Leaving Rome

Today we were headed to Siena for the next leg of our trip. Our travel agent had booked us reservations on the 8:30 train to Chiusi, where we could get a connecting train to Siena, but after looking at the train schedule, we decided that we would take the 10:44 train instead, and give ourselves some extra time to sleep and have breakfast. It sounded like a good idea at the time. After all we had a first class rail pass good for any train, so we headed to Termini station at about 9:15.

I waited in line at the ticket counter to get our rail pass stamped and was told that all we needed to do was put the date in, i was also told that if we wanted to reserve seats we could do so for 3 Euro per person, but that wouldn't be necessary. So we headed off to find our train. The station had large signs and we could see our train listed, however no track number was given. We waited around for a while but still no track number and we began to get a bit nervous since it was closing in on 10:40 and we had no clue where the train was. Suddenly all of the signs went blank - All of them. in the entire station. I went to the info booth where the gentleman there seemed to have no interest in helping me. He told me begrudgingly that the train was on track 11, so we headed there to find a train out of service. I headed back to the counter only to see that the train was on the platform right behind the info booth. We hopped onto the first car (thinking that this was a first class car) and were repeatedly pushed out of our seats by people with reserved seating. We moved to car 2, then 3, then 4 just to find no seats, all the while dragging all of our luggage along with us. We hopped off the train to talk to one of the conductors and were told that without a reservation we would need to pay a difference but to go to car #5, and sit in seats 41, 42 or 43. After finding no empty seats on that car we hopped off then back on to car #6 just moments before the doors closed and the train started moving. We finally found some empty seats, and sat down sweaty and exhausted after having to run with all of our bags through a crowded train for the last half hour.

Later after we had been riding for a while the same man from the platform came by collecting tickets. He told me that we owed 10 euro since we had no reservations, he also told us we could move to the first class car (2 cars away). I am still not sure why he didn't direct us there in the first place, just as i am unsure why the man at the ticket counter didn't tell me that I needed a reservation since it would have only cost me 6 euro at the desk instead of the 10 i had to pay. Lesson learned - never get on the train without a reservation.