Yesterday I set off with my friends Nick, Jessica, and Megan for our first real european excursion - no chaperones, guides, or real strict plan. The idea was to take the train to Napoli, where we would then catch a commuter train to Pompeii and make it back in time for some original, Neopolitan pizza before heading back to Roma. If we'd only known...
We met up in the middle of Trastevere at 7a in order to allow ourselves
plenty of time to figure out how to get to Termini Station (the main station in Roma). Seeing as though none of us really knew what we were doing, this went really smoothly. We immediately hopped the "H" line and in no more than 15 minutes we were dropped off in front of the station.
Now that we had plenty of time to kill, all we had to do was figure out which track our train would be leaving from, and it was still early, I insisted on coffee.
Once, 8:30a rolled around, we were all on board the train, ready for our 2-hour ride to Napoli. We were all excited to be getting out of Roma and to, finally, be doing something entirely on our own.
About 45 minutes into our trip the train stopped, nothing too suspect. After sitting there for awhile though we realized that we were now changing trains, (this is supposed to be a straight shot from Roma to Napoli), as ours had apparently broken down. Luckily, Nick speaks pretty good Italian, so we were able to figure out that we were going to change trains, take the new one to the end of the line, and finally hop a bus into Napoli. Definitely not what we had planned, but all in all no big deal.
Another half hour or so later we end up here . . .
Where
are we???
We have no idea where we are, or exactly why, but for some unknown reason the train we were on is unable to take us to the junction with the bus. We are now waiting, in what appears to be the middle of nowhere with little more than tractors (I kid you not!!) passing by, awaiting an entirely new bus that is now supposed to take us to Napoli.
We all realize that this is starting to get a little absurd, but it's not like there is anything we can do about it, so we all just share a good laugh about what a hot mess this would be back in the States and how we now know that we really are in Italia!
After maybe 20 minutes of waiting for a bus that may never come with the theme from
Deliverance playing eerily in my head - a bus shows up!! Having been baking in the Italian sun for the past 15-20 minutes, everyone rushes the bus as no one is sure that there is enough room for everyone and, strangely enough, nobody wants to be left behind. Of course, in true Italian fashion, as soon as the bus is parked, the driver gets out and goes on a 10 minute smoke break. There are now probably close to 100 people jockeying for position to get on a bus with no driver and no foreseeable future of leaving!
Once we're finally on the bus there is some sort of issue with too many people - for the first time since leaving Roma, a fact that rather irritated Nick, our tickets are checked. And by checked I mean, fleetingly glanced at to see if you have something remotely resembling a ticket in your possession - date, origin, destination, and traveller make no difference.
By the time the bus finally leaves we were supposed to be, (according to the train tickets we so honorably purchased), in Napoli about 30 minutes ago. But, we're on a nice, air conditioned bus and, even though we are now looking at an hour and a half ride to our final destination, we are moving again! Bring on the crazy Italian drivers attempting to fit a vehicle that is just as wide as the street is narrow down the old cobblestone roads with oncoming traffic!!
So we settle in for the final leg, or what we believe to be the final leg, of our now rather drawn out journey. After about another 45 minutes or so though, probably shouldn't be too surprised at this point, we find ourselves at the station where we were originally supposed to catch the bus...getting off again!!
(By this point, I should mention, Nick has managed to befriend a sweet, older Italian lady that speaks no English, but is keeping us in the loop as to what is going on and helping us navigate our way through, what should have been, our easy trip to Napoli. She came to be referenced as "our Italian grandmother" and she was fantastic!! The entire thing would have been that much worse without her.)
We are now told that we are getting back on the train into Napoli as it is much quicker. Apparently it is working again, too. Although, of course, because that's just the way our luck worked yesterday, we are also told that the train is leaving in 5 minutes, so everyone is rushing to catch the train before it leaves. Luckily, LUCKILY, this actually turned out to be the final leg of our trip.
SO: 2 trains, a bus, another train, and 5 hours later, in what should have been a 2 hour trip, we finally arrived in Napoli!!
Of course by this point we are all starving and have come to a consensus that we will have to make another trip back for Pompeii. Not only are we quickly running out of time to truly explore the ancient city, but there is no way in hell any of us are getting right back on a train. It's all good though because we had our wonderful "Italian grandmother" leading us to
L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele. Only later did we come to find out that not only is Michele's featured in
Eat, Pray, Love, but it is widely considered to be one of, if not the best, pizzerias in all of Napoli!
By 2p we are sitting on some random staircase (we don't really care at this point, although very Italian) inhaling quite possibly the best pizza any of us have ever tasted with a nice, cold bottle of wine.
Anyway, now that we had finally made it to Napoli and had experienced
real pizza, we were all excited to set out and explore the city! We headed back to the train station and hopped the metro to Montesanto, what we were told is the old part of town. We strolled, Italian style, through the streets and, very non Italian style, took many touristy pictures.
After awhile we managed to find ourselves standing in front of the Archaeological Museum. I had heard that this was a must see if in Napoli as it houses many of the artifacts from Pompeii, so since we now had ample time we jumped at the opportunity.
We probably spent a good hour and a half to two hours meandering through the museum before we finally decided to head back. It was now a little after 5p, we were all fading fast, and we had tickets for the 6p train back to Roma, although we were sure we could catch a later train if we so desired. Unfortunately, after the day we'd had we are all ready for our relaxing, 3-hour, (we all crossed our fingers), ride home.
The one thing that we didn't manage to get a picture of, something we're all disappointed about, was our metro ride from Montesanto back to the main station. Just one more example of a quintessential Italian experience. I thought I'd been packed into a Metro car before in Paris, but that was nothing! I was pushed back against the wall by Megan who was literally face-to-face with me, as Jessica was pushed into her left side and Nick pushed into my right side. There was absolutely no room to move or we would have been all over the photographic evidence of that ride.
In the end, we had a very uneventful, thank goodness, ride back to Roma and managed to catch the "H" back to Trastevere in good time. Despite all the hiccups, we all agreed that it was a great day, lots of fun and lots of laughter, and undeniably the most authentic Italian experience any of us have had. Here's hoping that our future trip to Pompeii will go smoother, but, in the meantime, I wouldn't trade yesterday's experience for anything.
And by the time we had made it back to Roma, we all agreed that it felt good to be
home!!
