Roaming Rome and Friday the 13th in Naples

This passed weekend was definitely one for the record books- full of adventure, excitement, and frustration.

Last Tuesday night, the 10^th of November, Mouse, Caitlin, and I boarded a train in Hull for London. After a quick change in Doncaster and a brief ride on the London Underground to the Stansted Express, we had arrived at our final destination. It was approximately 11pm that night, and our flight to Rome Ciampino wasn’t scheduled to depart until 6:30 the next morning. We grabbed a small bite to eat at a 24 hour restaurant in the airport and set off to find a place to campout for the night. Unfortunately, about 200 people had the same idea we had so all the benches were taken, leaving only the cold floor for us to sleep on. I won’t drag out this story much longer, so let’s just say between the three of us, an hour of sleep was had (all enjoyed by Mouse).

We boarded our plane bright and early the next morning, excited to get on with the trip. The flight was uneventful, but the views over Italy were amazing.

We arrived at the Rome Ciampino airport and hailed a cab to take us to our hostel. This is how we learned that the Italians are the worst drivers in Europe and the cabs are the most overpriced in the world. Seriously thought, this cabbie made more per hour than the psychiatrist I will have to hire to get over this traumatic event. Between those two things and running on no sleep, I was close to snapping. Fortunately, we had gotten to our bed and breakfast and although the place was quaint and not quite as nice as we expected, it would do. After we broke free from the check in lady’s seemingly tireless jabber jaw, we grabbed a map and headed down towards the coliseum, which was about a 10 minute walk.

Along the way, we got to see more of Rome and figured out that even though it was kind of dirty, there were many beautiful parts. Just across the street from the coliseum was a park which we walked through which offered some unique foliage and views of the ruins. This was the first time I had seen palm trees in their natural habitat, and that was pretty cool. The weather was about 65 degrees and sunny- the day was starting to become fun.

As we approached the entrance to the coliseum it was hard to not be awestruck. After all, we have all seen pictures or heard of this monument, but to actually be there is something else. Simply to consider this massive stadium was built with bare hands made it all the more impressive. We decided to buy our tickets from a tour group outside. Numerous groups had been bombarding us trying to make the sale, and finally we found one where we actually thought we were getting our money’s worth. The tour started immediately and we got to skip the huge line of people waiting outside, which was a huge plus. We were regaled with countless facts and stories about the coliseum and those who both visited and competed in its corridors. The best part was that it hadn’t been modernized, although there were a few gift shops. So many times we have been disappointed by a castle which has been rebuilt or updated, and it was great to see that hadn’t happened. Being inside the structure was amazing, it is almost impossible to explain. It could hold 55,000 people, around 3 times what the UNI Dome can accommodate. It had three levels, two of which you could go up to and look down upon the underground maze which was now exposed due to the old wooden floor having decayed many, many years ago. Much of the white marble which had once covered the ENTIRE coliseum was gone (taken to complete the construction of the Vatican), but there were still a few remaining portions which gave you a chance to imagine what it would have been like to see the whole place glowing white in the sun. After the tour, we were given 45 minutes to roam around (ha, get it?). We took pictures, climbed the steps, and generally just soaked in the atmosphere.

Once our break was over, we met up with our tour group once again and headed to the palatine. The word palatine is where we get our present day word “palace,” which offers explanation as to what exactly it is. This is where Rome was started, after Romulus killed his brother Remus (we learned about this on the tour). Virtually anyone of political strength you can think of lived on these grounds at one time or another. Of course, now the palatine is only a vast area of ruins with portions of walls and pillars sticking out of the ground, but you can really get a feel for what it would have been like from what remains. First of all, this place was enormous, absolutely huge. Second of all, the entire palace was covered in marble (now which is at the Vatican). There is still a little bit of marble remaining on the premises, including a red marble which comes from Egypt. This red marble is said to have been depleted in the construction of the palatine. Now, the Vatican holds a monopoly on this material, and stores it on their premises just down the road. We were told that if you wanted to by one kilogram of this marble, it would cost you 80,000 pounds, or roughly $145-$150,000. Pretty nauseating huh?

