Pisa/Rome:
We left cinque terra and got on a 730 train to la spezia
where we had 2 minutes to get off the train and make it to our other train
heading for Pisa. We seriously barely made it! We rode that train into Pisa,
hopped off the train, drug our luggage with us to the amazing leaning tower.
We were walking down this long
road thinking we had been misled by one of the Italians who said “Scusa? Oh yes,
tower….that way” pointing aimlessly, we were about to walk to a dead end that
was cut off by a giant wall. Brian
was ahead of me when he stopped dead in the middle of the road and looked back
at me and had a huge smile on his face.
This is what he saw.
I can't believe that tower is even standing at all!
Amazingly though, it is.
After being at the tower for a little bit, we walked
back to the train station with all of our luggage and waited a couple minutes
for our train to Rome. We got on our train and I went straight to sleep for
about two hours while Brian read. When I woke up, Brian took a nap. We got to Rome and checked into our
hotel, which luckily was really close to the train station. We got there and
got let in by a guy who said we weren’t supposed to be checking in until 9, and
reluctantly showed us our room. It seriously was like we were guests in his
apartment. We went through a
dining room thing that had papers and junk everywhere. There were very thin doors separating
our room and this man’s room. The
bathroom was across the way, and the shower was very inconspicuous. It stuck
out of the wall in between the door and the toilet. You had to squeegee the
floor once you were done, awkward. We had planned to be in Rome on Saturday
afternoon so we could make it to the Vatican museums that closed at four and
sadly were not open on Sunday. By the time we paid for our rooms and got some
last minute directions from the creepy man, we realized it was 3 and began our
run to the subway. We were running to the subway when I got light headed.
I think I was hungry and weak from the lack of food for the day. Brian
realized how I felt and stopped quickly at a cafe and paid ten euro for two
grilled sandwiches and ate as we ran.
Sadly, it wasn’t enough for Brian, and
his mood showed it. We got to the subway where we had to run up stairs down
stairs and all around and in between trying to get to the right place. We got to our subway and rode 7 stops. Watching the time tick away, we hopped
off that subway and ran for the Vatican! It was 3:45 and we only had 15 minutes
to get through the doors to see it. Finally we found the doors and made it through security with
10 minutes to spare. We went in the doors and up the stairs where we were to
pay for the museum. I told Brian to pay with his card because we needed the
cash for food. We approached the desk and they said it would be 30 euro. Brian
pulled out his card and they said “cash only”. What? Cash only? Brian looked in
his wallet and there was a single 20 euro lying there. We didn't have enough.
We asked the man if there was an ATM nearby and he said down the street. Brian
gave me the 20 and told me to go through and he would get cash and try to make
it back in if he could. With only 5 minutes until the doors closed, Brian went
out of sight. I sat there watching my clock until 4:00. I thought maybe he
would make it thru the doors and run up to meet me. I went to check down the
stairs where we had just gone thru security. The doors were closed! I asked one
of the guards if my husband could make it through and they said not if the doors
are closed. For some reason I had a panic attack thinking how am I ever going
to find Brian in a strange, crowded, and scary city? I also thought of how upset he was going to be with our
efforts to get to the Vatican on time, and we spent our money on those
sandwiches we bought on our run to the Vatican. I was walking slowly past a few
security guards and began to get very anxious when one came up to me and asked
me if I needed something. He saw my tears building and said what's wrong? I
think the only thing I got out was
“husband..outside..no cash.. ATM”. The man asked if I could call him and I
explained I did not have a phone and we just came to see the Vatican straight
from the train station. He took me to the exit doors and helped me look outside
for Brian, but for some reason, he kept putting his arm up and wouldn't let me
pass him. He asked me if I saw him.
I was looking frantically for Brian, feeling a little silly with myself
for freaking out, I spotted him! It was Brian! I yelled his name and pointed to
him for the guard. The guard grabbed Brian and pulled him thru the exit. The
guard told us to follow him. Brian was confused asking what was going on.
I let him know that I got scared and upset when he didn't come back. So
while I recovering from my ordeal, we followed this guard to the ticket desk
where the started talking Italian to a couple other people. I began to realize, HEY, I got Brian
into the Vatican! I said to him,
did you get to the ATM? They may let us in if you have the cash. Brian explained that when he got to the
ATM, it was broken. I actually
thought to myself, we got so close to going through. My tears weren’t enough. The Italian finally turned around from talking to the other
guards and handed us 2 tickets and said “here, it's free”. Even Brian
almost shed a tear after that. The
emotions of it all, the hunger, the tiredness, frustration all of it was just too
much. We gave thanks to them. I really hope they understood how much that meant
to us.
We toured through the place and saw the sights. By far the Sistine chapel
was the best, but we did get to see some rembrandt and rafaelo too! People were
pretty blatantly taking pictures of the chapel, and even Brian snapped a few.
They rang this bell and started kicking everyone out. We got outside and sat on
the steps to just recuperate.
So Brian's side of the Vatican story.... I ran out the door and the guy said to turn
right. I ran down the side of the Vatican wall, asked a person there, they
pointed me left... I ran that way, thinking the whole time theres no way. I
asked another italian dude and he just ignored me completely. Finally found one
and got in the locked door, only to have it be broken. I wanted to scream and
some choice words were shared. I stormed back up to the Vatican, my face must
have been all thundercloud cuz even the street vendors didnt accost me. I
stomped around in front of the entrance/exit for about five minutes before I
heard my name being called. After we got out we went and found an actual ATM
that worked, and walked around for a place to eat. On the way home on the
metro Michelle wanted to see the Trevi fountain so we thought our tickets would
be good for 75 min like it said on them. We ran up and walked down to the
fountain, which was pretty impressive. We had one guy take our picture, then
try to sell us a Polaroid he would take.
I gave him a euro both for his help
and so he'd leave us alone. Later he took another one for us, which was nice of
him. We tried to get back on the subway only come to find out its only good for
one time in the subway, so we had to buy yet another ticket. We stopped for gelato to make the emotional day a little better.
