Not a Morning Person

This morning, we tried to get up early to go to the Vatican museums before our 1:45 train to Naples. However, neither Nez nor I are morning people, as we discovered. After our lovely (and now regular) wakeup from the cleaning lady, we had breakky then went to the station to leave our bags at the luggage place. After a half-hour trek through the depths of the station, we find the longest line ever--apparently it's no longer DIY luggage lockers. Since we were short on time, we were NOT about to wait in that line. We schlepped back to the hostel, and instead, left our bags there. At this point, we only had about an hour and a half, and the museums were not going to be visited. We decided to cut our losses and just relax before our train, so we shopped for a bit, and I fell in love with two Italian men: their names were Dolce and Gabbana.

We picked up our bags, and were a bit late leaving for the station. We literally had to sprint to our train, but we made it. Barely. The conductor blew the whistle as we stepped onto the train--now that's backpacking talent. Just in time!

After we got to Naples, we had to take an hour-long "Circumvesuviana" to get to Sorrento. I figured it was a regional train--slower, but no problem. We got to the station and discovered the 1 hr "regional train" from there to Sorrento is actually an above-ground subway. That my Eurail pass is not valid for. So I had to buy a 4 Euro ticket. (I really think my pass was less and less of a good deal, the more I use it and get told it's either not valid or I have to pay extra for the reservation).

We get on the train (if you can call it that) and are crammed like sardines, with no ventilation. We discover after boarding that we've boarded the wrong train. Of course.

After correcting our mistake and enduring a miserable hour and a half journey down the coast, Nez and I arrived in San Agnello, a small town just outside of Sorrento. The hostel directions sucked so we walked around a bit. We got a great photo of this tiny truck before getting busted by the owner, who turned out to be very proud instead, and offered to take a photo of us on the back--as long as we took one of him after. Got some great gelato then made it to the hostel, which is amazing. Makes the one in Rome look like a halfway house. Met some great people in our room (Aussies, of course) and all had dinner together--did I mention the hostel makes incredible food? A bunch of us are gonna see Pompeii tomorrow. I can't wait!

Church on Sunday

Apparently I'm a bad Catholic. I didn't realize that going to the Vatican on a Sunday means the museums are all closed (Sabbath). Lucky for me, going on a Sunday means you will get blessed by the Pope instead. Repentance! Nez and I stood in St. Peter's square and watched as a tapestry was hung out of a random window in the Vatican. Then, at noon, Jesus appeared! Just kidding. But close! Pope Benedict gave his little wave to the crowd, then said a bunch of stuff in latin that no one understood but pretended to anyways. Lastly, he did a bunch of shout-outs in all the languages he could think of, and the crowd reacted accordingly. Most importantly, we were blessed by the Pope!
Just me and the Pope
After the speech, we went into St. Peter's, which is really impressive inside. I completely understand why it's the headquarters here. It is a little strange, however, having to cover up my legs and shoulders. I expect that when I go to mosques or temples, but in a church? They're just shorts!
Me and my improvised cover-up inside St. Peter's Basilica
Later, Nez and I went for a nice dinner of gnocchi and risotto (and place mats with Whitney Houston on them? Random),

then headed to the Coliseum to take some photos at night. Took about 3 good ones and 300 blurry ones--quite the learning curve with low lighting. Did a handstand and cut my foot on broken glass--not the smartest thing I've done this trip.

I rallied, however, and walked to the Trevi Fountain. There were only about 15 other people there, so it was comparatively empty to daytime (when the tourist hordes are out in full force). Almost fell in while taking photos. Fun fact: about 3000 Euros are thrown into that fountain EVERY DAY. Maybe if Italy started collecting it, they would improve their financial situation a little...I contributed to it, but in true backpacker style, I threw in one cent. A Euro is way over my price ceiling, let's be real here! <brMy near-miss with the water, caught on film So I didn't get to see Sistine Chapel. I know, I know--I went to Rome and didn't see the Sistine Chapel!--But it's really fine: I'm so oversaturated with historical sights in Rome that they're losing a bit of their lustre. I'd rather go back when I have a fresh mind--and now I have a reason to return to Rome!

Me and Nez in front of the Coliseum

Ixnay on the Gladiators

Day 3: Saturday Oct 1 This morning I booked a flight to London for Oct 5th, then walked to the Coliseum to use the 2nd day of the ticket the guys bought. Discovered the ticket is valid for 2 days,but not at the same sites more than once. Embarrassing moment! I did the walk of shame past alllll the people lining up who actually had tickets, back out the way I came. Guess I won't be seeing the Coliseum after all!

