Oh Visitato Roma!

Look at me writing Italian … it means “I visited Rome!”  I know, I know … not hard is it.  The thing is, I only learned a few phrases before I went including “I decorated the cake” and “You made the coffee” … they didn’t really get me very far on my whirlwind visit to Rome.  Well at least I can now officially use “Oh visitato Roma” or “I visited Rome” in the right context, so I’m quite chuffed with myself actually! I’ve been back from Rome for a week now … and looking back, it seems like I enjoyed it more than I felt I was at the time … that doesn’t make sense, but I don’t think much of what I say makes sense anyway!

I nearly didn’t go, by the way … two days before I was due to go, I visited the hairdressers where a quite awful women talked non stop for at least 20 minutes about how I was bound to get my bag stolen by some Albanian children.  She told me in graphic detail how these less than well looked after children come up begging you for money and touch you whilst pleading with doleful doe eyes and while you’re feeling all sorry for them and a bit overwhelmed, they rob you blind. 

She told me about a woman she’d seen pretending to be carrying a baby in a pouch across her chest very late at night and how concerned she was that this woman was begging in the dead of night with a baby slung over her chest.  Later she realised (when the police came and arrested the women) that the pouch was actually full of wallets and purses that her or her wayward children had stolen.  She said how unsafe she felt and she was with her husband … great!  What a stupid, insensitive woman! 

By the end of her little display (can’t really think of a better word) I was speechless and actually close to tears.  FYI it’s hard enough going away on your own without someone spouting that s**t two days before you’re due to go … and I told her so!  She said “Oh I feel awful now” and I said, “So you flamin’ should!”  She then went on to do some serious backtracking and telling me what a great time I’d have!  Stupid woman.  So the next day was spent with me dreading going, conjuring up ideas of me being mobbed at the airport and all my belongings being stolen … I was petrified!  I’ve travelled all over the world and never been nervous, but I’d got myself to the point of really not wanting to go.  I told the girls in work the next day and they just said to ignore her and I’d have a great time … it didn’t stop me worrying though!

All in all, it turned out to be quite a weirdy weekend.  It started off by me getting up on the Saturday at 2.15 am … yep folks, that’s 2.15 am!  As usual, I just had to be early … I can’t help myself … I can’t bear being late for anything, preferring to be an hour early than 5 minutes late … I actually detest lateness in others too … I think it’s hugely disrespectful and I hate it with a passion!  Anyway, enough of that … I was a bit nervous about getting to the airport, parking in the right car park (I’d paid extra for the one right opposite the airport doors … we are talking Speke Airport here … I’ve got an aunty and uncle who live in Speke and therefore I’ve know from a very early age that it’s not a place you wanna be walking around in the dead of night … it can be a bit like Beirut on a good day).

So I left ultra early … my flight was at 6.40, I needed to be at the airport for 4.40, so I got there at 4.00!  Go figure.  I nearly ended up in the wrong car park too … that would have been a disaster as I’d already paid an inflated price for not having to walk.  It resulted in me having to turn around and come back down a one way street.  Nightmare.  All the way on the flight back home I was expecting a ticket or someone to confront me, disgusted at my illegal driving, when I picked up my car … I’m glad to say that that didn’t happen … phew!

Anyway, I checked in fine and had a rather uneventful wait for my flight departure time.  I’d booked one of those cheap flights with Ryanair (well not that cheap actually after you add check in baggage £40 and pay the £10 debit card fee … I haven’t done any European flights for years … what a shocker!)  You don’t even get a drink and we were crammed in like sardines … ewwwwww.  On the plus side, it was shorter than I expected (you’ve got to remember her that I usually do a number of long haul flights each year, so this was like getting the train to London in terms of timing) and we landed in good old Roma at 10.10 am.  Nice!  However, it was persisting down … it was raining so much that I didn’t want to get off the plane, plus my pessimism from the day before was still hanging around … so I wasn’t feeling great! In fact, with the weather all grey and nasty and me being all on my lonesome … I wanted to go home.  I trudged through the airport and got a taxi pretty much straight away (30 Euros which I didn’t think was too bad) and arrive at my hotel about 11.00.

Well, what can I say … I must add this to my Holiday Top Tip List … Read TripAdvisor Reviews before you Book a Hotel.  The room they put me in was disgusting … it was smelly, the wallpaper was peeling off and the tiny, tiny bathroom stank.  I stormed straight down reception, declared that I wasn’t staying in the room for a second and was promptly (well as promptly as you can expect in Italy) got moved to a nic-er one.  Well, newly renovated anyway … everything was new … so new that they hadn’t connected the lights in the bathroom and all of this super luxury came at an additional 15 euro per night.  Cheeky buggers … robbed I was, robbed!  But being on my own and already feeling a bit out of sorts, I decided to just get on with it and I didn’t even argue at the additional cost.  I know, I know, those of you who know me well will be screaming at your laptop, phone, computer now … but I just couldn’t be bothered.

My hotel is over on the left somewhere in the pic ... look how grey it is!

So I dumped my stuff and headed off.  I was staying a 2 minute walk away from the Colosseum and as I had tickets for a guided tour (highly recommended, I might add) at 3.00 pm I decided to walk in the opposite direction for a bit and see where it took me.  (I must point out here that usually, I don’t walk anywhere if I can possibly help it … could never understand why you’d walk somewhere when you’ve got a perfectly lovely car to travel in!)  So I walked for about 40 minutes then realised how far I’d gone and remembered that I’d have walk 40 minutes back and I needed to get some lunch and get to the meeting place for 3.00.  In case I forget … I got stopped on the way back by a man called “Angelo” who told me that he was from Florence (his English was bad) but I gleaned that he was on holiday.  He asked me if I was on my own and would I have dinner with him!  Well, shocked isn’t in it … men in the UK that you’re dating don’t seem to be able to ask you out for dinner, let alone a complete stranger on the street.

Taken on my little walk ... still grey!





I met Angelo here ... it's getting sunnier too!

Anyway, as you probably guessed, I declined his offer.  I’m such a wimp and told him that I was meeting my friends for dinner.  Little did I know that that wasn’t going to be the last time I got chatted up … I’ll tell you about that later!

More next time guys … sorry I’ve gotta rush, but I didn’t realise there was so much to tell!

Be fabulous!

Love Jx