Today we have to leave for Florence. Our train is at 11.30 am. Nevertheless all the members including Deepa got up at five in the morning (Rome time) and started preparing to walk. I got up at four o'clock in the morning to prepare notes for yesterday's visit. There are three ways to reach Rome Railway Station from here. Either walk one and a half kilometer and catch the number 64 bus in which we have prepaid ticket for walking.
Another means is to catch the suburban train from there, for that too one has to walk one and a half kilometer. The third means is to call a taxi. Having four small trolley bags and four hand bags, we could easily carry our luggage for one and a half kilometer but we were not able to muster the courage. So we decided to adopt the third means i.e. 'Car-Taxi'.
Taxi Driver Bullying
We came out of the service apartment at 9.40. Vijay informed the landlady on WhatsApp that we were leaving and had auto-locked the house from outside by keeping both sets of house keys on the dining table. Vijay booked a six seater taxi from a taxi app. She stopped in front of the apartment in 20 minutes.
As soon as the taxi driver arrived, he started expressing dissatisfaction that how so much luggage and so many people would come in one taxi! We were surprised to hear that, before that no taxi driver had said this. He wanted us to take another taxi. He ordered another taxi without asking us and told us to keep half the members and half the luggage in it.
We understood that there is greed in the mind of the taxi driver. So we told the taxi driver that we only needed one taxi. If you don't want to go, both of you go. We even came from the airport in the same taxi. We had plenty of time and could even walk from here to catch a suburban train or a bus number 64.
The driver of the first taxi returned the second taxi and started storing our luggage in his taxi. He said that let me drop you at the airport. We told him that we had taken a taxi 'Roma Termini Railway Station' Booked for and not for the airport. On this he said that just now you said that we have to go to the airport. When we started unloading our luggage, he said that I will leave the good railway station.
This taxi driver understood English very well but was pretending that he did not know English. Under the guise of this, he wanted to do bullying. We got into the taxi again but we made a mistake in this argument.
Forgot to check the taxi meter reading. Presumably the meter already had a reading of 14 Euros, which means Indian Rupees 1120. The taxi driver kept talking to someone loudly on his cell phone all the way. One used to end the phone and put another. This caused us a lot of inconvenience.
When Vijay booked the taxi, the app gave an estimated fare of 12-13 Euros (960-1040 Indian Rupees) but when we landed at the railway station, the meter read 29.3 Euros. He told us to withdraw 30 euros before the taxi stopped. We gave him 30 Euros which is equivalent to Indian Rupees 2400. The driver had taken two to two and a half times the money from us.
We understood that the taxi driver had committed as much bullying as he could. We had no choice. We were not in a position to fight here. The truth is that we are not in a position to quarrel with anyone even in India! Overall it was a bad experience. We had never had such a bad experience on our trip to Indonesia.
Roma Termini railway station was only 5 kms away from our service apartment for which we had to pay 2400 Indian Rupees i.e. Rs 480 per kilometer. Even on the night of May 17, when we came from Leonardo da Vinci airport, that driver had charged us 60 Euros i.e. 4800 Indian Rupees for 32 kms i.e. 150 Indian Rupees per kilometer! We understand that taxi drivers in Italy cannot be trusted at all! Well done, we were roaming in buses and trams only for the last four days.
Roma Termini Railway Station
There was a huge crowd at Roma Termini railway station. Thousands of domestic and foreign tourists were standing on the entire platform. There was no waiting room on the platform, no bench, no cup, no toilet. We had reached the station at 10.30 and our train was at 11.50.
So we had no choice but to stand for the next one and a half hours. After some time there was a desire for a short time, so Vijay and I went out to find the toilet. Finally a paid toilet was found on the first floor above the platform. Instead of paying every Euro i.e. 80-80 Indian Rupees, we thought it better to return on the opposite foot. There were many open restaurants on this floor. Vijay made his father sit on the chair of one of these restaurants.
We came down again. What we thought to be a platform was actually a waiting area, adjoining it with about 20 platforms in the front. Electronic panels were being displayed all around, on which information about the arrival and departure of many trains was being displayed, but the platform number was not mentioned in front of our train information.
Finally at 11.40 the platform number 11 of our train was displayed on the electronic panel. By now Vijay had brought Dad down again. We immediately ran towards platform number 11. It took us 5 minutes to reach there. The car started coming on the platform exactly at 11.50. By the time we dropped our luggage it was 11.54 and at 11.55 the automatic doors of the train were closed.
