
The trip took more than a 2.5 hours and included a transfer. When I arrived at the station, no one was on the platform. I walked inside to an espresso bar and asked directions.
I had brought a book with me about Villa Gardens from the public library in Calif.
In bad Spantalian, I asked about the monster garden, while I pointed at a picture of it in the book. The Espresso man behind the espresso bar laughed at me.
He told me that the garden was 8 km away. I asked, "Taxi?" He replied, "No Taxi!" I asked "Autobus?" He replied, "No Autobus!" I asked, "bicicleta?" He replied, "No Bicicleta... a pie 8km!" while he walked his fingers across the counter.
Apparently, I had misread a website that said the park was 500m from the train station. Having traveled so far, I decided to continue... a pie (on foot)!
So, I walked the 8km along the narrow shoulder of a highway. At about 5km, the road began to climb uphill in a series of switchbacks.
I decided to try my hand at hitch-hiking. I found a piece of cardboard and I wrote Bomarzo on it. Sweaty and with broken character, I sat on a guardrail at the hairpin turn of a switchback with my sign.
Cars flew by me. No one stopped to pick me up. Not even the tractor driving uphill at 3mph. Must have been mistaken for a gypsy! So I walked the entire 8km to the garden. As I approached the entrance to the garden, I looked up at the sky and it looked like rain. The Gods were obviously smiling upon me. How was I going to get back to Rome? A pie...on foot!
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