Hello Everyone,
I'm writing to you from Florence. I should be in Madrid, but here I am in Italy for another day. Why you ask? I'll get to that later on in the post....but first...Roma.
Roma, dearest, sweet, LOVELY......or not, Roma. I fell in love with you at first site of the Colosseum, but then after that...you really didn't have much for me. My friend (Catalina) and I arrived in Rome on Saturday evening. We checked into our hostel and decided to get a shower and get ready to go find a place to eat. First experience with public transport in Italy...I lost 10 euros. I was trying to buy a pass for the next 48 hours, and the machine took my money. Anyways, I tried not to let that get to me, and my friend and I decided to take taxis for the duration of the trip (which I sincerely regret now because I could honestly use that money)--
The first night we ended up at the cutest little restaurant near Piazza Navona. We sat down and ordered and two guys ended up sitting at the table next to us. We started to chat it up with them by the end of our meal. Come to find out--one of them was the owner. He actually owned two restaurants. The one in which we were dining and another on the other side of the Piazza. We sat and chatted with them until we got sleepy, and then headed back to the hostel to get some shut eye, because we needed rest for our long day of sight seeing in the morning.
The next morning we woke up and planned out a visit to the Colosseum, The Trevi, and The Pantheon. You know, I can't quite describe in words how impressive the Colosseum is in person. It's MASSIVE. I mean, you learn that in school, but seeing it, up close....It was mind blowing...and to the think of how it must have been when they actually used it-- astounding. Probably my favorite part of Roma. The pantheon was alright, and the trevi---well that's just depressing. It's under construction for the summer, so literally you cannot see it at all. It was so sad. I took the best possible picture that I could...but you know. whatevs. Im trying to think what else...Oh yea---Catalina got to enjoy a vespa ride of the city that night as well. I was left to hang out with Stefan and Blaron, our restaurant owner friends--which that got awkward because apparently they wanted more than friendship. I mean--none of them made a physical pass at me, but they kept talking about us "liking them" and got mad when we would say Ciao to other guys walking past....So in case you were wondering ladies...Men are the same.EVERYWHERE. It's an international issue. Anyways, night two of Roma ended, and Day three started with the Vatican--which we barely saw. A lot of the sistine chapel was under maintenance as well. Also, making our way to the chapel felt like we were marching to our death. We were literally packed like Sardines shuffling in and out of one room and then another, forever waiting for the impending doom that wait around the corner. The sistene Chapel was cool and all....but Once you've seen one chapel.. you've seen them all.
Rome left a terrible taste in my mouth. I couldn't wait for our journey to continue along to our next destination: Siena.
Siena was a quaint little city in Tuscany. It's medieval architecture and bizarre layout makes you really feel like you're in a different time. I wish we had longer to explore here, but then again, all you really need is one full day. It was a nice break after having such an exhausting trip in Rome. We visited the Douma, and just walked around taking pictures. There were many beautiful views. I recommend Siena to future travelers. After spending the night and one day in Siena, we took a train to Florence.
I originally only had one day here, and so to make the most of it Catalina and I decided to rent bikes. It was soooo worth it. We just rode around all day and enjoyed everything that we could from the outside. We rode our bikes to a spectacular view from Piazza S. Miniato. I took a few pictures but will more than likely just upload them on Facebook. We also rode around the Doumo. We paid to enter, but the lines were still SUPER long, and we only had a few hours until we had to catch our train, so we just decided to ride to the Mercato Centrale and buy souvenirs for friends and family.
Exploring Florence (Firenze) by bike is a great way to see a lot of the city---just in case any of you come to Florence and want some options for getting around.
So here's when things really took a turn for the worst, or the best? Who's to know?
We took a train to Pisa and made it there to take some pics with the tower. Our pics turned out pretty bad, but at least we can say we've been to Pisa. We stayed in the cutest little hostel, and the lady called a cab for me so I could catch a ride to the airport to get my flight. My flight was at 645 this morning. The taxi never showed up. It was 550 and I was starting to get nervous about missing my flight. So I quickly took my happy little behind to the train station in order to flag down a taxi. I made it by 610. There were no taxis to be seen. Catalina found the number to the taxis at the airport. I called it and they said they would send me one ASAP. I decided to go ahead and grab my passport and my ticket so I would have it ready when I got to the airport. *MISTAKE*. In my haste to get out of the taxi...I somehow unknowingly left my passport sitting in the seat of the taxi...and I didn't realize it until I was through the other side of security. Literally wanted to cry. I was an undocumented citizen for about 30 minutes in Pisa, Italy. Thank God the airport security were very sweet. They all calmly helped me search. I told them what happened, they told me not to panic, it would be ok. I could go to Rome and speak with the Consulate. After searching my bags, APS went to find the Italian Police. He told me I could try and talk to the taxi drivers and see if any of them found a passport. I told him I would like to do that, but he must have gone to do it himself because he left for a few minutes and when he came back he had a HUGE grin on his face and he was waving my passport in the air !! :D
It's been almost five hours and I'm sitting in Catalina's hostel in Florence waiting to check into mine at 1 pm. I decided to type this because I needed to get it all out. Man, I sure do have some stories to tell my children about. I swear of all of the things a person can do...losing your passport has to be one of the worst. I don't know. I must be getting old. I can't believe I did something like that, but then again, that's what happens when you live your life in a hurry. You forget to pay attention to the most important things.
Lots of love,
Misha.
No comments:
Post a Comment