Ciao a tutti π
After a great dinner at the ground floor of the smelly hotel from Paris we went to sleep as we woke up really early in the morning (3:30). The plane departure time was 7:40, the metro is only working starting with 5:30 and we had to take the night buses. I have to admit that it was quite an adventure as these night buses are quite new (I suppose) and people actually don’t know too much about them (not even in the RATP info points where they recommended taxi π ). In the end, after changing 4 buses we managed to get to the airport, where we checked-in quite early and we even had time to play some tennis on a Sony PlayStation 2 π All the flight was only sleep for us and we arrived in Rome around 10.
The rest of the day was quite smooth as we took a bus to reach the metro, then the metro for 19 stops and then a very dirty train for 11 stops. Yeah it was long … and in the end we managed to reach Camping Tiber. We checked in, went in our “mobile room”, but unfortunately the shower wasn’t working. Therefore I went to the reception and they gave us another mobile room (ok – some explanation about this: as it is a camping all the “rooms” are actually in some kind of trailers and they are anchored to the ground, together with electricity, sewing system and so on. They are really nice, but as there are 2 rooms per trailer we could feel it shaking when our neighbors were moving inside the next room π ).
This new one was in a different place, a higher class and we managed to get access to a kitchen as well (the door between the room and the kitchen couldn’t be locked). Therefore we were lucky to get more and pay the same price π
After we settled in this new mobile room we wanted to eat something as we were starving, but nothing was opened around (the “market” is closed between 12 and 16 and the restaurant was closed between 14 and 19; the time was 14:30 :-D) so we had to enjoy some remaining of Pringles, french cheese and spanish sausage (or salami, as you wish – thank you Anna for it, we really enjoyed it!). After our full lunch we just went to sleep and woke up around dinner time π We went in the restaurant and had some hot food together with some beers which became some Claras con limone π Along with the good food and Claras. at the restaurant we received very good services as well. All the waiters working here are very young and well trained how to do their job. Along them we met Florin, a young guy from Romania, very nice which is staying in Rome for almost 5 years and in Camping Tiber for 3 years. We spoke just a little bit with him, because he was working π After the dinner we arrived in our mobile room and had a very nice night… sorry sleep π And, mainly, this is how our first day in Rome ended π
Now getting to the next day – Monday – we woke up around 11, we got something to eat pretty fast and then we went in the big city. I have to stop here for a description of Rome as we were really disappointed after coming from Spain and Paris … First of all – we found the city quite dirty compared to Madrid, Barcelona and maybe even Paris. The train we had to take from Flaminio until Prima Porta (the small village where Camping Tiber is located) is extremely dirty and also quite smelly. It looks like old romanian trains and it’s probably at least 15 years old, or even more. The same dirt and smell can be found almost everywhere – on the streets, in the metro stations, in the middle of the touristic areas and not to mention the river which is really really bad. And on top of that there are restaurants on the river’s sides and even cruise boats. To be honest I really don’t know what is to be seen except a lot of plants, the green stuff from a dirty river floating everywhere, a lot of garbage and probably a bad smell too π This is one of the reasons we weren’t very impressed by Rome. We heard so many people saying that Rome is so nice and blah blah, but in our opinion it’s more the fame than the real thing … It’s totally true that there are a lot (and I mean really a lot) of very nice old buildings, most of the center of the town is surrounded by a lot of points of attraction and I won’t start naming them as they are too many. However besides the dirt and smell I was mentioning earlier, the streets and especially the side-walks are also not very good at all, there are a lot of romanians everywhere (which made us feel like home π ) and all these combined gave us the impression of a city that used to be very beautiful and famous, but now is going down because of bad administration and lack of interest in making it cleaner and nicer.
Now back to what I was saying π We first went to Vatican, of course … but we were really amazed by the enormous queue that we found there. The one at Eiffel tower was just a little baby compared to this one. After some time we realized that this huge queue was for the Vatican Museum, where the famous Chapel painted by Michelangelo is and so on.
Therefore we skipped it and went to Piazza San Pietro, which we have to admit that it’s really huge and impressive. The same goes for the Basilica and its Chapel. We went on top of it and the views over Rome are really nice. After quite a long time spent there we went for a tour around the western part of the city and looking on the map we see that we walked quite a lot π We left Colosseum and all the really old stones for another day (maybe tomorrow) and at some point we stopped to eat something. We picked randomly a restaurant and once again we were very disappointed: not by the food – we had really good pasta π but by the services. Anyway the waiter didn’t get any tip from us, but he deserves it π
In the end we took the train back to our camping, we went in the bar to get some drinks (as it was happy hour) and we got ourselves 1 liter of sangria with 2 long straws (in my opinion it was really bad, but my lovely wife thinks it was good). They had these long straws over there, but I thing they were only for design as actually nobody was using them. After we got them all the people from the bar buying sangria asked for long straws and they were having a lot of fun using them. We even made a bet regarding a table next to us: there were 4 persons there having some beers and one of the guys went to buy more drinks as the happy hour was ending. I was saying that he’ll got beer and my wife was saying sangria. In the end he came with one jug of beer and one of sangria π π The bet was about organizing a week-end in the mountains, therefore we’ll have to do it together in the end π
I think it’s enough for now as we have to eat the excellent “ciorba” that my wife just cooked. And of course we are preparing for the rugby game with Scotland, therefore “Hai Romania!”.
Ciao!
Dobrestii