Rome... the hard way

O boy… yet another travel story of missed transportation and hectic planning. Our flight for Rome was leaving at 7:30am from Milan which means we needed to catch the 3 am shuttle bus from Tornio to the Milan airport (2 hours away). Now people that know me would predict that my morning was flawed by oversleeping, as that usually is to blame for me missing morning activities. This was not the case… the 6 of us left my apartment at 2am to walk to the bus stop. Drew specifically called to determine exactly where the bus pick-up was located and was told by an English speaking employer the location. We arrived with plenty of time to spare! After waiting for 20 minutes with 3 am too close for comfort and no site of a bus, we called the company again. This time we got a different operator; different location. After a panicked 5 minutes of sprinting SEVERAL blocks down the street and another phone call, we accepted the fact that we had just missed the bus (which we already paid 18 Euro for by the way). With no more buses, no trains, and a plane that was located 2 hours away, we were in a pickle! We called a taxi and were told it would cost 190 Euros to reach Milan… When the taxi showed up, they could only seat 5 people and we were told our only option was TWO 190 Euro taxis. After pleading with the man in Italian, we gave up and decided we’d be skipping Rome this weekend. FORTUNATELY, the man took pity on our sad little predicament and finally agreed to squeeze and extra passenger into the vehicle (illegal by the way). Two hours and 40 Euros each later, we were at the airport!

I am happy to report that the weekend takes a lovely upturn at this point (we decided that fate was trying to pay us back). It was supposed to rain ALL weekend; I never once opened my umbrella. I had the chance to go to the Borghese Gallery and see Bernini’s sculptures (David, Daphne and Apollo) and a few works by Caravaggio (they are my two current favorites). And I even returned back to my friends safely after walking through the park for 30 minutes, after sunset, in Rome, by myself (sorry Mom and Dad… there was no avoiding it. But there were still people around jogging and stuff so it didn’t freak me out too badly. I was ready for a fight if I had to!). I saw the Coliseum from the outside (I’m saving it to see with Amanda and Jena over spring break!), the Pantheon (it was very impressive), the San Carlo Quattro Fontane church (that I’ve studied in art history classes), the Trevi fountain, the Spanish steps, and more churches, piazzas, café’s, gelaterias, etc. I also was really lucky when it came to the Vatican. In the morning, the line was an hour wait (at least!) to see St. Peter’s Basilica. However, thanks to Rick’s advice (aka my Rick Steve’s book), a friend and I came back in the afternoon and got in within 15 minutes! I was really excited about that. The Basilica was MASSIVE. The vaulting is huge and spans such a wide space that I wish I understood the engineering of it all. Of course it is filled with amazing sculptures and elaborate decoration, but the sheer space of it all is what impacted me the most.

After two full days of walking and site-seeing, we headed to the airport at 10pm at night (we decided to stay at the airport because our flight took off at 7am which is before we could get any trains to take us from the city center to the airport). In past airports I’ve seen, I feel like I could have reasonably slept for the night. However, Rome has its own “sleeping at the airport” culture which they apparently try to fight against by making the chairs impossible to lay on (curved bottoms, armrests, no cushion). Oh and they save on their heating bill at night too! After a night of little sleep but many laughs (it’s always nice to travel with friends that can make light of a bad situation). At the Milan airport, I split from the group and headed into the city center to catch my reservation for The Last Supper”. It was such I beautiful day out that I also climbed the stairs to the top of the Duomo (which we didn’t get a chance to do last time we were in Milan but I had wanted to). I was tired after a long weekend of little sleep and headed home on the train from Milan to Torino. I had used an old ticket Kate gave me because it was never punched so she thought it would still be good… wrong. After everyone on the train stared at me while the ticket checker man tried to explain to me in broken English that it was no good (and I tried to play the innocent “I didn’t know because I’m a tourist who doesn’t speak Italian and is such a sweet nice girl” game), I bought a ticket and paid an extra penalty fee. I’m beginning to think I need to start a “Megan learns all her lessons in Italy the hard way” fund! (By the way, I also never admitted that I got a bus ticket too… I HAVE a monthly bus pass, but of course the one day I forget my wallet I get checked by the bus authorities! I was terribly upset after being handed a 60 Euro ticket, but the USAC office said that since I really do have a monthly bus pass, I can bring that in when I go to pay for my ticket and the charge will be reduced to 11).