Rome

The train got in to Rome much earlier than I had expected (about 9:30am). I didn’t realize it was only 2 hours away. I was going to write and sleep, and before I knew it, we were arriving. I had planned on going to Rome on the 1st, to do some sightseeing, but opted to stay in Florence, as I had met so many cool people. Rome would always be there, and I could certainly come back some other time. My friends on the other hand, would not.

Seeing as I arrived in Rome early, I figured I could go see the Colosseum. If I went, and was back in the train station at 11, I'd be on the airport shuttle and at the airport by noon, which is plenty of time to check in. So I trekked off. At this point, I was real glad that I spent my extra day in Florence rather than Rome, as Rome was much more of a big city. I preferred the small towns. I did make it to the Colosseum, and it was fantastic. To walk around and know that in the center where I was looking people died, and in the stands where I stood, people watched. It was eerie. The floor had fallen out centuries ago, and you could see the passageways that were beneath where the fighters would walk before the matches. It was a pretty awesome sight. I made it back to the train station at 11am, as planned, and got on the 11:15 shuttle to the airport. As I was on the shuttle, I checked my ticket to see which gate I would need to go to. My ticket said my flight was leaving at 10:30am. Oh shit. For about a month now, I had become certain that my ticket was for 2:30pm. How could I have gotten this wrong? Why didn’t I at least check last night? Or at any point in the last week? Well, I'd have to pay whatever charges applied, and get on the next plane. The thought of trying to stay awake in an airport for a few more hours was killing me. I got to the terminal, and explained to the airline guy how I had some problems with my train, and that it wasn’t my fault I missed my plane. He was understanding and changed me to the next flight free of charge. Same time tomorrow. Tomorrow?!?!?!?! What the hell was I going to do for 22 hours? The smart thing to do would have been to go to Rome, get a hotel, and sleep for about a day, but there was a girl in Pisa that I had no idea when the next chance I might get to see her would be. I called her up and the conversation went something like this:

A small communication gap, but it was ok. The way she said "I am happy" left no doubt in my mind I was doing the right thing instead of getting a hotel room in Rome.

I was headed for Pisa……..