Congratulations, you are now all experiencing the most consistant updating I've done in a long long long time. Once a day, for 2 days, well done.
Anyway, Today (and I capitalize for emphasis) is the 29th of April. In exactly one month at approximately this same time, I will be on a plane headed back for the Philadelphia International Airport. I have less than 1 month to finish all the things that I want to do in Siena, we have a week of frolicking and merrymaking (I've really just wanted to use those two in one sentence for the longest time) after school lets out. On the 22nd we depart for Rome and Capri, Naples and Assisi, and a whole bunch of other lovely warm things in the South where I will hopefully be able to bust out the sundresses, skirts, and shorts that I brought with me. Either way, I have begun to feel the slow crushing grip of time, it feels like only yesterday that we got here. I know that these next few weeks will fly by, and I'm really going to genuinely miss it. Granted, I miss you all at home, but when will I ever have this opportunity to live like this again? I'm quite cozy in my little spot here, and I'm pretty attached to the country and the location (although my dream is to live in Venice. Oh, Venice!!) I have to come back out here, I hope I can work something out soon, very soon, borderline immediately.
On to the visitations. Two weekends ago I went to Rome to meet up with the one and only Brooke. I skipped my later class, and thankfully the professor didn't have any problem with me not being there. Either way, I was on a bus at 2 heading out to Rome. 3 1/2 hours later, I was in Rome, standing quite confused and lost-looking outside the train station (of which there are two). Now, I knew that my hostel was a straight shot out from the Termini Train Station, but I was fairly certain that that was not where I was. And I was doubly certain that I did not want to walk from Train Station 1 to Train Station 2 with no idea where I was going. So I purchased a map, like the logical little thing I am. Now, realizing exactly where I was, I was even more determined to not walk, the roads on the map are littered with hotel names and arrows and who knows what else, pretty much rendering the map useless. A good €5 waste. I thought to myself, "Well self, you can take the subway, but really you have no idea where you are going, or where you should get off, and perhaps it would be nicer to take a taxi." Oh, brilliance!! I walked, equally confused, equally lost, up to the taxi line. I have perfected at this point the "Oh dear, I am so very lost and innocent, won't someone please take care of me?" look in Italy. Normally this works fairly well, because honestly, I just don't want to deal with taxi drivers.
Anywho, I got into the cab, told the man where I would like to go, and off we went. Little did I know, that I had chosen the most confused taxi driver in all of Italy. He got lost. He had a GPS, and he got lost. Not just "I want your money, so I'll 'get lost'" lost, I mean, "got out of the car and asked for directions" lost. I was astounded. About €10 later, which is 10 times more than what I would have paid for a 75 minute subway ticket, I was outside the hostel, completely flustered. Up the stairs I went, into the main room, and saw that I was alone. I asked the man behind the desk if my friend had checked in yet, which she hadn't. So I checked in, paid my half of the bill, got the key, and unloaded my stuff. I ate a ham sandwhich, which my host mother had packed me. I looked out the window, which was chained shut. I chatted with an Australian in the room who was applying fake tanner. And then I headed back outside when I heard a very familiar wonderfully American tinged with Brit voice. Brooke had arrived!! We signed up for free pasta that evening, finished half settling in, chatted a little bit more with said Australian, and went to the kitchen when the large Italian woman bellowed "Pasta!" It was ok pasta, as far as pasta goes, not the best I've ever had, but I've been spoiled. After, we went for a walk to get some gelato, and to just see what was around our neck of the woods. At about 10ish we headed back to the hostel, and pretty much just passed out.
The next day we woke up early, took showers, ate a quick bowl of Cocoa Crispies, and then headed out on our super tourist day. We saw: The Colloseum, the Roman Forum, the 5th Avenue of Rome, Augustus' house, ate authentic pizza and ice cream, visited the Spanish Steps, where we met up with Mike, and the Trevi Fountain. After all that, we even went to a rugby game, which, unfortunately, I still don't understand. After, we were going to dye bits of my hair blue, but no where in italy sells blue hair dye. The buggers. We ate in a lovely little Chinese restaurant, which was really quite fantastically good. After that, we crashed at home and were out cold by about 10.
The next day we only had a bit of time to wander. We checked out and dropped off our bags at the train station. We walked around a bit, and ended up getting a smidgeon lost. But in our lostitude, we saw the Pantheon, as well as the giant Piazza Veneziano (or something along those lines). We got back in time for Brooke to catch a train to the Rome Fiumincino Airport, and for me to catch the subway to the bus station. I ran into Mike and family while on my way to the station, and we all went together to wait. We then hopped back on the bus, another 3 1/2 hours later we were back in Siena. Thus ended the magnificent weekend in Rome.
Join us next time for: Venice, my favorite place on earth.
A presto, tutti.
No comments:
Post a Comment