Day 42

Friday September 7

7:30amish - woke up. Finished packing.

8:00am - went to breakfast. Same as always.

8:35am - checked out. Went out to the D bus and hopped on. It left at 8:49, to be exact :p

9:10am - get to the train station - 45 minutes too early but rather early than late. My train didn't even have a track yet lol. Sat and waited and figured out it was coming from Milan at 9:45.

9:50am - train arrived a little late. So then it left about 10 min late. No biggie, I was in no rush. Found my seat, blahblah. Train ride went fast, only an hour and a half and a lot of it through tunnels under hills and stuff.

11:35am - arrived in Rome. What a fancy modern station (I guess it's just a few years old). Paid a lot (70 cents, or about a dollar) to use the space-agey bathroom - but hey it was clean and a real toilet so whatever LOL. Went out to find the official cab stand when a guy approached me talking in English asking if I wanted a cab. I ignored him and sped up and kept walking. Had read too much about these fake cabbies that way way overcharge and are assholes. Found the official stand where all the cabs are white and have signs and numbers and a sticker from the city. Cool. And the meter was running. Excellent. I gave the guy the address and he goes. I think he may have gone a circuitous route but he was pointing out sights as we went, which was nice enough. Got there in a few minutes and the number on the meter was 5 something. He asks me for like 20 euros (I think). I was like WHAT? He says "for the luggage, the luggage" and I say "luggage is una (one)." I argue with him and he doesn't speak much English and hey, I've got my bag at this point so I could just leave and he can't do much, so I stick a 10 in his face and he mutters something and leaves. That was still too much, but better than 20. And 10 is what I was expecting it to be, so whatever. So much for him being nice lol. I kind of understand why people get exasperated with this city. Even if you are careful and don't get pickpocketed, you have to be on your toes every single second. Being on edge is not really a fun way to travel. But anyway.

12:10pm - went up to the Hotel Paba. The owner Alberta who I had spoken to wasn't there but a maid who spoke no English was. Well she spoke a teeny bit. I said who I was and she was aware. So she tells me that she'll take my luggage and to go to #280 (few doors down the street) and talk to the woman for the Hotel Ferraro, where I'd be sleeping tonight. Found her no problems, she knew who I was. Sweet lady, she asks if I just arrived in Rome and I tell her yes but that I had been to Florence and Venice and she says "ah, they're nice. But this is Rrrrrrrrrrrrroma" - I hope she's right! So she brings me back up to across the hall from the Paba, where the actual rooms of the Ferraro are and she shows me all the various keys (one to get in the building, one to get into my room and TWO to get into the 2 doors of the hotel). So, I'm glad that I am only here for 1 night. It's not terrible, the bed's OK, but it faces the (busy, loud) street, is pretty beat up, there's not even a phone. The toilet and shower are in the same teeny little "bathroom" etc. Not worth 115 euros, that's for sure. But whatever, the owner of Paba was nice enough to let me know way in advance and make the arrangements for me, it's not worth getting upset about just for 1 night.

12:45pm - starving by this point. I had read about a little place down the street that was good but I looked at the menu and it was appetizer like things and nothing sounded good. So I found a probably overpriced and not particularly wonderful big cafeteria type place that had pastas and pizzas and just had some pasta. That and water and the cover was 11.50, oh well. So I give her 20.50 and she doesn't like the 50 apparently, so whatever. She gives it back to me and then tries to give me only 8 euros and says "this ok?" or something and I'm like "no, it's not" so she begrudgingly gives me the 50 cents and tells me tip is not included LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I left a euro on the table. Whatever. I wanted to tell people I saw arriving to leave. But I was hungry and it was edible.

1:45ish pm - walked up Via Cavour and saw the St. Peter in Vincoli church, but it was closed (a lot of churches here seem to close from like 12-3pm or so for the 'siesta'). Found an ATM that looked safe (2 people before me used it and got cash successfully) so I got some. Hopefully it will be enough to get me through the rest of my trip, but I think it will be close. Kept walking and made it to Piazza de Repubblica (not to be confused with the square of the same name in Florence!) with a super old church. Went in, very pretty. Was going to go to the baths of Diocletian around the corner but it was closed. Ooooookay. So at this point I am right across from the train station and I am like, what should I do. I went to the train station and to the info office and bought my RomaPass for 20 euros - it lets you into 2 sights and gives 3 days of transportation. Considering the colosseum alone is 10 euros, that is a great deal. Then to figure out something to do, I looked in the Rick Steves book to see what he said about the 110 hop on hop off bus tour, which I had read about a lot but never particularly with much attention because I hadn't planned on going on it. Sounded like it would be a good overview of the city, and I was feeling a little overwhelmed by it, so I found the ticket desk and bought a 16 euro ticket. Expensive but you get headphones with explanations of everything, and it's a 2-hour bus ride. So really, not so bad.

