Ciao!
We made it to Italy! But of course, not without incident. Remember our early morning train? Well it randomly stopped 6 stops too early. Then it shut down. We spent about two minutes panicking, 5 minutes looking for a connecting train, and 30 minutes waiting for it. Not to worry. We still made it to the airport extremely early. But Ryanair sucks, so we were 't relieved. The whole check in, baggage check, and re-check in process was disorganized and confusing. We made it though.
After the longest bus ride ever (traffic here is asinine) and a hot subway ride, we made it to our hostel. We were not out of the woods yet. The hostel is okay, but the main receptionist is the worst. First we had to wait 20 minutes to check in while she printed flyers, then she refused to charge Kaylea's credit card stating "It would be better for us if you paid in cash". Aaron had to walk a few blocks in the heat to find an ATM. It was out of order. When he returned, the woman begrudgingly uncovered the hidden card pad and swiped Kaylea's card. Lo and Behold, it worked! She also avoided turning on the room's A/C until we asked a second time. We'll be writing poor reviews on Hostelworld.
After that ordeal, we napped. Hard. We didn't wake up until 4ish and didn't get out of the room until 5. No restaurants were open (restaurants here close during mid-afternoon), so we went to the main train station to arrange our transportation to Naples (this is a spoiler! can you guess what we're going to visit?!). The line was the most inefficient train line we've ever been in. Out of the 8 countries we've reserved trains in, this was the worst. We waited for at least two hours just for information. It was stupid. We were in a tickle fight for most of the wait.
Dinner that night was fantastic. Our hostel is a good distance from most tourist attractions, so all of the restaurants around it have true Italian cuisine. Our waiter spoke no English, so the experience was interesting. With the help of google Kaylea attempted to speak Italian, though her accent was distinctly Spanish. The waiter was kind and attempted to correct us in a teaching-manner. The food was delicious, though Kaylea's plate came with a prawn. It had a face, so she scooted it to the edge of her plate and covered it with bread. Then she apologized to it. Might have been the bottle of wine, might have been the heat.
Day 38 began with more chores; grocery shopping and laundry locating. We had a long list of todo's for and a limited amount of time. First up, we had to buy a Roma-pass. It's a 28 euro pass that lets you skip some lines, use the public transit for free, and get discounted entry to a lot of museums. We are still in debate as to whether or not it was worth it, but we got it. At the very least it let us skip some lines. After a bit of confusion, we got our pass, and made our way to the Colosseum. It was amazing. As we were working our way through the massively historic pile of bricks and cement, we couldn't help but think "This is where Russel Crow fought for his freedom!" Another recurring thought was "Holy crap it's hot." Shade was a commodity, and it was in short supply. From the Colosseum, we made our way to Palentine Hill. Essentially it was bunch of Roman ruins. It's intrigue and value were immediately overridden by the heat. The only thing that made us excited about the ruins was the chance that they would offer shade. Eventually, Kaylea worked out a plan for us to see all the stuff we wanted and make it back to our hostel in time to do some laundry and possibly take a nap.
The first step in Kaylea's genius plan was getting off Palentine Hill. Unfortunately, Aaron started a philosophical conversation about robo-brains and the human soul, and we missed several opportunities for the exit. Luckily, we got to walk through the Roman Forum a bit. With limited shade, we weren't that interested. We had a plan, and we intended to stick to it. We finally found our way out of the forum and continued our profoundly nerdy conversation until we arrived at the side entrance to Altere della Patria. We stumbled into a small museum with a few WWII submarines. As we made our way out, Aaron saw a familiar face. It was a fellow climber from our local climbing gym accompanied by his new fiancee. Small world indeed. We walked and talked with them for a while. We couldn't believe it. The first people we ran into from Texas were acquaintances. We spent some time together taking pictures of the magnificent monument and exchanging stories from our travels, and then went our separate ways. Again, we had a plan.
Next stop was the Pantheon. We've seen so many Pa-nons on this trip (Parthenon, Panthenon, and Pantheon) that Aaron was having a hard time keeping track. It was a large building that looked very similar to the Parthenon. It just had a dome inside. Kaylea was stopped on the way in for wearing a tank top, and had to put on her cardigan before entering. There's a dress code for a lot of the churches and attractions here. We knew this, but we still found it off-putting. After the Pantheon, it was only a 10 minute walk to the Trevi Fountain. It was one of the attractions that we were most excited about. Unbelievably, it was under restoration. (YOU'VE GOT TO BE FREAKING KIDDING ME!)
Disappointed, we made our way to the Spanish Steps. More stairs. Underwhelming stairs. Lots and lots of them. Aaron had the bright idea to follow google maps up a very tall and un-shaded hill. This pathway doubled back to the metro, down an elevator, and right back to the Spanish steps. Screw you google maps. That was a tough and pointless hike.
We finally made our way back to the hostel for laundry and home-made (read: cheap pasta) dinner. Twice Aaron bought a Rosé from a cheap little market. He's currently in a heated conversation with a gentleman from Manchester about the evils of the British Museum keeping the artifacts from Athens.
Bedtime for us. We have to wake up to see the Vatican tomorrow. Two bottles of wine in, we'll see about that.
