This morning, we actually got up mostly on time and headed out to see the Mediterranean Sea. This was high on my list of things to do on this trip. 

I’d done a bit of research (i.e. two or three google searches) on good beaches close to Rome, and then done some train schedule checking as well. We’d avoided the bus system so far on this trip and stuck with the trains, so I looked for a beach that only required a train ride and not a bus ride as well. No need to learn another transportation system if we didn’t have to. We settled on one: Maccarese-Fregene, about a thirty minute ride from Rome. We walked to Termini station (the main train station in Rome,) bought our tickets, and hopped on the train. Mediterranean-bound!

Or not quite. About twenty minutes into the trip I checked another review of the Fregene beach and this review said you’d need to take a bus into town or you could walk for an hour. Sigh, ok, well how hard could it be to find a bus? They’re usually right outside the station, no problem. We got to the station, got out, looked for the bus, and there were four of them… none of which listed Fregene on their stops. They were all going elsewhere. We debated this for a bit and then I looked at the review again, and the next beach on this review list was one stop further than us and only required a five minute walk. Rather than take our chances on a bus, we decided to hop on the next train and get to that beach: Santa Marinella.

Finally Mediterranean-bound, we got off the train at the next stop and started walking. This looked much more promising. 

I am not much for travel people who say they want to see the “real” version of wherever they are visiting. Every place has many real versions, and yes, there are facades that tourists will see. So be it. But when we got off the train and walked through town to get to the coast, I felt like I was actually visiting Italy now. People were just being people: shopping, walking their dogs, old men dozing on park benches, neighbors stopping in one another’s shops. There were little to no signs with English translations. 

And in that fountain, there were turtles… all the way down. 

Many of the beaches near Rome are private and allow you to rent chairs, blankets, umbrellas, etc. I didn’t actually want to sit on the beach for hours though, so we found a restaurant that claimed to be closed but was still allowing people to sit down and order drinks. Travis busted out some Italian I’ve never heard him use before — very impressive — and we found a table at the back near some open windows, right on the beach. 

And there it was: the Mediterranean Sea. So much history, framed by beach umbrellas. 

Later, we found a public beach section right next to this restaurant and headed out to get closer.

We still wanted to get back to Rome early that afternoon so we could go to that museum we missed yesterday, so we started walking back to the train station for the return trip. We bought our tickets, got to the right platform, got on the train, and then I realized that we’d not been in Santa Marinella at all. We’d been at Ladispoli-Cerveteri. Oh well. No matter. 🙂 

We eventually made it back to Rome with a few more interesting train hiccups but with plenty of time to check out the Palazzo Massimo museum, which is right next to Termini. And for that… next post!