Roma!!

Ciao amici, I am here in Rome. This hostel has free wifi which is great - travelling with a laptop is such a luxury, though I was cursing it while I staggered around the streets with my backpack.

To recap: the journey started with a very charming day out in Paris with equally charming Jemima. This was brilliant - plenty of strolling and plenty of sitting. I had planned for us to tackle the Louvre, since we've never been there, but after many warnings of how huge, intimidating, stressful and crowded we would find it, we decided to content ourselves with walking around and hanging by the pyramid.

This was our amazing 3 course lunch - we had to order blind since neither of us could understand the set menu, so we were concerned that it would turn out to be some kind of meat, but it was such a bargain that we couldn't resist, vegetarian principles notwithstanding. Luckily it was fish.


We did some wandering and some hanging out, Louvre, Pont des Artes, Pompidou centre, and then it was 5.30 and we had to split up to catch our respective trains. Saying goodbye to Jemima was sad and left me with that helpless feeling of "I can't cope on my own!" which I promptly proved true by getting lost in the Gare du Lyon trying to find the left luggage office. When I eventually located it, I hauled my bag to the next station along to catch the sleeper train to Rome.

(Sweaty after climbing alot of steps to get to Paris Bercy station).

The train was kind of cute - I was in a compartment with 6 "couchettes", bunks which fold down. You go in and think "hang on, there are just 6 seats - where will I sleep?" but then it all becomes clear. However, anyone thinking of taking a sleeper train like this, learn from my mistake and request the top bunk - it has alot more head-room and is a bit more independent. I was on the bottom bunk, with approximate 1 inch of headroom when I was lying down.

I shared a compartment with, among others, an old Italian lady, dressed in black, who shared brioche and super-sweet coffee from a flask with me. That felt like exactly what should happen on a continental sleeper train. She spoke no English and it didn't take me long to realise that I speak pretty much no Italian - should have studied more before I left London. Oops.

I slept a bit, lulled by the soothing train motion, but the bunks were incredibly narrow and it wasn't the most comfortable night I've ever had. We were supposed to arrive into Rome at 9am next morning, but at that time we'd only just reached Bologna...however, at least that meant that we travelled through all the gorgeous red-roofed Italian towns and hills in the brilliant sunshine, so it was probably more scenice than it would have been if we'd been on time. We eventually crawled into Stazione Termine at 1.30pm, 4 hours late, feeling incredibly tired and cramped and icky.

Termini wasn't nearly as dodgy as I'd been made to understand by guidebooks and the internet, and I got out without being mugged for my passport/all my money, and headed to a hostel I'd read about online. They had room for that night (Thursday) but unfortunately they told me there were fully booked for the next night (Friday). I thought I'd cross that bridge when I came to it and checked in straight away, showered, changed and felt a trillion times better, so headed into town for some sightseeing and ice cream.

Piazza della Repubblica
I absolutely love Rome - any time you turn a corner you come across another beautiful piazza/church/statue/fountain/gelateria.
In one of the main piazzas I came across this crazy festival with a band and balloons and cheering, and was trying to figure out what was going on when I saw these flags and it all became clear:

Some kind of election rally - I thought Berlusconi was already in. Maybe it was celebrating his victory, or maybe it was just some kind of "hey, we elected a ridiculous, right-wing, millionaire mentalist into office, but at least he is taller than both Putin and Sarkozy!"-type festival.

I was incredibly tired after the night train, so spent the evening hanging out back at the hostel, eating some pizza and talking to some other backpackers, and went to bed incredibly early.

First pizza in Rome

I feel a bit ambivalent about the train journey now - it was an experience and there was some great scenery, but it was uncomfortable and it really wiped me out for the whole next day. A flight would have taken about 5 hours door to door. Hmmm...but at least I saved on some carbon.

Next morning I was confronted with the problem of where to stay. I had to check out of the Yellow Hostel at 10am, so I left my bag there and walked around the streets near Termini, asking in hostels. They were all fully booked, and it transpired that this was a bank holiday in Italy, "Liberazione", liberation day (I assume from the Nazis in WWII). Eventually I found an italian hostel owner in a launderette who promised he could find a room for me. He was calling round all these different ones which, apparently, he owned, and they kept being full, and I was on the verge of tears and convinced I would have to sleep in the station. However, he managed to find me a room and then said "29 euros, you can pay me now." I thought "oh god, what if it's just an elaborate ruse, there's no one on the phone, this hostel doesn't exist and he's just conning me out of my money", but decided I had to just trust him as there were no obvious alternatives, so I handed over my money. When I headed to the hostel later, they greeted me by name "Ah, you're Mary!" and showed me to a room, so I can say in retrospect, what a nice guy.

As soon as I had that sorted it was time for my tour of the Vatican, which I booked because a girl in the hostel told me she "couldn't recommend it enough." I'm so glad I took her advice because it was really amazing - I definitely got so much more out of it than if I'd just gone on my own. There were only 4 of us on the tour and the guide was this young American guy, who knew everything about Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Christian and classical history...it was fabulous.


The Sistine Chapel was breathtaking. If I say it wasn't a letdown, it hadn't been overhyped, that sounds like I'm damning it with faint praise but actually, I mean it as a huge compliment. I also liked how you're not allowed to talk in there and the guards clap at people to get them to put their cameras down.
In the evening, I walked to the Spanish steps and the Trevi fountain. It being a bank holiday, and a friday night, and warm (it's so much warmer here, it's comfortably t-shirt and sandals weather) there were huge crowds of people out strolling around, with this really nice party atmosphere.

This brings me to today, which I dedicated to exploring ancient Rome. I had to check out of my hostel in the morning (why didn't I book in advance so I could stay in the same place for all 3 nights? idiot, idiot) but after a lie in, sorting that out, and several coffees I headed to the metro stop Colosseo (the tube here is really easy to navigate).

I did alot of wandering round the Palatino and Roman Forum - tons of ruins, tons of incredibly old columns and statues and arches. I love it.

Tonight I have a bed in this hostel, the one I stayed in the first night, and tomorrow I can move into my apartment near the language school. Being terrified about leaving/travelling/being in Rome on my own has all distracted me from being scared of the course, but when I think about it, I'm pretty nervous about teaching and about how ridiculously hard the TEFL course is supposed to be. Ah well, fingers crossed. Tonight there is an evening tour/pub crawl organised by the hostel, which I may join, though I'm undecided as of yet. There are conflicting issues of socialising versus sleep and fun versus not-being-ill-for-the-course.
I will be posting again when I have a bit more news for y'all!