We found ourselves in an uncomfortable position. Had we been late for even two minutes, we would have been left out of the train. It takes some time to board the train with luggage and kids! Other passengers also have to board.
It was a bullet train that ran from Rome to the far north of Italy. There was very little crowd in this car. The train was running at a speed of 250 to 300 kilometers per hour but the train was moving so little that we were not even aware sitting inside that we were in the train. It was only when the water from the bottles placed on the table in front of us that we could see that the train was moving.
We were given veg-snacks and tea-coffee juice etc. in the train. Due to this the journey had turned into a picnic. The train reached Florence at 1.25. We read the sign boards on the platform which were in Roman script 'Santa Maria Novella Firenze' was written. This is called Florence. Still, we could muster up the courage to get off the train only after asking two co-passengers. We covered more than 300 kms in 80 minutes.
There was a tram stop as soon as it left the station. Vijay bought tram tickets by putting euros in a machine at the stop. Just then the tram arrived. We climbed it very easily as if we were used to it.
All this was happening on the strength of the information given by Google. It was a two-coach tram and was almost completely empty. At this time only a few passengers are in the tram, especially the elderly people who leave their homes to buy items of daily use.
Our stop in about three minutes 'Prato al Prato' have arrived. We could have come here on foot, but to get in the tram, we spent 10 euros i.e. 800 rupees. As soon as we got off the tram, we entered a clean street. We had our service apartment on the second floor in the fourth or fifth building itself.
Vijay had informed the owner of the service apartment in Florence, on his way from Rome, that we would reach Florence at about 1:30 in the afternoon. As soon as Vijay reached outside the building and called the owner of the service apartment, she immediately opened the main door of the building and came out as if standing behind the door waiting for us!
He shook hands with all of us and then started picking up our luggage and placing it in the lift. We told her to pick up the luggage but she didn't listen!
The owner of the service apartment was a beautiful Italian woman of 26-27 years old. His body was a little fat, but he had amazing agility. Excitement was as if his heart was filled with enthusiasm. It didn't seem like she was meeting us for the first time in her life.
Happiness erupted from his every word, every effort. She did not forget to laugh after each sentence. He warmly welcomed us. When she started informing about the amenities of the apartment, Dad and I sat down on a couch. Bhanu, Madhu and Vijay started looking for service apartments with the landlady.
All this while I kept wondering if an unknown person could be so happy to see us! Before this I had seen only three women in my life being so happy, my mother, my grandmother and my mother-in-law! I remembered these three together.
The landlady took passports from us, scanned them with her mobile and took away the cash amount of city tax from us. We had already paid the balance amount online. Before leaving, he handed over two sets of keys to the flat.
We felt that this is a palatial style flat which has been tried to give a feudal ambiance. Spacious hall, wooden floors, spacious rooms, expensive designed furniture, multiple sofa sets, separate table-chairs for each function, stylish curtains, table lamps, paintings, luxury bathrooms, washing machine, dryer, shower, expensive Utensils effortlessly They were telling the story of the beauty and prosperity of the landlady. Although we needed very few of these things.
These bathrooms were of no use to us. No tub, no shower, no European style toilet! These Europeans would not even know the pleasure that we get in bathing in a bucket by filling water in a bucket. Using paper after bowel movement is not less than any punishment for us. So we kept a bottle of water in each toilet. There was not a single bucket in any of the bathrooms. None of the toilets or bathrooms were closed from inside. This was probably due to the children accompanying the tourists who were unable to lock the door from inside and then open it!
For us this too was no less than a punishment. We arranged to hang a white napkin outside each door so that no one else would open the bathroom or toilet door after seeing this napkin. Anyway, each room, hall and dining room was made up of a latrine and a bathroom, so each was allotted a lat-bath.
Bhanu and Madhu had prepared lunch in Rome itself and brought them with them. Therefore, food was not to be prepared at this time. After the landlady left we had dinner and slept. Around three o'clock it started raining. Suddenly she became very fast. We thought that if this situation continued, we would not be able to see anything in Florence, but within an hour the rain stopped completely.
Madhu and Bhanu prepared dinner and we set out at 6.40 pm to see the city of Florence. Dad stayed at home. Italy's second important river 'Arno' about 400 meters from our service apartment It was flowing We went for a walk along its side. The locality in which we were staying looked like a hamlet of some wealthy seths.
