Rome - crazy Taxi drivers, crooks, a fire and a lot of fun.
I was really looking forward to Rome. My girlfriend was not sure what to expect. Some of her friends had really enjoyed it and one of them gained 3 kilos in one week due the fantastic food that they are serving in the restaurants.
We had a morning flight; we were leaving from Brussels 7.25 am which meant that w were up very early. I think for the first time we had managed to pack the day before so we felt quiet organized when we woke up at 5.00 am. We had some quick showers and some light breakfast.
The airport was no that busy " I had expected more action because I had picked my girlfriend up the day before and at that point of time the airport was actually more than full.
My girlfriend slept good on the plane; it must have been the first time ever! After less than 2 hours we approached the Da Vinci airport in Rome. We flew pretty low over some very interesting view along the east coast of Italy.
In Fiumicino airport everything went well. We got our luggage and found the train that was leaving towards Rome. The train was completely full so we were standing in the hall looking out the window for the 25-30 min it takes to go to the central station in Rome, Stazioni Termini the price was 11€ for each of us (one way).
When we arrived at Termini, we tried to find our Metro that should have been line B.
The taxi driver that we finally got was everything that you could imagine of a man on traffic steroids. He started with the traditional “I don’t know that hotel routine” spending some extra time, but I must say that he suddenly change his mind when I rather exactly could explain him where it was.
The hotel was situated 5 km from the city centre, which were only 4 metro stations from Colosseo. The hotel turned out to be a nice quiet hotel close to one of the city universities. At the reception desk we were met by a very efficient desk clerk, she was one of the fastest I have ever seen, and she spoke fast as well. We had arrived early before lunch so our room was not ready. We dropped of the suitcases and went for a walk in the neighbourhood to get a sense of where we were, because the taxi driver had made everything surreal with his driving.
We located the metro station that would be our starting point every day and there we bought a week card for the busses and the metro in order to be moving freely the coming days. At the train station we found a small lunch café and had our first taste of Italy. It was great and we finally were where we wanted to be.
After a couple of hours we went back to the hotel, checked out the room and changed clothes before going in to town again as fast as possible.
We went in the Colosseo which were the part that my girlfriend had looked forward to the most. We walked around it and just enjoyed it together with the other half of the European population who apparently had the same idea.
From the top we could see a fire in Via del Corso and decided to go that way, not because of the fire but because the street was blocked by the police, so it was possible to walk very freely in that direction. We were absolutely not the only ones with that idea. The fire turned out to be in a small clothing shop. We strolled along the small streets in the neighbourhood and finally ended up at the Pantheon which is one of my favourite buildings.
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We were hi-jacked by a man in pin-stribed suit standing in front of the restaurant Il Scusate Ritardo and he offered us a table in the front row to the scenery of the square. The tables were nicely set, the chairs were ok but like everywhere where the ground surface is made of cobblestone the table was wiggling like a drunken sailor first night in harbour.
We had both a zuppa de cozze for starters and the mussels were good and we were happy with it. On top of this I took an insalata di tonna and Kaija an insalata di pollo, both the tuna and the chicken salad were very boring and of very low quality.
The service didn’t care much about us after we were seated, it was clear that their business plan was based on getting the tourist to sit down and then slowly drain them for money but first priority was to fill the tables. Overall we were treated ok but I saw a lot of other customers that were treated really badly.
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We stood in a queue for about 30 min before we had a taxi. The scenery in the queue was as out of a Fellini movie; people were in general very calm and smiling and talking a lot to each other in an Italian way, all except of some Italian suits, most of them women though!, that had to be somewhere else in a hurry and that were totally stressed. Along the queue you had also the normal hustlers, unofficial taxis trying to make an extra buck on cheating tourists. The hustlers all looked like crooks, and I would recommend them to work a bit on their appearances’.
The taxi driver that we finally got was everything that you could imagine of a man on traffic steroids. He started with the traditional “I don’t know that hotel routine” spending some extra time. When he finally found the hotel, he drove like a maniac – we were both suddenly in a Grand Theft Auto the new version. It was the fastest city drive I ever had seen; it reminded me of the car chase in San Francisco in the movie Bullitt from 1968. As long as our taxi driver was on the road touching with at least two wheels I didn’t mind.
We reached the hotel in 15 minutes and the meter had gone up to 18,90 euro when he stopped; it was steaming still. Then the fun started again, he started with some luggage calculation and suddenly we were at 26,90!!; some suitcases and I even lifted them both in and out! I gave him 30€ and he just took the money and left! I was just laughing, welcome to the city of players.
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