A mere two days after returning from Italia and I have already been ambushed by calls and texts from friends asking when we will be going out to do various activities and socialize in all sorts of ways with different combinations of people and places. Do not get me wrong--I love my friends and the time I spend with them is always a memory in the making--but sometimes I just do not feel like going out. It may be difficult for people to understand, especially people who have been sitting on their rumps watching television and monitoring Facebook fifteen hours each day, but after doing miles and miles of walking and losing the comforts of home, I just want to chill.
And there was a lacking of comforts. Our trip to Roma was amazing, but it had its ...unfortunate events. The first came on our first night. We were staying in a small apartment-type house that is rented out to people. It had a nice living room, a tiny kitchen, a long, creaking staircase, a master bedroom, a small bedroom, and a tiny bathroom. When we had arrived, the woman who was there to meet us told us the basics--which keys were for what, how the couch pulled out to be a bed, etc. Most significant to this tale was one bit of advice: Do not run the microwave at the same time as the air conditioner or the water heater. Simple.
We took this advice, but by some error of communication, we thought it would be alright to use the air conditioner and the water heater at the same time if we did not use the microwave at all. Fail. The power went out soon after we had both of these appliances running. Plunged into the darkness of a home with which we were not very familiar, we all went to bed. Un-showered and hot, we forced ourselves into slumber.
But not me. I could not sleep. Not matter how I tossed and turned, my body could not be fooled into thinking it was time for sleeping, despite the fact that I had not slept in many hours. At this point, it is significant to mention the bugs. Upon our arrival, my sister and I promptly flopped down onto the master bed for a moment's relaxation. Not ten minutes later, I had gotten at least three bug bites. They looked like mosquito bites, yet we had seen no mosquitoes.
Bed bugs? An image of a festering mattress popped into my head. Until we found bug spray on the ground for gnats. Ew. Suffice it to say, we all suffered from frequent gnat bites throughout our journey.
Going back to that first night, we had not had enough light to pull out the bed from the couch, so my sister and I were laying on the regular couches. Therefore, we had no sheets or coverings, which would not have been a problem due to the extreme heat (no air conditioning and no fan without power). But the heat was not the issue here. Without a covering, I was an open target to the little creepy crawlies in our house. Every time I was beginning to fall into an actual sleep, I would feel a tickle from a bug and it would jerk me out of my state. Not to mention the garbage trucks that go around every night around midnight, the oddly sounding European sirens, and various other noises that distracted me for hours.
I did fall asleep eventually, only to wake up about four hours later to begin a day of lots of walking. Throughout our seven days abroad, we did all the major tourist spots--The Vatican and Saint Peter's Basilica, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and so many other museum and Villas and such. We quickly learned the metro stops and the Italian words necessary to our travels.
We also saw many things that drift away from the tourist attractions. For example, our last full day featured the Appian Way. Our day consisted of a long trip on the metro to a long, hot, city-side walk, followed by more walking, and then going through the San Callisto Catacombs. While this was refreshing (since the catacombs are underground, and, therefore, very cool in temperature), and a good length of walking and standing time (45 minutes), we could not take pictures--a small let down. Then, we had to walk back. We walking slowly under the olive trees and took pictures. It was semi-relaxing.
We found our way to a bus stop, but this was another fail. We could not buy bus tickets on the bus. You had to have them ahead of time. We did not. So we continued on foot, going on intuition alone because we had drifted off of all of our maps. But then we moved on to the city, where we had to walk on busy streets with no sidewalks--a dangerous feat for my mother's nerves. We found ourselves in a more residential part of Rome, though it was still very city-esque.
Finally, we came across a metro station. We were quite happy to see that red sign with the white "M" on this occasion, and even happier to see our quite street and little home, regardless of the gnat infestation.
The infestation was not the only problem with our house, however. By this time, we had called someone who got the power back in the house. However, we were a bit scared, understandably, to run the water heater again. We ran it for a little while and then tried showers. Freezing. It was like an unheated pool that sits in the shade. And then twice as cold. Not pleasant. But it is no fun to think about the negatives of my lovely trip.
I would have to say that my favorite day was when we went to the Villa Borghese. The Borghese family line started many generations ago, and they began to accumulate acres of land and rooms of art. Then one of them became a Pope and his cousin a Cardinal, so the family was even better off. Now there's a gallery and tons of gardens and fountains and land one can wander through. And it is off of the beaten path, so to speak--quite a peaceful place.
Best of all, there was a freezing cold fountain outside of the gallery. In case you were not aware, all of the water in Rome is perfectly fine to drink. It is a bit mineral-y, but definitely clean. So there are fountains all over the place--even in the heart of the city. Here, there were six taps all in the entrance area, and we spent a good part of the day relaxing by the cool water.
We also made a rather expensive two-day trip to Florence, or Firenze, as it is called in Italy. This was my sister's favorite. It was still a city atmosphere, but in a more laid back and pretty way. I would definitely suggest it to travelers simply because it is such a nice area with so many things to do. Seeing the Ponte Vecchio, which is the main bridge in Firenze, completely full with shops and food and great photograph opportunities, made it completely worth the while.
All in all, the trip was a success. If I were to go back, the only thing I would change would be investing in a week-long metro/bus pass, which was 16 euros. A single trip on the metro is one euro. And though we did not take the metro sixteen times, the use of buses any time would have been quite handy. Nevertheless, I got my exercise for the summer. And I sure did make the best of all of it.
