An eventful day and a sleepless night
This morning we said our goodbyes and got on the bus to Florence. Unfortunately, there had been a crash on the highway so we got stuck for a while and Nathan, Jackson, Kaitlin, and I missed our train to Rome. Kaitlin and I had tickets for a later train (we booked the earlier ones before finding out we couldn’t cancel the original trip), so Nathan and Jackson got tickets for the same one. We had some time before the train so we went to get breakfast. Me and Nathan got croissants, Kaitlin had bacon and eggs, and Jackson got some pancakes.
I bought more pocket coffees and then we got on our train, which was a Frecciarossa – the high speed train. The train ride was great. The views out the window were beautiful.
Once we arrived in Rome we walked to Nathan and Jackson’s accommodation to drop off my bags. Then, we got on a bus and headed to Trastavere. I wanted to show them this area as it is much quieter than the areas near the Colosseum. In this area there is a Roman Jewish Ghetto dating back to the 1500’s, which is considered to be one of the oldest in the western world. There is a beautiful synagogue, some ancient temples and the “little colosseum” nearby. I was surprised to see almost no other tourists at this site, despite being only a 20 minute walk from the Colosseum, one of the most popular attractions in the world. I was happy that the others got the opportunity to see this side of Rome.
After we visited the Ghetto, Kaitlin decided to start heading back to the train station and go to our accommodation on the beach near the airport which we are sharing with Paula and Rachelle. I was planning to head back in a few hours. I have been to the beach near Ostia before, and would rather spend more time in Rome. The three of us carried on towards the Colosseum. I am visiting again, because since I am and Italian citizen under 25 my entry fee is only €2. On the way, we stopped to look at the Vittorio Emanuele II Monument, one of the largest presidential monuments in the world. Vittorio Emanuele II, the successor of Napoleon, was the king of Sardinia, and then the King of Italy from 1861-1878.
We spent a while exploring the Colosseum. I was really happy that I visited again, as it wasn’t busy since we went in the evening.
After the Colosseum we roamed around some more and stopped at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.
Then, I took them to Trattoria Cecio. I don’t think it makes sense to wander around looking for authentic food when you already know a good spot. I had the Puttanesca again, and we shared a bottle of the house white wine.
After dinner, we got on another bus and visited the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. We all threw three coins into the fountain.
- Coin #1: to ensure we will return to Rome
- Coin #2: to find true love
- Coin #3: to combine the two previous wishes and fine love in the eternal city.
The tradition of throwing coins into water dates back to ancient Roman times, but I think the 3 coins is a more recent pop culture thing.
We saw some fireworks from the top of the Spanish Steps which was really special.
Now, the not so fun part of the night.
I kept in touch with Kaitlin during her travels to the beach. She seemed to be struggling a lot, and I didn’t fully understand why. Honestly, I thought she had done something wrong. I later realized it was not at all her fault, and it sounds like it took her about 5 hours to get to her destination.
During our adventures, Nathans phone died, which we didn’t think much of at the time, until he remembered the door code for their accommodation was on his phone. While they were looking for a place to charge his phone, I pulled up the Tren Italia website to see when the next train to the airport was. I had been checking throughout the day, and there was a train every 20 minutes or so. To my surprise, it now said the next train was at 4 am. WTF. I had a bit of a crash out and called Kaitlin and cried to her about it. By this point she had figured out that all of the trains had been canceled because of fires near some of the stations. I saw a small fire on the way in, but I had just assumed it was a controlled burn. She suggested that I don’t even bother with public transport because the whole system is a complete mess.
It’s official, I am stuck in Rome.
Nathan and Jackson kindly offered to let me stay with them for the night, which I felt really terrible about, but I also really didn’t want to wander around or take public transport alone at night, so I accepted. They assured me that “shit like this happens all the time when people travel” and that it could be a lot worse. We are all on the same flight tomorrow so we will go to the airport together. I’m pretty bummed I didn’t get to see our accommodation on the beach, it looks really nice.
I only did 30,000 steps today.