Rome, Italy

The new updated plan. We leave Friday to Madrid and catch a flight to Rome. We sleep there and take a train to Florence Saturday and then to Venice Sunday, back to Rome on Monday and flying back to Madrid on Tuesday.

So the day has come for real. I have another day of class, but a lot of students were missing because they were out on trips. The atmosphere was pretty relaxed. Our professor told us a story about a student he taught in West Africa whom he gave homework to and didn’t know they he didn’t have lights in the house, so he had to do his homework under a lamp or something. He said he didn’t feel too bad later when he ran into him many years later in Germany and the guy had a hot wife (don’t know how that matters, but it does) and was on his way to buy a Mercedes. He came a long way.

I got an email from Fede today. At first I was worried and was hoping it was not bad news about Koki or Mia (my cats), but instead it was about an article his niece wrote for NPR. It was about the Taco Bell boycott and how it worked out. It was cool reading about how everything worked out.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4706271

The Spurs are up 3-2 (3-3 as of this writing) and I’m still rooting for them from way over here.
Our plan was to leave early, but Bianca could not get out of class. My theme for my travels has been to not worry or stress, but trust and faith that things will work out. We end up getting on the long bus, which delays us even more. We take a cab instead of taking the train, but we get caught in traffic. I start to worry we won’t make it, but say nothing and just trust it will all work out. We finally get to the airport with less than an hour to go before our flight (need 2 hours), but we find one of those self-service lines and check in very fast. So I am glad I didn’t stress out. We even have time to get some food, and it was lucky because the only food on the flight was food you had to pay for.

The flight was about 2 and a half hours, but I didn’t find it too bad. I keep trying not to think about crashing when I fly, but though I don’t show it externally, somewhere in the back of my mind I have to release control and accept that if I die at that moment, I’ll be at peace with it. I keep telling myself (well God I guess) that I’d rather not though.

We get to Rome and we don’t have to go through customs. Sucks I don’t get an Italian stamp on my passport. The place is full of hustlers and cab drivers trying to make money off of you. There is no shuttle to the hotel, so we get offered a 55 dollar ride and then a 45 dollar one. They get a good system where they are dressed nice and have these official signs around their neck (licenses to let them solicit) and they come up to you and offer information. Who doesn’t need information? Before you know it, you are in a cab/shuttle with that same "information guy" driving. The guy we let take out money was actually a pretty cool guy. I have to admit that the Italian men do dress well, but they still stink like BO. We get to our hotel and I saw a stray cat outside. Little did I know there would be many more stray cats in Italy.

We unpack and then take a bus to find a place to eat. It was an ordeal and we ended up at this very expensive place that served a lot of seafood. The food was good, but not exactly what we were looking for. I had the calamari, but it was the actual squid, not the savory fried pieces I usually get. I was hungry so it worked out. We didn’t know Italian, so talking was hard and at one point we really wanted our check. We asked the waiter how to say check and he didn’t understand us, so he said "Prego". We didn’t know what that meant, so we assumed it was check. No check came. So like idiots we kept saying "prego" to all the employees and still no check. Prego means "please" or "if you please." We finally got the check like half an hour later. We took a cab home and found out that cabs in Rome cost a lot.

Saturday morning (6/18/05), we ate breakfast and caught the bus to the Vatican. The place was great and I am very happy I went. I guess it like the Catholic Mecca, and I always felt like it was a place that I would need to go to at least once in my life. Kind of ironic that the person that my family sees as the least religious, is the one that actually goes and visits the Vatican. We went inside the Basilica and then go on a tour of the treasury. There was a lot of art work with fragments of the real cross of Jesus. I wonder if they know where all the fragments are. Afterwards, I bought something from the gift shop and we tried to make our way to the Sistine Chapel. It had just closed, but I really wanted to go, so we kept it for another day. There were some really cool water fountains that were like mangeras (water hoses)/fountains that you just drink out of. We then went to the tombs of all the popes and I got to see where Pope John Paul II was buried. I never saw him in life, but did get to visit his grave.

Afterwards, we went to the Vatican post office and sent post cards home. We then walked around more and had some gelato ice cream. It tasted great. We then took the metro to the train station. The metro in Rome is not as complicated as the other cities I have visited. There are two crisscrossing lines and that is it. We purchased our train tickets to Florence and it was time to eat. We decided to try out the McDonalds in Rome (this is like a Coke and McDonalds tour). After we ate, we took the train to the Coliseum.

The Coliseum was definitely a highlight of the trip. It is funny because I feel like most people think of the movie Gladiator and I heard a lot of people mentioning it. We paid the 10 bucks and walked around. The first thing I noticed was all the stray cats living there. When you see a lot of old building and churches, it is hard to appreciate how very old they are. Here, because of the state it was in, you really get that historical feel.

We tried to figure out the best way to get home and we decided we could take a metro stop somewhat close to our hotel and then walk from there. Well I must have been tired because my map skills were not at their usual top and we ended up walking in the wrong direction. Then we couldn’t catch a cab for the life of us. We finally end up on a bus that gets us to the hotel, but we were really crunched for time. We get out luggage and then take a cab to the train station. Just like everything else in our trip, things worked out perfectly and we were very fortunate, especially that our train was running late.

We finally get on our train to Florence and it was an overnight train. There were 4 seats 2 and 2 facing each other. We were able to pull the chairs out. We tried to sleep on the way, but we didn't get much rest on the 4 hour trip. We arrive in Florence and get off the train in the middle of the night. There are no cabs there, so we wait and through some mix up, we end up getting a cab. We get to our hotel and the price was expensive for a short ride. The hotel is nice and there are all these cats living there. There is a cat just lying there in the lobby. We put our stuff away and decide to find food. The guy at the front desk tells us of this pizza place/club and we take another expensive cab there. Well I'm wearing shorts and this place ends up just being a club with a closed kitchen. Considering how expensive the cab was, we decide to instead walk home.
On the way home, we notice our good fortune when we run into a street vendor open at 2am at night. He knows no English, but somehow we manage to get our orders in with a lot of painting. I got to practice a lot of my "caveman" Italian, which consists mainly of grunts, spanish/english words and many hand signals. After we enjoy our meal, (I had a burger, well similar) we start walking home. Probably not the best idea walking in the middle of the night, but we really didn't want to pay. We must of been in the red light district because we ran into at least 5 prostitutes. At first I wasn't sure, but after like #3, we knew, especially with all the cars stopping. After a long walk, we finally make it back ot the hotel and get to sleep.