So it begins

Nobody told me there would be Italians in Italy

Published Date : November 20, 2003

This trip has had an interesting start.  Last night at the Richmond was an absolute blast.  It was my birthday party, and lots of people turned out for it.  Yay!  There was much drinking and dancing, and everybody was having a great time.  At about 1am, Warwick left to take his girlfriend home, promising to meet me back at the hostel.  I went back to the hostel with Gray at 1:30am and at 2:30am, we were still sitting up waiting for Warwick.  I gave it until 3am and then finally decided to leave without him.

I caught a cab to Victoria station, after arguing with the cabbie about whether or not the buses to Stansted airport were indeed running at 3 in the morning.  From there it was an hour and half trip out to the airport.  Still drunk at this point, I somehow checked in and made it through customs without incident, and eventually made it on to the plane.  There was still no sign of Warwick, so I resigned myself to travelling solo once more.

Autumn along the Tiber river

I was still feeling a bit buzzed when we landed at Rome’s Ciampino airport 2 hours later, and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with Italian public transport after 30 hours without sleep.  The bus into town from Ciampino is cheap, but as with most Italian public transit, the bus station is horribly signed.  A couple of Italian soldiers (Ciampino is a joint civilian-military airport) struck up a conversation with me, wanting to practice their English, and in the end they offered me a lift into town.  So that saved me €2 and a lot of hassle.  Score!

After a nice long, hot shower at the hostel (The Beehive, €18/night for a dorm), it was time to see the sights.  I was reminded quite quickly that it is impossible to walk in a straight line on Rome’s windy mess of streets, and rather than dig out the map every 5 minutes, I decided to blindly wander instead.  The last time I was in this city was4 years ago on my Contiki tour of Europe, and it feels a bit surreal being back here on my own.

Piazza del Popolo

The day was cloudy and cool, but not unpleasant.  It was actually a perfect temperature for walking.  My first stop was Piazza della Repubblica, where there was some sort of police ceremony on.  There were Caribinieri everywhere.  From there I took a stroll down Via Nazionale and window shopped.  I had been loosely aiming for the Spanish Steps, but I stumbled across Piazza Venezia and Il Vittoriano instead.

After snapping some photos, I resumed my wandering and made a pit-stop at the tourist mobbed Trevi Fountain before I eventually came across the equally mobbed Spanish Steps.  After seeing a poster on a tourist info booth, I decided to head to the Tiber River for a cruise.  I took a detour through Piazza Navona on my way, and when I finally reached the river I found out that the cruises don’t run in autumn. D’oh!

Making the most of it, I took a stroll along the river, which looked gorgeous lined with trees in oranges, reds, and golds.  I stumbled across Piazza del Popolo, a very large and very impressive square with its ornately carved gates and Egyptian obelisk.  I climbed up to nearby Piazza Napoleone and was rewarded with some magnificent views of Popolo and the rest of Rome.

Completely exhausted at this point, I made my way back to the Spanish Steps to catch the metro back to the hostel.  I reached the metro just in time for Friday afternoon rush hour.  Ugh!

Pizzeria mishaps

Published Date : November 21, 2003

Pallatine Hill

Today was another long and tiring day.  After 15 hours of sleep to recover from my all-nighter, I was feeling somewhat refreshed when I got up at 8:15.  I was surprised to find that despite my fairly early start, I was one of the last ones up in my dorm.  My early impressions of this hostel are mixed.   It’s definitely stylish, well kept and comfortable, but I haven’t found anyone to be very welcoming – either the staff or the other guests.  There are quite a few American students staying here and they really keep to themselves.

My plan of attack was to start off the day at the Colosseum.  On the way, I made a brief photo stop at Piazza dello Essquilino to snap a picture of Santa Maria Maggiore. At the Colosseum, I tagged along with a Japanese tour group for a little while.  If you want to see what’s what in the latest digital camera technology, that’s the way to do it.  There were some very impressive cameras in that group!

Roman Forum

Being a youth (under 24) and the off season, I managed to score a cheap ticket to the Colosseum and Palatine Hill.  It cost me only €6 for admittance to both!  I spent a couple of hours and an entire roll of film at Palatine.  The ruins were absolutely incredible, and I probably could have spent longer there.  I know nothing of the history of this particular historical site, but after seeing it, I’m keen to do some research on it.  It was very impressive to wander through. I hadn’t planned on going in to the Colosseum again, but since I already had the ticket, and got to jump all the queues, I figured I might as well have another look.  After making it past the hordes of touts selling tours of the Colosseum, I made it inside to find that – surprise, surprise – it looked exactly the same as it had 4 years ago.

St Peter’s Basilica

Next, it was a wander through the Roman Forum.  I didn’t spend much time there though having already gone on a tour there the last time I visited Rome.  Stopping for a nutritious breakfast of chocolate gelato, I made my way to the other side of the river and the Vatican City.  I spent about an hour at St Peter’s Basilica once I finally made it through the ridiculously tight security.  I don’t remember metal detectors and x-ray machines at the door the last time I was here, that’s for sure!  I was undecided on whether or  not to visit the Vatican or Sistine Chapel again, but I figured since I was already there I might as well stop by.  I missed the last entrance by about 10 minutes though, so the choice was made for me.

Castel San’Angelo

Heading back towards the river, I stopped to check out Castel San’Angelo.  Along the way I stopped in a couple of shops and picked up some Christmas presents for my family.  The castle was definitely very different in architecture to British castles, and I found it interesting to explore.   Unfortunately, I’ve definitely reached saturation point on castles – I just can’t work up much excitement for them any more. From there, it was back across the river to the Pantheon.  I stopped at a little pizzeria on the way and had some really terrible Italian pizza.  By terrible, I mean it was so dry and flavourless that I took two bites and had to throw the rest away.   It might as well have just been plain, overcooked dough.  Blech!  I’ve decided that the Pizzeria is to Italy as the Chippy is to Britain.

I stopped off at the hostel long enough to dump my camera and presents, then decided to try my luck at the cinemas.  I ended up watching Tears of the Sun (L’Ultima Alba) dubbed into Italian.  It helped that I had already seen it in English, so I had some clue what was going on!

And now I sit back in the hostel, getting ready for bed.  Did I mention that I’m not sleeping alone tonight?  Ingram, the hostel cat has adopted me for the night.  I paid attention to him.  Apparently that’s all it takes.  It turns out that he’s the most social resident in this place!