And One for Kitties

And One for Kitties

            We overslept.  Again.  Having your own house will do that to you.  We were 30 minutes late to check out of Camping Fabulous, but it was okay.  They didn’t care – at all.  We took the bus over to EUR Fermi, a subway station that could then take us into town.

            There was a slight issue.  As we arrived, subway workers were closing off all the entrances to the subway.  I asked why, and someone explained to me that a guy had just gotten hit by a train and died, so they were closing off the station.  Thus, everyone at the station had to go take a bus to the main train station, Roma Termini.  This bus had its normal (already large) load, plus everyone who had been planning to board the subway at EUR Fermi.  It was the bus from hell.  It was so packed and slow I cannot explain.  Will had murder in his eyes the entire way.

            Will and I were super hungry, so we went down to that restaurant in Trastevere that we liked.  We had a massive meal.  Bufala mozzarella, a pizza each, a pasta dish each, and a dessert.  It was awesome.  We then tried to go to the catacombs.

            Getting to the catacombs kinda sucked.  The map said it was on “Appia Antica.”  I stupidly assumed that the subway stop that listed “Appia Antica” would take us there.  FALSE.  It took us to a totally different part of the city.  We then had to take another subway and a bus to get there.  By the time we finally got to the catacombs, they had been closed for 20 minutes.

            There was a cool cave looking thing on the road to the catacombs, and Will and I wanted to go in.  However, it was in the middle of an amber-colored field with no cover and we were wearing black.  We thought it was private property, and we stood out like sore thumbs, so we decided that it was a bad idea. 

            We spent the rest of our afternoon at an internet café planning out part of our trip.  We wanted to see if it was financially feasible to fly over Greece (there’s crazy rioting there right now) into Romania.  It wasn’t.  We’re going to go through Hungary or something on really long-ass trains.   We’re ahead of schedule anyways. 

            It was about time for our train, so we went into Roma Termini to wait for it.  I really had to pee, and the bathroom charged one Euro.  I thought, “Whatever, I’ll just go on the train.”  We crossed the station and went to the tracks.  Our train was supposed to arrive any minute.  It didn’t come.  After it was five minutes late, they posted that it was delayed 10 minutes.  I REALLY had to pee at this point, but the bathroom was all the way across the station.  I couldn’t risk going there because I might miss the train.  Meanwhile, the station was playing this commercial for gelato on loop.

            Let me tell you about this commercial.  It was for a company called Sammontana.  During the commercial, an old man in the clouds wearing an old-style sleeping outfit loaded a catapult with these (pointy) gelato cones.  Then, he launched them towards the ground at some children.  While I would be terrified of spikey things coming from the sky, the kids just pick it up and eat it.  Then, the old man in the clouds said something in Italian.  All this time, this weird, irritating, and cheery song is playing.  This commercial repeated.  Endlessly.  Our train ended up being 20-30 minutes late.  While I had to pee.  And the Sammontana wouldn’t stop.  Goddamnit.

            When it finally came, the train ride was uneventful.  We made it to Napoli.  Let me tell you something about Napoli.  IT SUCKS.  It is a cess pool of terrible things.  Within 20 meters of the train station, two dudes had tried to hustle us (“I’ve been waiting for you!  I’ve been waiting for you!”) and we saw six (6) prostitutes.  Seriously.  20 meters.  Cops drove by the prostitutes and just didn’t care.  There was also trash everywhere.  Just piles of all sorts of trash, all over the street, piled on the sidewalk, you name it.  It’s disgusting.  We ended up getting so sketched out that we had to take a cab to the hostel.  There, we watched some Band of Brothers and went to sleep.

NOTE:  I found the commercial.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUOI_AnSqHI  Go to 0:14.  That's where the train station part starts (it was a shortened version).

Will’s Corner

            Andy was sorely tempted by the sketchy prostitutes, but I intervened and kept his chastity intact.

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Dear Joe,

            You would love Naples.  It has everything a Joe could want.  Come visit.

Love,

Will and Andy