Sperlonga + Sun + Sand = A Perfect Friday

9/17/2007 10:57 AM

On Friday, September 14th Brian, Kyle, Ben, John, Jasmine, Andrew and I headed to the beach.

After scouring several guide books and asking Davide and Samia at the school were we could find a nice beach that wasn’t packed with tourists and party-goers, we finally found a beach about an hour to the south of Roma. According to the sparse internet sources were able to locate, the beach was clean and very nice and Sperlonga also had a nice museum on the site of the Imperial Roman Villa of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. It looked like the beach had something to offer for everyone, so we decided to pack our swim suits and head to the beach for a day of relaxation away from the city.

The travel time, routes and necessary modes of transportation required to get to Sperlonga seemed pretty straightforward; catch the metro to Termini, then a Train to Fondi-Sperlonga (the closest train station to the beach) and then take a local bus the last 12 miles to the beach. Then just repeat the process in reverse to get home. Easy!

Ok, maybe not. First of all, we didn’t plan enough time to get to Termini. The train we needed to take to Fondi-Sperlonga was scheduled to leave the station at 8:49 am. We finally arrived at Termini at 8:45, still in need of actual train tickets for 7 people. We were definitely in a bind and out of time. I ran to the nearest electric ticket kiosk and started ordering tickets for the train that was literally about to pull out of the station. I tried to just buy all 7 tickets at once, but only succeeded in purchasing 6 tickets. Apparently the ticket kiosks can only print 6 tickets at once. We had 6 tickets, and were furiously working on ticket number 7 when the clock at the station turned over to 8:49. We finally had all 7 tickets in hand and I was furiously stamping them to validate them for the correct date when we checked the departures and saw what we all thought to be our train was on platform 1, about as far away from our current location as you could possibly be. I looked again and realized we had read the platform wrong and actually the train was right in front of us on platform 16. Keep in mind, the train was scheduled to leave at 8:49 and it was 8:49 am. We frantically ran to the train and asked the steward “Sperlonga?”, in response we got a nod of the head and were quickly waved onto the train. As soon as the last of us were on the train, before we even sat down, the train doors slammed shut and we were on our way to the Beach.

After an hour on the train, we arrived at Fondi-Sperlonga, where I immediately purchased our tickets for the ride home. I didn’t want a repeat of the morning’s hilarious chaos. We jumped on the first bus heading to the beach and by 10:30 we were relaxing on the beach, enjoying the cool breezes off the water. We stayed on the beach the entire day, walking, swimming, and just enjoying ourselves. It was wonderful to be outside of the city and away from the hordes of tourists. Brian and I even found time to head down the beach to the museum and perused the remains of Tiberius’s Villa for a while in the afternoon. Eventually, after everyone had their fill of the beach, sand and sun, we started our trek back to Roma. We found the bus stop we had originally been dropped off at sat and waited for the bus back to the Fondi-Sperlonga train station. We waited, and waited and waited and waited. After an hour, we were beginning to become scared we were going to miss our train back to Roma. Finally the bus arrived and we made it to the train station. Luckily, the train was delayed, but it was quite a hilarious scene watching us try to get out tickets validated, as the approaching train bell was ringing in the background. I am sure the train station master is still laughing at the strange American tourists who had so many problems just trying to get back to Roma. In the end, all seven of us made it back home safe and sound. All in all, it was a great day at the beach.

The excavated ruins of the Villa of Tiberius