The next part of the tour led us to the forum, which again is now only a bunch of ruins. The forum also covers an enormous piece of land, but it is hard to gauge since Mussolini split it in two with a road while he was in power. It has been discussed by Roman authorities that they would like to dig up the road to see what is underneath, but since the road is now a major highway leading in and out of Rome, that probably wouldn’t be a good idea. No, it definitely wouldn’t be a good idea- the traffic there is awful already.

After our tour was done, we headed back to the palatine where we spent a few minutes going through Caesar’s home, which still stands today. That wrapped up our site seeing for day one.

That night we went in search of traditional Italian faire, i.e. pizza. We found a place not far from our BnB that was reasonably priced and decided to dine there. The restaurant had a deal where you could get one pizza, a salad, and a drink for 8,50 euro, which was pretty good. Now, it the US when you get a personal pan pizza, it’s probably around 10 inches. We each ordered a pizza, and when they came out, we were very surprised. Each pizza was about 14 inches, more than enough to feed one of us. But, we all stuck to our guns and finished our meals. Delicious. We each had a traditional margherita pizza, which is essentially a cheese pizza. The best part was the crust. Italian style is thin, baked in a stone oven, and it really gives the pizza a unique flavor and texture. Of course, we couldn’t end the night without dessert so we walked a little farther down the road to get some gelato. Gelato is kind of like ice cream, except thicker and creamier. I had chocolate with hazelnuts. I’m not going to go into much more detail in fear of bursting into tears at its absence in England.

The rest of the night we spent watching BBC News, the only thing on tv in English, and catching up on some sleep.

Day two started with a small breakfast at our BnB and a long walk to the Vatican. The outside was awesome, pillars rounded the courtyard area and a few fountains provided picturesque views. We wandered around outside for awhile before going into the cathedral. St Peters was beautiful, just as you would expect it to be. The ceilings were high with domed roofs which provided canvases for artists to paint gorgeous works of art. We didn’t spend much time there, as we wished to get to the Sistine Chapel. The chapel was in the Vatican Museum, so we bought our tickets to get inside and wandered the endless corridors looking at statues, tapestries, maps, and paintings, many of which had come from the coliseum and palatine. When we finally arrived at the Sistine Chapel, we were a little surprised. The main picture you think of when imagining this building is the one with God touching fingers with Adam. Although this was present, it was much smaller than I expected. The entire ceiling was made up of panels with paintings the exact same size as this one, however this one was the focal point as it was right in the middle. All in all, it was an amazing experience to see something which you hear so much about.

On our way back to the BnB, we stopped at a little restaurant and had some tortellini and bread. It was very good, and we all considered it a success. I also had pistachio and chocolate gelato that afternoon, which was the best of the trip. The rest of the day was spent stopping into shops and making our way back to the BnB for our final night’s stay.

