My mother will be upset reading this but Brittany, Nicole, Abby and I didn't book a place to stay in Rome until 3 hours before we left. Yes Mom, three hours before. Oops! We are all last minute travelers, to say the least. To top that off, we found our hotel on lastminute.com and it was described as a "Secret Hotel." What is this you might ask? Well, this is a hotel deal that is so good to be true, the website cannot disclose any information about the location, information, or even the name of the hotel until you book and pay for it. Rather ridiculous, I know.
Nevertheless, Brittany booked the hotel using her credit card, and the rest of us made plans to pay her back. And we even made plans to pay her extra if for some reason the hotel turned into a scam or something.
So if that didn't start the day of the trip off spontaneously, I don't know what else would. Thankfully, the hotel was not a scam, and it ended up being in a rather great location. It was still outside of the city center, but it included breakfast and a suite that would accommodate four people. It also had airport transportation included.
Now that the hotel was booked, we headed to the airport. Another factor to keep in mind - This very same day, the Volcano in Iceland first erupted, canceling numerous flights and bringing most of Europe to a stand-still. So while Brittany was booking our "Secret Hotel," I was keeping an eye on EasyJet to make sure our flight was still a go.
We arrived at the airport, which was practically deserted, and found our way to our gate. About 30 minutes before our flight, the herds of people accompanying us on the flight arrived at the gate as well. I would like to point out that EasyJet is a first come, first serve airline. In other words, you get in line and once you show your boarding pass you jump on the plane and sit where ever you want. It's the epitome of chaos at its finest.
Before long, the four of us were seated in two rows and we were ready to take off. Brittany and I decided that the best way to prepare for Rome was to purchase a beer and a pizza on the flight. Eight euros later and a somewhat decent pizza, we were having to chug our beer because we were preparing to land. It was only a 40 minute flight from take off to landing. 
During the flight the flight attendants, who were males (still not use to that), were at first a bit rude. Brittany actually made the statement that they were the EasyJet "Nazi's." But once they came by with the food/drink cart they began talking to us. And right before we were getting ready to get off the plane, one of them pulled Nicole aside and said that the captain wanted to see us. Crazy, right? Well we set our luggage in the front row and walking through the cabin door to where the captain and co-pilot were sitting. Talk about awesome! We took pictures with them, and then we all wanted pictures in the captain seat but one of the attendants told us that the buses were waiting for us. Hahaha. There were two buses sitting outside the plane, with all the other passengers on them, waiting for us to jump on board so we could all get to the terminal. Oops!Finally, we jumped in a cab and headed to our "Secret Hotel," which we finally got the address and name of once the purchase was complete. As soon as we got to the hotel, we checked in and headed straight up to head to bed.
We woke up the next morning at 7:40am so that we could all get ready, go have are complementary breakfast and catch the 9:45am bus into the City Centre. Let me just start by saying that the breakfast at this hotel was AMAZING! Freshly baked pastries, ham and cheese, cereal, yogurt and granola, rolls, and a coffee/cappacino/hot chocolate machine. GREAT way to start the morning!
We grabbed the bus and headed into town. There were two different stops that our hotel bus took, the first was to the termini train station and the second was to the city centre. On the first day we decided to get off at the first stop, because we thought that was the one the conceiere told us to take. That was wrong. So we attempted to find our way to the city centre by the map we had in hand. Along the way we found some great fountains, a beautiful church, and a lot of Nuns walking around. It was pretty cool. We finally made it to City Centre and headed right for the Colosseum, or Colosseo in Italian.
We walked around the Colosseum for quite awhile until we found the entrance, and a rather handsome student guide that was offering us a tour for ten euros, which normally cost 22 euros because of the entrance fee to the Colosseum. However, he was telling us that it was reduced because it was Cultural Week in Rome that weekend, and the entrance fee was not being charged. Talk about LUCK! We had not planned for that to happen at all. So far our trip was becoming better and better each moment. The second day set out on the same schedule, but this time we ventured to the Vatican, and the Vatican Museum, where the Sistine Chapel is housed. We found this great little pizza place that was only 3 euros for a big double slice, that was delicious! We also found this gelato place that had a line wrapped around the building... which made all of us curious. Of course the line was too long for us to find out, so we continued on.
By the third day, we had already seen so much, and there was still so much more to see. La Fountaine de Trevi, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, and the Crypts of the Vatican.
As planned, the girls and I saw everything that Rome had to offer... and then some.
Come the 19th, Nicole and Abby had found out that their flight back to Nice was canceled due to the continuous volcanic ash that kept erupting from Eyjafjallajokul (pronounced ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl), the volcano in Iceland. After running around with their heads cut off, the two of them changed their flights to leave on the following day with Brittany and I. Once the ticket change was confirmed, we booked another night in the hotel and walked around Rome some more. We went out to dinner and then headed over the La Fountaine de Trevi at night and to the Colosseum too. Finally the last day in Rome arrived, and by noon we learned that our flight to Nice was canceled too. Once we heard this news, we booked it to the train station to look into possible ways to get home. It was extremely urgent to get home since all of us had exams that were taking place that very week! Nicole and I ran to jump in the long line, and Brittany and Abby contemplated a trip to Venice.
After about 40 minutes in-line, and being interviewed for a news station, we made it to the front of the line and bought two tickets back to Antibes, France. But not just any ticket, four different tickets. Our train itinerary was as followed:
6pm - Leave Rome
9:50pm - Arrive in Genova (station 1)
10:10pm - Depart Genova 1
10:20pm - Arrive in Genova (station 2)
10:35pm - Depart Genova 2
1:10am - Arrive in Ventimiglia
4:37am - Depart Ventimiglia
5:30am - Arrive in Nice, France
From Nice we illegally jumped on a train to Antibes. We FINALLY made it back to Antibes by 6am on April 21st. Almost 12 hours of traveling and 5 trains later, we made it back. Talk about the adventure of a lifetime!
The following day, April 22nd, flights into Nice were running again. Including flights from Rome.
Regardless of issues at the end of our trip, we all had a FABULOUS time! I definitely plan on going back sometime in the future! I would title it as one of the GREATEST cities I have ever been to, and I would recommend it to anyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment