2009-6-11 Last Day of Rome

I woke up around 6:30 out of anxiety of oversleeping on our last day. We had to be out of our room by ten and since neither one of us brought a travel alarm, it becomes a little difficult to wake up on time. I took the opportunity to catch up on some reading and begin packing before Megan got up for the day. We had a relatively late night, it being our last one in Rome and all, and had taken the opportunity to splurge on good food and good wine. It was worth it. We never made it into the districts commonly known for the best dining or nightlife. This was primarily due to their distance from the hostel and our relative exhaustion at the end of the day. After our daily afternoon nap, we almost always wanted to walk as little as possible which afforded us the opportunity to try everything in our neighborhood. The standard of breakfast being a croissant and cappucino at the local pastry bar, lunch something light on the road and at night, a sidewalk café or bistro. If you’re doing Rome on a budget this is the best way to go.

After Megan got up and we had finished packing we headed back out for one more half day of site seeing. This was not planned but there were a few more things I wanted to see that we had missed either by accident or by choice on previous days. The first stop was to view the Forum from the Campidoglio. This was recommended to me by one of my professors as being the best view of the sunset in Rome. We were, unfortunately, on the wrong end of the earths rotation for that, but the views were spectacular. From the Campidoglio you can see the entire Forum and it is away from the throngs of tourists that seem to be ubiquitous to all of Rome. From this vantage point it is possible to see from the Temple of Vespasian and Titus to the Arch of Titus (one end to the other.) It is completely worth seeking out this perspective at any time of day.

After snapping a number of photographs from the Campidoglio, we continued on our way to the Piazza Bocca della Verita which houses none other than the Bocca della Verita (mouth of truth.) This piece of antiquity is a Roman testing grounds for a person’s conscience. Located in the portico of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, the legend dictates that the mouth will consume the hand of liars. This particular piece was sealed as an icon through Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in the film Roman Holiday where Gregory Peck pretends to have lost his hand in the mouth. It was hard not to have fun with the bocca della verita.

Since it was our last day, we decided to have a nice big lunch and eat everything we had here-to-for negelcted to. We found a wonderful little street side café on Via Panispera. Panispera is a bit of a side road (still on the map) but afforded any number of cute restaurants, stores and businesses. It was nice to get off the major roads for a bit and I am glad we did. We were able to enjoy a huge lunch in the shadow of Santa Maria Maggiore before saying our goodbyes to Rome and heading to the Termini.

Our first train ride:
Upon hustling to the Termini with packs astride our backs, we headed to the closest ticket machine. We stumbled a bit through the menu which provided the local gypsies ample time to provide us their services: namely showing me what button to push and then asking for money. When I declined to give the woman anything and showed her instead my empty wallet she began to point at her stomach and beg that it was for her baby. Now I didn’t look closely but I am relatively sure she wasn’t pregnant. I was however impressed that the begger at the train station had a better grasp of English than most of the service industry claimed to.

Megan and I got our tickets for the next outbound train to Civitavecchia, the port town that services Rome. Seeing our train left in ten minutes we began to walk briskly towards our platform. Seeing that our platform was the farthest possible one, we began to run. By the time we got situated in a remotely air-conditioned train, we were sweaty messes, and more than happy by this point to leave Rome behind. Now don’t get me wrong, I am very happy I went and saw as much as I could. I just don’t think I would ever go back to Rome…at least not as a tourist. Megan and I had an ongoing joke regarding the presence of antiquity. It is so prominent and omnipresent that anytime we turned a corner and saw a fallen column or Roman foundation one of us would exclaim “Man that shit is everywhere.” It truly is. So much in fact that after three days of walking, it no longer holds the same mystique that it held upon arrival. I look forward to the modernism that Barcelona will provide.

Civitavecchia is not a great city to be lost in…or at least to feel lost in. We left the train station and wandered about trying to find our way to the port. After a bit of walking, a lot of sweating, and a little cursing we managed to find a port station. We bought some water and sodas and found out that there is a bus that would take us to the terminal to buy tickets. We caught the bus and proceeded to ride around a marina. A very big marina. At this point I had finished cursing my inability to speak the language and withdrawn into relying on my observation to try to figure out where to go. We found ourselves eventually brought to the terminal we seeked and happily got into the air conditioned space. A space that became our home for the next 5 hours. We bought our tickets to Barcelona on the Grimaldi Ferry, which to my delight turned out to be more of a cruise ship than anything else, and began our wait until we could board at 9. I should note here that the Europass has not even been used once. The tickets to Civitavecchia were only 9 euros for both of us and the ferry lines does not accept eurorail pass except for a minor discount. I am beginning to think it would have been better just to buy our tickets as we needed them.

Megan and I decided, based on the advice of a friend, to get a cabin on the ferry. We had heard stories about the individual seats that represent the cheapest fair. Think of the stearage scene in Titanic minus the fun loving and musical irish and instead substitute italians, cologne and body odor. And no showers. We made the right choice and in my mind it was worth the added expense.

The boat provides interesting opportunities for entertainment. I have, in my possesion a video of not only the world’s worst lounge act ever but also a video of the discotech, entirely populated by 15 year olds on a field trip for school. Needless to say this has been an interesting trip. But being on a boat has completed the travel trifecta for us as we have now traveled by land, sea and air.

Tomorrow we arrive in Barcelona at roughly 6:00. I cannot wait! Hopefully I’ll be able to upload pictures then.