Day 15 – Rome

An early breakfast was needed so we could catch a train to Rome. It would be the last time we went through the dodgy market and I’m not going to say I’ll miss it. On the train, we had the privilege of sitting opposite a man who was as nosey as my girlfriend and every time someone raised a voice or coughed, he was up off his seat and ‘subtly’ walking about and looking. This upset my girlfriend who was getting frustrated now at everything he did (from eating to breathing). Luckily, the man survived being choked to death by her as the train was only 2hrs (yes we got the cheaper one to save money, it usually takes shorter).

I was very excited to be in Rome and my girlfriend tried to bluff her way through stories about being in love and that it’s the law to be affectionate blah blah blah, I promised to try my best – it is hard to be overly romantic in the eternal city when everything is expensive and you are on a budget with 5 weeks left! However, my girlfriend did find a hostel for €10 a night (I really must commend her for that) which is basically just throwing a bed at you for nothing really. For that price however, I did have doubts… they began when we had inadequate directions to the hostel. As I don’t like asking for help and figuring things out, I was stressing out because I was getting no luck. Even trying the Buddhist trick I recently read about – rather than searching for an impossible solution, remember it. It suggests to your mind that an answer must exist and therefore eliminate hopelessness – it didn’t work and I was rather lost.

Against my will, my girlfriend asked questions and we finally got on a bus. Thankfully, it was not as busy as yesterday but we still had to stand for 30minutes. Arriving in a quiet neighbourhood, we followed the street up to the number of the hostel. When we found it, it was outside an ill-health looking building, more like a block of run-down flats. Inside it didn’t get any better but when we reached the hostel door, suddenly colour and warmth burst into the building. We were greeted with a very enthusiastic owner. His english derived from google translate with literal meanings and swear words posted on all the walls as rules. It seemed a lovely place and very interactive, but the owner loved talking and instead of giving us the bunkbeds we booked, he gave us a double bed at the same price because we were boyfriend and girlfriend. So generous really!

With the unpacking done and about 90mins of listening to the owner’s rants, we were off to city centre on the tram (we have already almost exhausted all possible transportation devices left). We spent close to 2 hours in search of a map and somewhere to eat (it must have been a bad time to eat as the service was appalling and after 3 or 4 restaurants, we picked the ‘best of the rest[aurants]’… Sorry I couldn’t resist. One of the restaurants we sat down in forgot about us and all went for their food without even asking us for drinks!

Finally we entered a restaurant with a touristico menu. It was a reasonably price and you got 4 courses. What they had forgot to mention on the board was that the chicken was appalling. There were more bones than meat and the 3 carrots that kept it company didn’t do much to make it more attractive. Aside from that, we had only taken a bite of our starter when the second course of bones arrived, meaning that it was cold by the time we got round to it. Like calm down!. We did enjoy watching the people outside fall for the same thing we did and come in. We really wanted to tell them to go away but the place was empty except us and another couple, we would have been heard in the whole restaurant and even kitchen.

Just casually walking through Rome looking for the restaurant, we bumped into the Pantheon, a lot of churches and Roman ruins along our way through the inner city side streets. After dinner, we emerged at the Vittoriano. Sitting in a café having drinks, I was eager to tell my girlfriend all the facts about the massive monument in front of us. She was more interested in the organised chaos, being the streets of Rome and their manic drivers. With droplets of rain falling on us all day, we decided to head back early and plan for the next day, allowing me to create a route on our map to follow, and hopefully find a hairdressers to cut my hair before I drown in my sweat caused by the ever present Mediterranean sun.

It was here, lying in bed writing this, that I realised why it was €10… Our room had no air conditioning so the window was kept open. Open to the overly loud sounds from the train line 100m away, and the thunderstorm that we had just missed as we got back to the hostel. Both my girlfriend and I had a restless night. I wasn’t prepared for much sleep anyway.