This is Todd Borgie. Today we traveled on the Adriadic Sea from
Patras, Greece to
Rome, Italy.
Although I had only purchased a passenger seat for the long ferry ride from Patras, Doug and Jeff took pity on me and let me sleep in one of their four bunks. As the preceding day was quite a trial for me, on this morning I was still feeling like a loser from that tussle with the semi. I was in relatively good spirits when I awoke. We had done some group bonding the night before and I was let back into the group after my self-imposed exile, with the understanding it was open season for witticisms about my driving. I think it will be open season until my death.
I was fortunate to have hung out with Jeff that morning as he was trying to use the remainder of his Greek Drachmas and the only thing to buy was coffee.
The boat docked sometime that morning and Nick and Doug went to retrieve the Rovers. After the cars had been driven off the boat, we loaded our bags on top of the cars and were ready to go. Nick took a special time out as he forced me to stand by the curled bumper as he took my penance picture. This was not overly cruel as I was slowly coming to terms with the accident.
The customs check was minimal and we were on the road in no time. We meandered down the streets of Bari, following signs to the Autostrade. This seemed to be an easy process until we realized we were on a toll road and did not have any Italian money to get ourselves off. We had no idea if they took credit cards, we only knew we had better get some Italian Lire. We stopped at the first stop hoping for a cash machine. Although there was a cash machine, we could not access our accounts. Fortunately, they were willing to take American Dollars in exchange for some food and gave us change in Lire.
Italy is beautiful with its hills, mountains, meadows and architecture. We had a blue sky with wispy clouds and there was still some fall colors left in the landscape for us to enjoy. We certainly felt a lot closer to home at this point, great roads and a familiar landscape (we all live in California, Mediterranean climate and landscape). We enjoyed the churches and the green hills and the fact that we were that much closer to home. We were excited about Rome, tonight's destination, especially Nick, as one of his five most common sayings is, "Rome wasn't built in a day, but you can see it in a day"(we all learned this was not true, but still let him chant it). Passing through Naples (Napoli) we saw, or we imagined we saw a foggy Mt. Vesuvius.
Approaching Rome we were impressed by the fact that you can pay tolls with a credit card (our cash had been running low), which we did. On the out skirts of Rome the real challenge began. We had reserved a room at Papa Germano's pension which was downtown Rome. We had a macro map of Southern Europe, and only a walking map of Rome, but this was nothing we weren't used to. We were well versed in the powers of Zen and navigation, but each experience is new and different. Our large city navigation consisted of driving until we found something we recognized, then trying to find it on a map, if it was there, and proceeding. We have had a pretty good record and Rome was no different.
We drove into the city looking for the train stations, or just plain railroad tracks. We got funneled this way and that, at which Point Nick said, "Hey, there is the Vatican". According to my map we were not close to the Vatican, so I was feeling really confused. I looked at the map again and took a compass reading (gps) and said we have to go west. Upon getting resituated and going west we immediately saw signs to the train station, which was a real blessing. It turned out that the building we saw wasn't The Vatican, but we needed to go west and all was working out.
The next hurdle came when all of a sudden the streets turned one way, flowing out of the direction we wanted to go. If that was the only problem it wouldn't have been so bad, however, the traffic was thick and the roads narrow. Parked cars and people lined the already narrow streets making our task much harder. The Rovers are big but thankfully narrow, but still are not the easiest to maneuver in a congested city. After a round about way of finding the pension, and passing by it a couple of times in the process, we left the cars in the middle of the road, as there was no place to park. Nick and I then went into the pension to check about our rooms.
