing my book he looked away. 

So I asked myself "what does he think of me and my book?" So I put my book away and waited for my chance. As soon as that awkward moment of when two strangers meet each others eye - and I know all of you have had this experience before... well that moment came and I opened my mouth and asked him where he was going, this started quite a conversation. It turns out he was traveling with another guy on the train, both spoke little-to-no English so they knew more English than we knew Italian. 

As we tried to communicate, one of the guys would try to look-up words on his phone, but lost the signal as we entered the many tunnels along the way. So to continue the conversation out came the dictionary book. 

Kyle and I were asked if we were on vacation to Napoli, we said no then Kyle began to explain that I am here running and competing for Italy. The conversation turned to Bolt and I laughed and showed them my picture with him (which I had taken only a few weeks before). He laughed and said something we didn't understand and with our looks of puzzlement he enlisted the help of others around us on the train. He found another guy who interpreted for him "he says it is a fake" replied the interpreter. We laughed and said no and contributed talking by looking up words in the dictionary and eventually Kyle had them googling me. It was really very funny and once they googled me they wanted to take a picture with me.  It seemed as though they were instant fans.

So there you go, my first fan experience here in Italy. The thing is I have wondered what Italians would think of me, having the lineage but not the language down. But really they were very excited for me, and happy to meet me. One of the guys it turns out is a boxer. So we have not only the chariots of fire thing going in this little compartment of the train but rocky as well. Only in Italy right!?!