Rome in a weekend

We arrived in Rome and OMG what a huge station that is!  People everywhere and way way too crowded. Gail had good written directions to the next BnB so off we marched.  Gail leading, Shirley in the middle and Bill bringing up the rear.  I watched a young guy that I swear had either a knife or a box cutter in his hand and thought he was going to go after Shirley's purse.  He did bump into her once but she shoved him away and I don't think he expected that so he ducked into a store and we never saw him again.  Made it to the BnB without further incident!

Chariot race track, no kidding

We weren't in the greatest part of the city but I think we were pretty safe as it seemed to have a lot of tourists.  There were several restaurants just around the corner and we tried a couple of them and were never disappointed. Street side cafes, table cloths, Italian food!  We were in Rome for the weekend so, Saturday we walked to the Coliseum and vicinity.  WOW!!  Pretty amazing!

Forum ground and whole complex

We didn't spend the money to go into the coliseum or surrounding tourist areas but did walk around the outside.  I think we saw plenty and got some nice pictures too.  No regrets about what we saw.  The trek took a lot out of us so we had to stop for Gelato on the way home.  Good Stuff!!  Had real Italian pizza, in Italy, for dinner.  Yup, it was good too!  Saturday afternoon Shirley showed us how entertaining it was to watch out the windows at the cars, buses, trucks, and motorcycles on the street below!  Even if there are lines on the street, they mean nothing!  Hurry up and get to the next stop light first!  Double parking, cars zipping in and out for traffic,
scooters zipping in and out of traffic, parking in the crosswalks.  The people who drive smart cars have discovered that they can back into the curb between the cars that are parallel parked!  It was really entertaining and of course lots and lots of horns and police sirens.

Sunday we caught the Metro to the Vatican along with several hundred thousand other people.  Go to St .Peters square (it's really a circle) in time to get a blessing from the Pope.  We were quite a ways away but fortunately they had jumbotrons so we could actually see him!  Still, quite a sight.  Spent a couple of hours walking around and shopping before catching the metro back to the Bn B.  Our place had a little washing machine but only a short clothesline to dry the clothes.

He is in there

We had discovered that right below us there was a laundry that would dry our clothes for 5 euros.  So, after we got 2 loads washed by late afternoon, we took the wet clothes down for him to dry.   Sunday is apparently his busy day as he was too busy to dry our clothes.  Crap,
a bag full of wet clothes, and we're leaving tomorrow.  Ok, so we scramble around and get everything hung around the apartment for the night and had an agreement with laundry guy that we would bring wet stuff to him when he opened at 8:30 am and he would dry before we had to leave.  Fortunately, overnight, most everything dried enough to pack away.

Monday morning and check out is 11:00 am and our flight didn't leave til 5 pm.  Well, really no choice but to head on up to the train station to catch the bus to the airport.  Short wait for the airport bus and no problems with thieves! Course, we are backed up to the wall in a corner, backpacks not visible and hanging on the suitcases.

Next little adventure is our first experience with Ryanair!  Not to the big airport in Rome but to a smaller airport on the other side of Rome, Ciampino.  The terminal was fairly modern but really really small!  2 hours before our flight time we headed through security and Italy's version of TSA.  They confiscated a partial bottle of tea from Gail and Bill's Swiss Army Knife.  (Checked my bag from Seattle so spaced that I'd even brought the darn thing)  They took my information from my boarding pass so now I'm probably on someones list.   Now, Ryanair is quite the airline.  Our seats from Rome to Crete were $35 each but we paid the extra $15 each to get a reserved seat.

This is really a cattle car operation!  We were all standing in line for the gate, no loading by seat rows. Gail got through the gate but Bill had to stop and check the size of his suitcase (We have identical suitcases!)  As I was fitting it into the "box" I didn't realize that the gate agent had kept my passport and boarding pass.  Once I fitted the suitcase in the box I headed for the bus (Yes, had to squeeze onto a bus to go across the ramp to the airplane)  After a few minutes I realized that I didn't have my passport or boarding pass so in a panic I bailed off and was headed back inside when another gate agent stopped me and gave them back.  PHEW!!!  Departing people don't load at the same gate the plane arrived, they bus you to it and up the stairs, onto the plane,  a 2 hour flight.  Because checking luggage cost extra, it was just like Southwest, lots of people, lots of bags stuffed in the overhead.  They did have a cabin crew and if you wanted something it was going to cost you.  The girls had water and Bill had a beer, a warm one, 8 euro 50 total.  Ryanair is an Irish airline but the whole crew was Italian?  This was the stripped down version of the 737... No padding in the seats, no seat pockets, the emergency instructions were adhered to the setback!  The cabin crew was up and down the aisle selling snacks, drinks, and duty free stuff.  What a way to run an airline!!  We'll see how Aegean Airlines compares when we fly from Athens to Venice later.

We made it safely to Chania, Crete and after a bus ride and a walk found our latest BnB. So far being back on island time is working for us.