As Nick and I learned that our rooms had been given away because of our tardiness, cars lined up in back of the Rovers. Chanda entered the hotel amidst a chorus of horns, telling me we needed to move the Rovers. Circling the block a couple of times we returned to the same spot and were told there were plenty of hotels in the area. There was a parking garage nearby so we decided to ditch the cars and look for a hotel. We finally selected a hotel after some mild bickering. It seems as though two different people found two different hotels and subsequently made arrangements for the group. We ended up staying at Pension Caterine. It was a nice family run business, where we stayed in the family's house. The family members had their section of the flat, while there were about 5different rooms for pension patrons. There were two common bathrooms with showers, and we each had sinks in our rooms. We both had large windows facing the main street, perfect for dropping things on each other.
After settling into the pension we looked for phones and dinner. Jeff's financial crisis was coming to a head. Faxes were needed and signatures were required, but after about 5 calls and 4 reminders and 3 coaching experiences, Jeff was finally able communicate what he wanted and was able to solve the problem, we hope. The reason I bring this up is because this problem was two months old and it was really frustrating Jeff, therefore, by default frustrating us.
After making phone calls we searched for a dinner spot. Although, there was pizza available in every couple of buildings, we were looking for a place to sit down. Unfortunately we got some forgettable food and unforgettable service. However, we got some good deals on lighters. I have asked my colleague, Doug to elaborate on this meal, so a better description will come to you all soon. After a bit of milling around we aimed ourselves to bed, tomorrow Nick is going to give us a tour of Rome, pointing out all the cats he sees. This is Todd signing off.
Here are some of Doug's remarks on our evening meal. HEHE
We arrived in Rome late in the afternoon and spent a considerable amount
of time negotiating it's narrow, crowded streets searching for a suitable
hotel. In a move he would soon regret, a kindly pensione owner opened his
doors to Teamaroundtheworld1999. The first order of business after settling
in, was to get some dinner. Naturally, the team was excited to sample some
of Italys' famed cuisine. Little did we know that not every eating
establishment in this ancient city was qualified to carry the culinary
banner on behalf of its' proud countrymen.
We chose a quaint little bistro right down the street from our hotel. We
were met at the door by the maitre'd/waiter/busboy/cook... what the hell, he
probably mopped up the place at the end of the night too. This was clue number
one that perhaps we should have walked a little further down the road in our
quest for decent food. The second clue would have to be the video poker
games that lined the side wall of the joint. I won't even describe the
up standing citizens renting chair space in front of them. Suffice to say that
they wouldn't be invited for tea with the Queen anytime soon (as if I would).
Our waiter came around and took our order, which required great
discipline on his part because he seemed quite fascinated with Jeff. Being
the overly mature group that we are, we immediately started in on Jeff and
for some unknown reason he just didn't find it as humorous as the rest of us did.
Our food arrived at last and by now we had figured out that we had made
a monumental error in judgement.
The food was laughable. The portions were miniscule, it tasted like it
came out of a microwave, and nobodies' meal remotely resembled the
photographs that accompanied the elaborately detailed descriptions within
the menu. By now the entire experience had devolved into a Saturday Night
Live sketch. It was almost unbelievable. Winos playing video poker, our rude
waiter with his less than subtle amorous intentions towards Jeff and the
quality of the food, which is duplicated... sorry, exceeded by any 7/11
store. What could possibly happen next? We didn't have to wait long to find out.
We had finished our dinner(and I think I am being quite generous, to
describe it as such) when a street peddler entered the place and made a
bee-line towards the obvious tourists (certainly none of the indigenous
people were stupid enough to eat there). This peddler sold lighters, but not
just any lighters. His were special. They by and large resembled
anatomically correct humans with eyes/breasts that lit up and the flame
emanating from the netheregions. One in particular had us falling out of our
chairs with laughter. It depicted that special relationship between a woman
and her dog and included all of the aforementiond traits of the other
lighters. Needless to say it went unpurchased.
Nick bought a lighter that shot two flames simultaneously but I must
confess that it looked like a normal lighter. No bells, no whistles, just
two flames.
I'm not ashamed to say that we tipped our waiter something in the
overly generous ballpark of a dollar and promptly left snickering.
As a follow up to the story I must add that upon leaving we immediately
went to a neighboring deli and ate again.
