Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved a boy, and they were blessed to spend an entire week in Rome, Italy together. Here is that story. Well, that story is actually fairly long so here is Part I.
Sunday, April 24th
One would think that for a flight that left at 11:40am on Easter Sunday, two juniors in college could make it to the airport on time. We made the flight but we did arrive at the airport a little later than planned; and the EasyJet check-in line was a little longer than expected; and my luggage weighed a little more than allowed; and all of this equated Jared and me being one of the last couples to board our plane to Rome. [Side Note: When those flight screens read "last call," they're not kidding.] We scoured that plane for two open seats together with a window view (because I must have the window) and we actually found a whole row that was open in the very back of the plane. However, all of the overhead space was full which meant we had to put our luggage under the seat in front of us. I assumed this would be no big deal and I absolutely assumed incorrectly. Jared threw a hissy fit about the lack of space due to our tardiness and slammed his bag down on the floor like a 4-year old denied a second piece of cake at a birthday party. While attempting to hide my giggles in the corner, the flight attendant, upon seeing Jared's mini-tantrum, came over to find out the problem and assure us that he would not let anyone sit in the aisle seat of our row so that Jared could put his bag in front of that empty seat and thus have ample leg room for the three-hour flight. The gentleman held true to his word which only confirmed that Jared's reaction was unnecessary. But at least I had a good laugh about it, and we definitely think it's funny now.
After hours of road trip games modified for an airplane, we landed in Rome, Italy and the series of events that resulted in my laughter were plentiful. First, my luggage was one of the absolute last pieces to make its way onto that dreaded conveyor belt. It took so long that we assumed we had already missed our train and we'd have to catch the next one. [Side Note: It is anything but funny when a woman fears that her luggage has been lost at the airport. If you are of the female specimen and you are reading this, you can attest to the pitter-patter and throbbing of your own heartbeat resounding in your eardrums with every second that you wait while no other bags descend onto that belt, and the perspiration that clams up your hands with every person that leaves baggage claim as you stand glued to your spot, and the thousands of numbers that start scrambling in your brain as you calculate the cost of having to immediately replace everything in that suitcase, and the flood relief that comes over you when that plum colored treasure chest comes sliding out of that black hole and into your giddy little hands.] So of course at this point we were not rushing to the station for a train we believed had already left; we just strolled over there. But when we arrived to the platform, our train was literally sitting on the tracks and just as we figured this out and walked toward it, it pulled away from the station! Boo. But of course I laughed.
We had nothing else to do but hang around the station and grab a quick bite to eat after we exchanged our tickets for the next train. Once aboard it was a quick 40 minute ride to the next station where we had to switch trains for our final destination. I will admit that I am pretty good with directions and timetables and schedules and all that jazz, but this station was kind of hectic and seemingly unorganized and it was like a massive train wreck (haha) in that train station with everyone scattered around, jumping from platform to platform attempting to figure out when their train would arrive. It was an unpleasant yet comical experience that I couldn't accurately describe if I wanted to. You had to be there. But eventually we figured out the train we needed only to see it was not at a close platform and then to see it pull away without us aboard, again. So what I did do? Laughed, you guessed it; but Jared was about to have a conniption because he hates being late and missing things and is one of the most punctual people I've ever met. [Side Note: Jared called me on our second date at 6:30pm to tell me he would be late for his 7pm pick up. Little did I know "late" meant he was going to arrive at 7:04pm instead of 7:00. How did he know half an hour early that he was going to be 4 minutes late? And that's not late?! I'm a girl for Pete's sake. I get at least a 15 minute grace period so of course I wasn't ready even though he was "late." Go figure.]
Before the sun set we made it to our final station where the only thing left to do was take a 5-minute cab ride to our hotel and this was our first experience with the astronomical cab fees in Rome. This cab ride was somewhere between 5-8 minutes long and it literally cost us 20€. Unreal. But we finally made it to our hotel which I thought was really cute and was randomly situated behind an IKEA. Jared immediately fell in love with the Italian accent of the concierge and proceeded to practice his "Italian" all the way up the elevator and to the room.
Not long after settling in and discovering that ESPN America was just about the only channel we could successfully access on our HDTV, my baby was hungry. Surprise! So we ventured downstairs to ask for directions to a good restaurant and we were informed of a place just around the corner. We were given directions but our first attempt at getting there was thwarted as we ended up in a barricaded parking lot. Take two was much more effective as we had a hand drawn map to follow and we found the place. Back in the room, everything went smoothly until we tried to charge our electronics. Low and behold our converters did not fit in these outlets. Boo. So we called the front desk which was able to spot us just one converter that worked but we needed more than one so an employee actually offered us his personal converter. It didn't end up working but that was extremely nice of him to give us his own. [Side Note: I initially thought it was really cool that the TV had a sensor next to the bed so you could just point the remote at this spot on the wall to change the channel instead of having to lift up and point it at the TV in just the right spot. However we realized that the sensor blinks with lightning bright precision all night and we ended up having to cover it with a pillow to block the flash. That's some UCLA-type engineering to overlook that major flaw in functionality.]