We awoke early the next morning on Friday the 13^th to make it to the train station to catch our ride to Naples. I must point out the date, because for some reason, things were against us accomplishing what we went there for. First of all, we couldn’t get tickets for the train I originally had wanted so we arrived in Naples 2 hours later then expected. After getting overcharged for the taxi in Rome, there was no way we were going to pay for another, so we thought we would use the directions sent to me by the hostel to get there. It was supposed to be a 20 minute walk, not bad considering how far we usually walk any given day. HOWEVER, one thing we have come to find in Europe is that they do not label their streets as clearly as we do. Sometimes its only every other street, sometimes its on the side of a building, sometimes weather has eroded the stone markings. Fun stuff right? Anyway, our 20 minute walk turned into an hour and 15 minute walk, and that was with asking a hotel attendant and a cop for directions! We now at the hostel at 12:00, a full 3 hours later then expected. We quickly checked in and were told by the lovely staff that we would not be able to see both Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius with the time we had remaining. Super. So we chose to go to Pompeii since that was the easiest. She gave us instructions on how to walk to the place where we could buy tickets. Again, she gave us the bench mark of 10 minutes from the hostel. SO we started walking, 10 minutes later, we were not at the bus station. Turns out, we had gone too far. Apparently, Americans walk faster then Italians. We back tracked and finally found where we needed to be. The bus for Pompeii had just left, so we had to wait another half hour until 1:15 to head out. Ok. Once we figured out which bus to get on, a feeling of comfort ran over me. After all, all we had to do was wait for the driver to announce our stop and get off the bus. Well, turns out the driver never announced it like we were told he would and we rode the entire route. After explaining this to the driver with a series of hand gestures and facial expressions, we figured out our stop was about halfway along the route. Super duper. At this point all we were missing was Jason Vorhees lumbering down a palm tree with a machete to finish us off. We finally decided it wasn’t worth the trouble as night was fast approaching and I had no confidence in our abilities to navigate in the dark.  So we rode all the way back to Naples, passing the Pompeii ruins and Vesuvius on the way. At least we got to see them from the bus so the day wasn’t a total loss.

After being dropped off about 10 minutes from the hostel, we went out and explored the areas nearest to where we would be bunking for the night as to not get lost. The day got better and we all relaxed as we stopped into shops and picked a pizzeria to eat at. The place was called Osteria Pizzeria and it was a great experience. During our trip we found that most people could understand a little English, but few actually spoke it. Well, the pizzeria we were at was authentic Italia. By this I mean the menu was in Italian, and everyone who worked there neither understood or spoke English. Oh, and the owner was a big Italian guy with the top 3 buttons of his shirt undone so you could see his chest hair curling around his giant golden cross necklace. Yea, now we’re talking. Anyways, we found the section labeled “Pizze” in the menu and assumed that was pizza, but had no idea what anything on the pizzas were. Cait chose what appeared to be cheese and mushroom, and I just pointed at one and crossed my fingers. Turns out we were both right in our choices. Cait’s was what she expected and mine turned out to be a pizza with formaggio and mozzarella cheese, basil leaves, and a smoky, really thinly sliced ham (the actual name escapes me at the moment) . Mouse, however, had wanted spaghetti and sure enough, it was on the menu so that’s what he ordered. Well, he ordered spaghetti von gollo, which does not mean spaghetti and meatballs. In fact, I would say it means nothing close to that, because when the brought out his plate it did have spaghetti noodles, but where the marinara sauce and meat should have been there were instead a herd of oysters, cooked but still in the shell. Not exactly what any of us expected but he enjoyed it so all was well.

After polishing off our enormous pizzas, we went in search of gelato, which is much harder to find in Naples then in Rome.  Eventually we came across some and yet again it was wonderful.

After our day of ups and downs we went back to the hostel and talked to few other guests that were staying there. Best part: we had a tv and dvd player in our room AND they had American movies is English. We took advantage of the opportunity and watched a few movies before going to bed.

The next day was a lot of travel again. We took a train back to Rome where we met up with Emily and her family who is still there spending some time enjoying Italy. It was nice to see some familiar faces from home and catch up. Our visit was short as we quickly boarded a bus to get out to the airport. The flight back to London was delayed a few minutes due to the rain and 100 mph winds they had been having in England that day. We got back into London around 7 pm Saturday night and had until 9 am the next morning to wait for our train ride back to Hull. Although it wasn’t very comfortable, we all got some sleep in the airport that night.

Whew, well we are back in Hull. Classes are going well and it is hard to believe we only have 4 more weeks of school! Caitlin and I are going to Paris this weekend with the International Student Association. We are both really excited, but I must say, I can’t wait because this is the one trip I didn’t have to book

Cheerio!  (and Ciao from Italy!)

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