3:00pm - Caught a bus and realized.. Didn't have my sunglasses with me (in my backpack at hotel) and wasn't sure if I had put sunscreen on my shoulders (and it was probably not on my face anymore). Oh well. Not much to do about it. After a couple stops some people in a covered part got off so I moved up and was more protected from the sun. Anyway the tour was pretty good, got to whiz past most of the major sights and a little handle on the geography and take a lot of pictures

5:00pm - got back to the station and was going to buy a 1 day pass for tomorrow before I validate the RomaPass and either the line was super long at the info desk, the machine was down and then one told me to put 4 euros in for the ticket so I put a 2 euro coin and it pretty much ate it and didn't decrease the amount and the English option wouldn't work. So 2 euros lost and screw that lol.

Started walking back towards the hotel. Found the big Santa Maria Maggiore church, huge inside and really beautiful. Wandered around in there for a few minutes and wondered why Rick Steves's stuff didn't even mention it. Perhaps no major art, but a huge beautiful free church to go into. Weird. Anyhoo, walked down Via Cavour and got a coffee gelato. Then made it back to St. Peter in Vincoli, which was now open. Also very pretty inside. The main attraction here is a beautiful marble statue of Moses done by Michelangelo. Someone put a 50 cent coin into a little machine and it lights up. Neato. And this church is free so you get to see huge major art for free. Nice.

6:00pmish - Went back to the hotel for a few minutes to plan my attack and sit down etc. Was planning to do the Rick Steves night stroll walking tour and eat in a well-reviewed pizza place along the way so I studied the map and figured out how to do it.

6:30pm - set off to go to Campo de Fiori to start the walking tour. Passed the entrance to the Forum, which is right at the end of the street where the hotel is. Cool. Passed Trajan's Forum and Market, which was all under construction unfortunately. Got a teeny bit lost but then figured out where I was and made it close to Campo de Fiori, but first there was this big area of more old ruins that had been uncovered in the 20s (1920s that is). Neat. Campo de Fiori is just a big square, but in the mornings there's a produce open-air market there; I'll check it out tomorrow.

7:10pm - walked towards Piazza del Fico, which is right by the big Piazza Navona. Walked by the famous "Baffetto" or something pizza place, which already had a small line of 10 or so people. Laughed because allegedly the place I was going to right down the street was better, cheaper, and easier to eat it. Indeed so. Little Da Francesco was a typical little italian restaurant with simple tables that had the red and white checkered clothes on them. Had a diet coke and margherita pizza. And let me tell you I think it's the best pizza I've ever had. But I'm not sure why. The crust was so thin and crispy and charred from the wood oven. And I think it was good because it had more sauce on it than a lot of the pizzas I've had over the past week and a half or so. The kitchen was open so you could see him making pizzas and at one point, there were at least 10 pizzas lined up to be delivered. And on one he cut salmon fresh to order. Really cute little place, fantastic pizza, NO COVER CHARGE!! So total was 9 euros and I left one on the table.

7:50pm - set off to find Piazza Navona. Only a couple blocks on the map, I must have taken a wrong turn or something LOL. Anyway found it. Busy and lots of touristy rip-off looking places lining the square. Followed the tour to the pantheon (which I - embarrassingly - didn't realize was a church inside), which was actually open, so that was cool. Then went through some other squares, took a detour to Giolotti's gelato, a fancy place where the gelato is quite yummy (had a cone of chocolate for 2 euros - if you take it away it's much much less expensive) to the Trevi fountain. Wow. Bigger than I thought. So busy. Kept one hand on my bag at all times and tried to snap some night scenery pictures.

9:15pm - Made it to the Spanish Steps, which are a bore and just as disappointing as people on TripAdvisor said, then went to find the metro to take to the station then to switch to Cavour, the stop a couple min from the hotel. Went into an open tabacchi shop to buy a ticket and she said "finished" I didn't know what she meant but it meant I wasn't gonna get a ticket. Then I went into the station to see if there were machines or something and a guard/cop was standing at the entrance turning people away. Perhaps that's what "finished" meant. People had no clue what was going on and of course I don't speak Italian so I REALLY had no clue. But I knew my hotel wasn't that close and I knew my feet were starting to hurt after walking all evening. Had no idea if the buses were even running, where to get a ticket, or which bus would even go where I needed. So I was like, fuck it, I will just take a freaking taxi. The taxi stand was close and I was directed to a female cabbie. Cool! I tell her Via Cavour and realize I don't have my phrasebook with me to be able to say the number. Oy. So she goes to Via Cavour and then I am just like "cavour metro" because I knew the metro stop was just a couple min walk from the hotel) and she is like "Ah ok!" Perfect. Meter said like 5 euros, I gave her 7 more because I appreciated her honesty than anything lol. I know that's too much tip here, but whatever.

It is really beyond me why the metro would inexplicably stop on a Friday night by 9:15pm. I mean, this is a city where people don't even really eat DINNER til then. I don't understand, I really don't. But at the end of my first day here, Rome reminds me a lot of NYC - a lot of great stuff, but for me, too big, too annoying, too loud. The churches are beautiful, the ancient sights are unreal. But so far, I'm finding it a frustrating place to be.

9:35pmish - back at the hotel. MTV is the only English TV station. hahaha