We made it to Italy! But of course, not without incident. Remember our early morning train? Well it randomly stopped 6 stops too early. Then it shut down. We spent about two minutes panicking, 5 minutes looking for a connecting train, and 30 minutes waiting for it. Not to worry. We still made it to the airport extremely early. But Ryanair sucks, so we were 't relieved. The whole check in, baggage check, and re-check in process was disorganized and confusing. We made it though.
After the longest bus ride ever (traffic here is asinine) and a hot subway ride, we made it to our hostel. We were not out of the woods yet. The hostel is okay, but the main receptionist is the worst. First we had to wait 20 minutes to check in while she printed flyers, then she refused to charge Kaylea's credit card stating "It would be better for us if you paid in cash". Aaron had to walk a few blocks in the heat to find an ATM. It was out of order. When he returned, the woman begrudgingly uncovered the hidden card pad and swiped Kaylea's card. Lo and Behold, it worked! She also avoided turning on the room's A/C until we asked a second time. We'll be writing poor reviews on Hostelworld.
After that ordeal, we napped. Hard. We didn't wake up until 4ish and didn't get out of the room until 5. No restaurants were open (restaurants here close during mid-afternoon), so we went to the main train station to arrange our transportation to Naples (this is a spoiler! can you guess what we're going to visit?!). The line was the most inefficient train line we've ever been in. Out of the 8 countries we've reserved trains in, this was the worst. We waited for at least two hours just for information. It was stupid. We were in a tickle fight for most of the wait.
Dinner that night was fantastic. Our hostel is a good distance from most tourist attractions, so all of the restaurants around it have true Italian cuisine. Our waiter spoke no English, so the experience was interesting. With the help of google Kaylea attempted to speak Italian, though her accent was distinctly Spanish. The waiter was kind and attempted to correct us in a teaching-manner. The food was delicious, though Kaylea's plate came with a prawn. It had a face, so she scooted it to the edge of her plate and covered it with bread. Then she apologized to it. Might have been the bottle of wine, might have been the heat.
Day 38 began with more chores; grocery shopping and laundry locating. We had a long list of todo's for and a limited amount of time. First up, we had to buy a Roma-pass. It's a 28 euro pass that lets you skip some lines, use the public transit for free, and get discounted entry to a lot of museums. We are still in debate as to whether or not it was worth it, but we got it. At the very least it let us skip some lines. After a bit of confusion, we got our pass, and made our way to the Colosseum. It was amazing. As we were working our way through the massively historic pile of bricks and cement, we couldn't help but think "This is where Russel Crow fought for his freedom!" Another recurring thought was "Holy crap it's hot." Shade was a commodity, and it was in short supply. From the Colosseum, we made our way to Palentine Hill. Essentially it was bunch of Roman ruins. It's intrigue and value were immediately overridden by the heat. The only thing that made us excited about the ruins was the chance that they would offer shade. Eventually, Kaylea worked out a plan for us to see all the stuff we wanted and make it back to our hostel in time to do some laundry and possibly take a nap.
The first step in Kaylea's genius plan was getting off Palentine Hill. Unfortunately, Aaron started a philosophical conversation about robo-brains and the human soul, and we missed several opportunities for the exit. Luckily, we got to walk through the Roman Forum a bit. With limited shade, we weren't that interested. We had a plan, and we intended to stick to it. We finally found our way out of the forum and continued our profoundly nerdy conversation until we arrived at the side entrance to Altere della Patria. We stumbled into a small museum with a few WWII submarines. As we made our way out, Aaron saw a familiar face. It was a fellow climber from our local climbing gym accompanied by his new fiancee. Small world indeed. We walked and talked with them for a while. We couldn't believe it. The first people we ran into from Texas were acquaintances. We spent some time together taking pictures of the magnificent monument and exchanging stories from our travels, and then went our separate ways. Again, we had a plan.
Next stop was the Pantheon. We've seen so many Pa-nons on this trip (Parthenon, Panthenon, and Pantheon) that Aaron was having a hard time keeping track. It was a large building that looked very similar to the Parthenon. It just had a dome inside. Kaylea was stopped on the way in for wearing a tank top, and had to put on her cardigan before entering. There's a dress code for a lot of the churches and attractions here. We knew this, but we still found it off-putting. After the Pantheon, it was only a 10 minute walk to the Trevi Fountain. It was one of the attractions that we were most excited about. Unbelievably, it was under restoration. (YOU'VE GOT TO BE FREAKING KIDDING ME!)
(angry selfie in front of the Trevi Fountain)
Disappointed, we made our way to the Spanish Steps. More stairs. Underwhelming stairs. Lots and lots of them. Aaron had the bright idea to follow google maps up a very tall and un-shaded hill. This pathway doubled back to the metro, down an elevator, and right back to the Spanish steps. Screw you google maps. That was a tough and pointless hike.
We finally made our way back to the hostel for laundry and home-made (read: cheap pasta) dinner. Twice Aaron bought a Rosé from a cheap little market. He's currently in a heated conversation with a gentleman from Manchester about the evils of the British Museum keeping the artifacts from Athens.
Bedtime for us. We have to wake up to see the Vatican tomorrow. Two bottles of wine in, we'll see about that.
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