Monday, April 25th
If you've read even one of the tales of my adventures with Jared, you know what happened the next day - we woke up late. We missed our free continental breakfast and were therefore forced to grab McDonald's which happened to be next door to the hotel. We were determined not to let the entire day go to waste though we had 6 full ones in the city (yay!) but due to the exponential rates of hotels in Rome, our hotel was just outside the city center in Ciampino. Therefore it took some navigational skills to get us to the city. After talking to the concierge, we figured out that we needed to catch the bus going to Anagnina and then catch the metro from there to the city. The bus stop was just across the street and the ride was only about 10 minutes. Then we took the metro for about 25 minutes and 1€ each and actually made it to Rome. How 'bout that?
We exited at the Repubblica station and walked around the city with no particular destination; just enjoying the Italian air. I didn't want to always be looking at maps so we just turned down random streets when we felt like it and went to see obscure buildings though we had no idea what they were and passed by some really fabulous shopping and just soaked it all in. We eventually made it to the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II and as we crossed the street toward it, I looked to my left and there it was - the Colosseum; just as majestic as we'd heard it was. We were both extremely excited about our first sighting of the structure that inspired the home field of our beloved Trojan football team and we made sure to see it every day we were in Rome.
After the Monument it began to drizzle. This was not okay with me by any means and I forced Jared to go with me to get an umbrella or else we would have to go back. Seriously. We then stopped to have lunch at a little bistro of which I'm not sure the name but we returned several times to this bistro because Jared fell in love with the gelato - specifically Stracciatella. It's some kind of vanilla based cream with chocolate shavings so of course I didn't have any. I tried a fruitier gelato which I enjoyed but it wasn't much different than ice cream to me. Actually, it was a little too sweet for my taste buds. To each his own. [Side Note: While having lunch at the bistro, I looked up just in time to see the end of an Alexis Jordan music video (for a song I'd never heard) and there was a familiar face - Mr. Tommy Williamson. I should have expected it from that kid but it was still really cool to see a fellow Trojan on TV all the way in Italy.]
After lunch the rain just would not let up and we were coerced to head back to the hotel. We walked back and forth for a while in the rain unsure of the nearest metro only to find out it was literally around the corner but we made it there before 9 (metros close at 9 Sunday-Friday due to construction of a new line) and then were able to take the hotel's free shuttle from the metro stop. The rest of the night was rather calm until we attempted to get pizza. It was raining so we didn't feel like going out to that restaurant again but we found out that we could have it delivered and that suited us just fine - until we realized we didn't have enough cash. Of course the ATM near the hotel was closed and we had no way of getting more cash. So after I finished dying laughing at our inability to come up with 15€ between the two of us, we managed to pull together 13€ and the hotel covered the other two and just charged it to our room. Great customer service. We were fed, fat, and happy and then we passed out - after Sporcling of course.
Tuesday, April 26th
When booking our hotel in Rome, we couldn't find a reasonably priced hotel available for all 7 nights so we booked 2 nights at one and 5 nights at another. So come Tuesday morning it was time to move hotels. This was our second encounter with the ridiculous cab fees in Italy as it cost us about 30€ to get to the next hotel which was about 13 minutes away. Insanity. But upon our arrival we were upgraded to a pretty sweet suite (pun intended) and I was actually able to unpack my suitcase - we love unpacking in hotels. The new place was a bit further away and slightly more of a hassle to travel to and from but we were determined to make it work. Our journey now included a 10 minute walk down a particularly narrow sidewalk (and past some vicious miniature alarm dogs), a scurry across a busy street once we passed the median, a 20-45 minute wait at a bus stop, a 15 minute bus ride to the metro, and then a 25 minute metro ride to the city. It took us over an hour to get to and from the city each day but we're great travel partners so I didn't mind.
Next we walked along the river which was really beautiful and quite peaceful as it was almost entirely void of tourists. We passed the Castel Sant’ Angelo (an old not-so-impressive castle), a random arch, and a ton of bridges. [Side Note: An arch is a curved structure. An arc is the curved shape. So an arch is a structure or physical object and an "arc" describes the shape of the space underneath an arch. We couldn't figure out whether the structures we saw were arcs or arches. Now we know.]
As we passed by the lower side of the Colosseum on our way to the metro, we walked by two men; one with a microphone and one with a camera. They seemed to be making some kind of an amateur documentary and were looking for tourists who spoke English to interview. This intrigued me so I stopped to answer their questions. The interview seemed completely non sequitur but I tried to just smile and be pleasant through the jumble of randomness. He asked if this was our first trip to Rome and if we liked it and what our favorite place was but then he unexpectedly threw in, "How do you feel about God?" The question totally caught me off guard and as a Christian it totally surprised me that I didn't know how to answer it. Did he mean do I think God exists? Was he asking me to explain the gospel? Should I start quoting scripture? I was at a complete loss for words and couldn't gather my thoughts at all so I said...
TO BE CONTINUED ;)
[the next post will finish the story]
"It's cool baby, doesn't matter anyway,
Well I'm so sorry we got to the station a little too late,
Such a shame; just missed the train." -Kelly Clarkson
Totally forgot about the interview! Horrendous.
ReplyDeleteAnd in other news, you're a very good writer. And your writing style totally fits your personality.
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