I woke up and had a filling breakfast (with omelet) at the hostel. Yesterday I had scrambled eggs at the same place. You get to choose one main dish and then as much miscellaneous food (pasta, oranges, etc) as you want. So probably the best breakfast that I’ve seen in one of those places so far. I talked to one guy who said he is heading to Rome, “Only one hour by train!” That’s the express train. I told him I’m taking the slower, cheap train.
- 9:47AM – Got on first train in Florence.
- 10:00AM – Got off first train, wait for transfer.
- 10:23AM – Got on second train. So crowded, I didn’t even have a seat for the first hour. Well, I was able to sit down by the bathrooms on the floor, but not sure that counts.
- 1:03PM – Arrive in Rome.
- 1:30PM – Found the subway and got on.
- 1:50PM – Switched to a different train.
- 2:20PM – Got off the train. Wait for the bus.
- 2:50PM – Give up waiting for the bus, board the train again a couple stops closer to where I want to be.
- 3:00PM – Start walking to my destination
- 4:00PM – Arrive at the camping facility. Get turned away for not having a reservation.
- 4:30PM – Get back on the train.
- 5:00PM – Transfer back to the subway again.
- 5:30PM – Start walking to backup hostel.
- 6:00PM – Check into the hostel without a reservation.
So pretty much wasted the whole day. OK, I learned my lesson and booked rooms for the next 5 or 6 nights today. It is just really hard to find a good place in Rome. Right now I’m stuck at a place that isn’t very good. No place to lock up your luggage, only one bathroom, water all over the floor, just heard some people complaining about ants all over their toothpaste in there too. I’m changing to a different place tomorrow, but it doesn’t sound like it will be much better.
One interesting thing about this place is a Roman aqueduct that runs parallel to hostel’s road. It is neat to see these old structures popping up throughout the city. I went to a nearby pizzeria to taste my first Italian pizza. You can walk into a pizzeria and they have a large selection of readymade pizzas. So I pointed to one with spinach/ham/cheese and a second one with some herb, tomato, mushrooms, olives (strangely no cheese). They cut off as much as you want and they weigh and charge per Kg. It is all thin crust and it came out to $6 for me (four pieces). It was pretty good, but I think Italy invented the pizza and America perfected it.