Back at the hostel I met Nez, another Aussie solo traveler staying in my room. We got along great and had a nice dinner together before an early night. FYI, Rome is HOT right now. All that walking is exhausting!

A little Roman History

In front of the Forum (or what's left of it)
Day 2: Fri Sept 30.

Hostel kicks us out at 10 am (til 3 pm) -- and I mean literally, 10:01, the cleaning lady's knocking on the door to make sure we're on our way. Alright, alright, I'm going! Relax! Nonetheless, the girls and I go grab breakfast at cafe down the street before they caught their train. Still can't believe they're doing Europe in 3 weeks...madness!

Hung out for a bit and did some trip planning in the common room--I decided to skip Ireland, going down to Amalfi Coast at the recommendation of another hostel guest--found a GREAT hostel there. This does not work out well with the ticket I already bought to fly from Ireland to England--non-refundable. I decided to cut my losses and just stay in Italy and find a cheap flight from here.
An ancient pillar that has every important battle in Roman history carved into it--bottom line: It's really old
Did a 2 pm walking tour of the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Coliseum, which was really neat. It's so crazy seeing these ancient ruins in the middle of a big city...just imagine driving your BMW past thousands of years of history--this would never happen in Canada! These free tours are great--they take you to the important sights, tell you a bit about the history, and you just tip them at the end if you enjoyed it. Our tour ended at the Coliseum so people could go inside if they wanted, but I decided against it. Funds are running dangerously low and I've heard from a lot of people that it's not THAT exciting to see inside. Maybe next trip.

Note to self: turning the flash on during the day means you will look photoshopped in front of whatever historical monument you are trying to prove you saw

What I did do was walk down to try and get registered in cooking class at this restaurant I found online, but it was full. After that mission and a half over the river and through the Circus Maximus (remember Ben Hur? That place), I met up with 2 guys I met on the walking tour, a producer from LA and a teacher from Wisconsin. They had bought the ticket for the Forum and Coliseum which was good for two days, so they gave me their ticket saying I could use it tomorrow if I wanted. Sweet! Maybe I will go in after all.

We had dinner together and swapped some great stories (note to everyone on sleeper trains: get the top bunk, or a man will continuously walk his feet onto your bunk while sleeping on the one beside you--or so I've been told). We had a lot of fun exploring Rome together!

Newer building (1911) that reminded me of the Hofburg Palace in Vienna

When In Rome

Jen, Vanessa and I in our room before our night out
Day 1: Thurs Sept 29: Arrived at hostel which was really close to the train station, thank goodness. Caught up on the blog, and just relaxed after the travel day. Early evening I met some great girls (jen and vanessa) staying in the same room who were also from Toronto, and were doing a whirlwind trip thru europe. (you think i'm seeing a lot on my trip, try spending each night in a different city. I dont know how they're doing it!) We went for dinner at a place near the hostel. After some delicious pasta and salty broccoli, we attempted to find a pub crawl we had heard about at the Spanish steps but failed. May have been because Rome's subway sucks--there's only two lines to begin with, and one of them stops at 9 pm! Naturally, that was the line we needed. We were forced to wait for the bus, which meant we did not make it there by the 10 o'clock cut-off. I wasn't too upset--I really just wanted the t-shirt. We decided that since we had already come all the way out here, we would just make our own pub crawl. Turns out we picked the worst possible area to do this in, as it was the shopping centre of Rome, and it took a good hour of wandering until we found any type of suitable establishment. Finally near Piazza Navona, some promoters came up to us offering a good deal so we decided to check it out. Open bar until 12:30! Score.

We get there, order our drinks, and then get told that'll be 15 Euros. Each. Turns out there is a cover charge for this "open bar" which we just assumed was free (don't ask me why we didn't think about this). Since it was already midnight, we decided to just pay for the one drink and then go somewhere else. We met two Italians who chatted us up, and as the only other people in the bar, we couldn't exactly make a quick exit. They started doing dream interpretation (explains a lot) and talking about Italy in very broken english. They wanted to go dancing, and anywhere else had to be better than the place we were currently in, so we went along. We ended up in this club called La Maison, which actually reminded me a lot of clubbing in Toronto, but it was fun. Oh yeah, did I mention we partied with DJ Afrojack?