To Rome!
Day 3 – Florence/Rome (2007.05.20)
As I had mentioned in yesterday’s entry, we started off the day with a nice little train ride from Florence to Rome. Well, we really started the day with the same breakfast buffet, where I actually tried the unidentified fruit-floating-in-juice thing (I think it was pear, but I won’t ever be sure). Once at the train station, we waited for our track to be called. The whole group only had their carry-on luggage, since their suitcases had left earlier in the morning on the tour bus. I guess it was nicer to travel to Rome via train, but we still ended up at the same place as our luggage. Rather, we ended up at the same place as the rest of the groups’ luggage.
Straight from the train station our bus took us to the Trevi Fountain (of Three Coins fame) area for lunch. We had lunch on our own, at Mr. Panini, a sandwich chain (obviously). Lunch was quite good, although we had a little issue with paying, since when I had first asked if they take credit card the guy at the register said “yes”, when he really should’ve said “no”. I ran about a quarter mile to and from the nearest currency exchange, but when I got back Lindsay was already sitting at a table with our food…that was very kind of them…and they wouldn’t let us pay until we had finished our meal. I guess they felt sorry, too, since they didn’t charge us for a water (with gas) on the way out.
After lunch we met our guide for the next two days, Sylvia. Constance (the tour director, in case you’re skipping over entries) and Sylvia led us back to the bus to begin a quick driving tour and make our way to the Coliseum. We passed a lot of neat-looking buildings, including the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and a few triumphant arches. Once at the Coliseum, we entered and made our way to the first level, where the aristocracy and other VIPs had “box seats”. It was hard to imagine what the Coliseum used to look like, but Sylvia had brought along a neat book that showed the different layers of the Coliseum, and how it probably looked when it was in use. Also, part of the Coliseum was under renovation, to try to recreate the original look. One of the more interesting facts I learned was that the floor of the Coliseum was made of wood, with a layer of sand over it
. Below the wood was a maze-like catacomb with cages for animals (and slaves, I would imagine), with a cantilever elevator system. Basically the animals would come out of a hatch in the ground…must’ve been very scary for whoever was already on the floor.
After the Coliseum we walked around a bit more, took some more pictures, and then got on the bus for another mini-tour on our way to the Hotel Cicerone. People on the bus were grumbling when we pulled up, since the Cicerone was “only” a four-star hotel, although it looked very nice from the outside – apparently five-star hotels are the norm. The hotel in Florence was definitely less than five…maybe even less than three. The four of us were looking forward to getting our luggage, so there was (barely) any grumbling from us. Once in the hotel, however, we found out that our luggage had not gotten there (yet?), so we started grumbling a bit. Anyway, we got our key from Constance, and went up to the room. Like Florence, we had two double beds, although this time they were about two feet apart – I guess people here sleep like the parents from Nick at Nite shows. 
We decided to take a quick nap, which turned into a four-hour slumber, and were interrupted by the Hassans inviting us to join them at the Hard Rock cafe. We declined for two reasons: we were still half-asleep, and we were trying to avoid familiar food. Once we woke up on our own from our “nap”, we walked around a bit near the hotel, and sat down to eat at Vito’s. We ordered some appetizers – Lindsay had little fried cheese balls and I had olive-spread bruschetta – which were both delicious. For our main course Lindsay had a prosciutto and cheese calzone (they were out of sausage) and I got a shish-kabob sampler of meat, which were both delicious as well.
We stopped back at the hotel and decided to ask if there was a 24-hour pharmacy (or at least one with late hours) nearby. We got directions from the front desk, and set out in search of the “Night Pharmacy”, as they called it. We eventually found one, although I’m not sure if it’s actually the one we got directions for, since it seemed to be further away than they had said. We had figured that shopping for essentials would be relatively easy, but it was anything but. Aside from the language difference, the packaging for most products is very plain. The only things that I was able to figure out on my own were the razors and shave gel, both because they were the same Gillette packaging that we have in the States. Also, we knew what “apres-shampooing” means (conditioner) because of our mini-honeymoon, where we had some fancy soaps. We pretty much found everything we needed (and spent a good €60 – close to $90!), and headed back to the hotel. On the way back to the hotel we got some gelato, to help console ourselves for our luggage problems (plus they’re yummy). While enjoying the gelato I had the semi-brilliant idea that we could wash our clothes, rather than continue to wear them dirty. We checked at the desk, but they couldn’t pick up laundry until the next morning, which would have already been too late, so we did the next best thing, turning the second toilet into a makeshift washing machine. While it wasn’t quite as bad as taking our clothes down to the river and beating them with rocks, it felt rather similar.
A few minutes after we got back to the room, Abdul came knocking on our door and asked us why we weren’t being vocal with Constance. Apparently Abdul and Rozida had been “yelling” at Constance (for lack of a better word – although they did get close to being in a screaming match), and at one point Constance countered with “the Greenbergs don’t seem to be care”. First of all, that sent Rozida into a tizzy, since she was concerned with their luggage, and only their luggage (and rightfully so!). Second of all, we didn’t appreciate it that Constance was bringing our name into it. We told Abdul that we would call Constance, and that we were done being the “nice ones”. After Abdul’s visit I started to do the laundry while Lindsay called up Constance’s room to see if there was any news on our luggage. It was around 10PM by now, and Constance said that the luggage had arrived at the Rome airport around 8:40, and should meet us at the port the next day. 
We couldn’t get any guarantees, and it pretty much came down to Constance saying over and over again that she was doing the best she could. She also said that she kept leaving messages, and that she couldn’t get through to a human. Lindsay asked her to call us no matter what time it was if she had any news…at this point Constance had started to get really upset, and started raising her voice, which Lindsay responded to in kind. The phone call ended with us very unsatisfied, but also feeling quite helpless, since it wasn’t like we could call anyone, since there was that pesky language barrier to deal with. After I finished the laundry, we went to sleep, and were not woken up until the wake-up call the next day.
Images can be seen here (up until about page 9)…
This entry was posted on Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 at 7:37 pm and is filed under Greenbergs of Amesbury, Honeymoon.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Entries (RSS)