A few years ago Brad and I saw the Terrence Malick's film, The Tree of Life and found ourselves mesmerized by the cinematography. Then right before Brad and I left for Italy, Brad discovered a short 2-5 second scene was actually filmed nearby Rome, in Bomarzo in il Parco dei Mostri (Monster Park). So, when we arrived in Italy we decided we had to go make the trip out to Bomarzo. Unfortunately, while Bomarzo is fairly close to Rome(an hour away by train), we discovered that the Monster Park was extremely difficult to get to. Taking the train to Bomarzo was easy, we got on at Termini Station in Rome and arrived in Bomarzo in about an hour. However, once we got off the train we discovered a ghost town. We were told by our train ticket agent that there was a bus stop at the train station that drops you off at the park. But there was not a bus stop. Luckily there was a bar in the train station. Unfortunately the barista told us there was no bus and that we would need to take a taxi if we wanted to get to the monster. Finally, after an hour our taxi driver showed up and dropped us off at the Moster Park for only 35 euros...haha. We did enjoy our walk through the monster park, but of course it was underwhelming. However it was still interesting to see the sculpture from The Tree of Life and other monster sculptures. I could see my nephews having a blast at this park because it is full of different sculptures that depicts different mythological beasts and gods. However, many of the sculptures are fenced up, so you cannot get too close. Also, the entire park was so small it took us less than an hour to walk through it entirely. So after our walk, we decided to make our way back to the train station. Our taxi driver had told us after that there is a bus that we can take from the center of town that goes directly to another train station. Unfortunately we had to walk up a steep hill to reach the center of the city. After asking around we finally found the bus stop and waited an hour. It wouldn't have been so bad, if it hadn't been a freezing day and maybe if the bus had actually shown up. We thought perhaps we could wait in a cafe or have lunch somewhere in town to wait out for this bus. But of course we were in a small italian village and everything was closed down. So finally we decided we would call another taxi. The same taxi driver showed up after about another 20 minutes! It was another 35 euros to go back to the train station and then we had to wait another hour and half for our train to arrive. All I can remember was how cold we were. When I got home I looked through some of the pictures I took that day and they really do not tell the same story. -E
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