Y'all it has been a rough time here in Rome, Italy! But still making the best of it. I'm currently sitting on a bench in the woods to post this lmao. And if you had to reread that sentence, yes, I am in the woods and staying in a log cabin. But the story doesn't start here! Whew let me walk you through my first few days here!
When you hear about people booking a place then getting there and realizing they fucked up, you never really think it’ll happen to you. Well June 8th that was me, a very hectic start to this leg of the trip!
My flight from Athens to Rome was supposed to be at 8:30am. I did my airport research on when you should get there because I show up at the last minute in the States ;) But I’m abroad so let's not push it, right? I got to the airport 2 hours early, checked my bag because it was free and I couldn’t check in to my place until later, so no rush. I got to security and saw no one was taking their laptops out, so I asked the person directing the line if I had to, he said no. WRONG! I got yelled at for not taking it out, it was a little humiliating but whatever, took it out, went through the line again and kept it pushing. Let’s be honest, 6:30am is way too early for me anyways so I brushed it off and headed to the gate. We were delayed 30 minutes but people were HOT about it and once we started boarding, it was a shit show. People were not listening to directions and it was the worse boarding etiquette I have ever seen. But I got on and went straight to sleep and I woke up right as were were landing. Small victories have been celebrated all trip!
The airport in Rome was confusing but I got my bag and tried to figure out what to do with my 4 hours of spare time. The center and my place were in the opposite directions, so I hung out at the airport to kill a hour and map out how to get to my place. I google mapped it, apple mapped it, used the booking app map, all to try and figure out how to get to this place and there was no real answer. If this was a movie, this would be the part where you start to think you may have fucked up. But every app told me take a train then take a taxi so I got a train ticket and set out. Y’all I got on the wrong train LMAO, but it ended up being the right train and I had bought the wrong ticket. Once I got to the stop where all the apps told me to get off and find a taxi, I figured I could get some lunch, use their wifi and set up the rest of my journey. WRONG AGAIN! There was a restaurant that had a hour wait, a pizzeria with no seating and a pizzeria with seating, everything else was closed. So I went to the pizzeria with seating and had my first slice of Italian pizza (with out tomato sauce) still good. But little did I know, they closed at 2p, it was 2:05p (google said they closed at 3p). The girl working felt so bad for me though, she put me on her hotspot so I could get a taxi because their wifi wasn’t working and let me finish my pizza.
For the taxi ride I used FreeNow which is basically like Lyft. It gave an option to pay a flat price beforehand or an estimate option that let you know once you arrive of the final price because it could be cheaper. I took the flat rate because didn’t want to chance it being more since I still couldn’t exactly find this place on a map. I get in and the guy was very nice until he got lost, BIG lost. So my $21 ride turned into $60… and a 20 minute ride turned in to a panic attack because how?! I paid it, hopped out and took the L. He didn't speak English and was already very upset me.
I booked a place on booking.com, it was my first time and will never do that again. I thought I was getting this cute little chalet with a pool for a good price and not too far from the center. Once again, WRONG! It’s a camp site with cabins, mobil homes and a zoo. I started breaking down at the reception desk because I wanted to leave and go home, yes, home. I wanted my gram, I wanted she who must not be named (IYKYK), I wanted my dad, I just wanted to come back to the states. The people working were also looking at me, so I also started getting embarrassed. Once I was able to gather myself a little, this every nice man who worked there and saw everything tells me that he will give me a room for the night to decide if I want to stay here or try and find another place. He explains to me that they had just found out that belvilla.com who listed their property on booking lied about the look of the property with the pictures and the description. They had ended up canceling the partnership with them because of it right before I arrived. But I decided to stay for the week, in a cabin in the woods so far AF from the center because I couldn't find anything else for the price.
Honestly, it has been a crazy few days and not having wifi had been a struggle in itself! But I am hoping to post tomorrow about the days following! Hint I went to Pride Rome!