This city looked completely different from Rome. There were not only old people here, here we saw young couples with their children. The parents were walking holding the hands of the children and they were fully alert about the safety of the children. Some couples were walking around with children in baby-carts. Such scenes are rarely seen in Rome!
We walked around for about an hour. Vijay told that about one and a half kilometers from the place where we are roaming, there is the oldest pharmacy in Europe. Should we see that place? Everyone immediately agreed to go there. After passing through many narrow streets, Google dropped us in a huge square.
That's where the pharmacy should have been. We kept searching for that pharmacy for about an hour between the nearby streets and the buildings built in that huge square and kept asking the local people, kept groping Google again and again but no one could tell about the building of that old pharmacy .
There was also a government office running in which some girls were working even at eight o'clock in the evening. When I asked them about the old pharmacy, one of the girls, speaking in Italian, made some signs with her hands but I could not understand which building she was referring to. At last we got tired and sat on the stone benches in that square.
It was a grand and huge square surrounded by big buildings. A huge church was also visible on one side, of course it must have been very old but due to the paint it was looking clean and attractive, we thought to go inside and see but the main door of the church was closed.
At this time it was half past eight in the night but there was still day left. Suddenly our eyes fell on a huge building on one side of the square. Its exterior design and pillars were similar to those of the Pantheon in Rome. Similar pillars were also installed on St. Peter's Square in Rome.
Some old sculptures were visible in the upper part of this building, which gave the impression of him being a Greek doctor or alchemist. अंतर केवल इतना था कि इस भवन के खंभे तो बहुत प्राचीन काल का दिखाई देते थे किंतु इस पर लगी मूर्तियां अपेक्षाकृत नई थीं।
हमारे सामने सारी स्थिति स्वतः ही स्पष्ट हो गई। उस सरकारी कार्यालय में काम कर रही लड़की ने भी ठीक इसी तरफ संकेत किया था। आज से सौ-दो सौ साल पहले या उससे भी दो-चार सौ साल पहले इस भवन में फार्मेसी का कारखाना खुला होगा जहाँ यूनानी दवाएं बनती होंगी। तब इसे फार्मेसिया कहा जाता होगा किंतु अब यह भवन किसी और काम आता होगा इसलिए स्थानीय लोग इसके बारे में बताने में असमर्थ थे।
गूगल पर किसी इतिहासकार ने इसकी जानकारी डाली होगी! फिर भी कुछ लोग अवश्य ही उस फार्मेसिया के बारे में जानते थे अन्यथा उस लड़की ने इस भवन की दिशा में संकेत नहीं किया होता! इस समय यह भवन पूरी तरह बंद था। हम अपने सर्विस अपार्टमेंट की ओर लौट पड़े।
इस समय शहर की गलियों में बनी सड़कों के आधे हिस्से में मेज-कुर्सियां बिछ चुकी थीं जिन पर बैठकर देशी-विदेशी पर्यटक वाइन पी रहे थे। एक सुनसान गली में लगभग बीस-बाईस कुर्सियां बिछी हुई थीं। मेरी दृष्टि वहाँ बैठी एक यूरोपियन लड़की पर पड़ी। वह अकेली बैठी वाइन पी रही थी। मैं हैरान रह गया। यह गली पूरी तरह सुनसान थी। रात के लगभग नौ बजने वाले थे और वह अकेली बैठकर शराब पी रही थी! क्या भारत के एक भी शहर में ऐसा किया जाना संभव है, मैंने स्वयं से प्रश्न किया।
घर पहुँचे तो सवा नौ बज रहे थे, दिन का उजाला अभी बाकी था। पिताजी इटेलियन टीवी चैनल देख-देखकर थक गए थे और हम तो निरंतर चलते रहने के कारण थके हुए थे ही। अतः चाय तो बननी ही थी। यदि हम चाय का सामान भी नोएडा से लेकर नहीं चले होते तो हमारी हालत खराब हो जाती।
दूध की चाय यहाँ कौन बनाकर देता! भारत में चाय का कितना आराम है किसी भी धर्मशाला में ठहरो, बाहर से इलायची और अदरक वाली बढ़िया चाय बनवाकर ले आओ! भारत जैसे आनंद यूरोप में कहाँ! यह अलग बात है कि जब यूरोपियन्स भारत जाते होंगे तो ब्लैक कॉफी के लिए तरस जाते होंगे! भारत में वह मिलती तो है किंतु हर जगह तो नहीं न मिलती!