On the way to the station today I saw those savoury delights that I had 2 of yesterday for tea. I can confirm that they are called a Panini Napoletani (or Naples butty to you and me, though my predictive text just tried to change it to Naples bitty which is something very different indeed). I’ve now had 3 of them in the space of 17 hours.
As per usual I just made the train, after getting my ticket via the machine and my cash card. I noticed it said remember to stamp the ticket before boarding, I didn’t see anywhere to do this though and as it was about to leave I just got on anyway. I played the dumb tourist (rather too well) and the inspector explained the process to me but let me off the €50 fine. Phew.
First task when I get to Rome, get a ticket for the match tomorrow. I’ve compiled a list of places that sell them, now I’ve got to hope one of them is close enough to the hostel for me to get there before it closes. Wish me luck readers.
On the train I’ve been listening to DeVotchKa who I’d heard of but never heard anything by before. An American girl in Montenegro recommended them so I looked them up on Spotify.
‘A Mad and Faithful Telling’ is an album that won’t be for everyone but it’s bewildering mix of styles and dark film score qualities appeal to me greatly. It’s a strange fusion of Balkans (the good kind!), Mariachi, French accordion, Russian folk, gypsy jazz (I may have just made that term up) and sweeping strings all fronted by someone sounding like a Feargal Sharkey. It’s blended together with magnificent results.
When I arrived in Rome my day begun to take a turn for the worse. As I checked into the hostel they asked for my passport and it then dawned on me that it was sat safely in the locker (together with my spare cash card and the paper part of my driving license) that I had handed the key over in the morning at my last hostel in Napoli. Brilliant.
It was lucky I had the card part of my license as I wouldn’t have even been able to check in to this one. I’ve spoken to the bloke at the one in Napoli and he has it waiting for me so I will have to get the train there and back again on Monday which will pretty much take most of the day leaving me only 1 proper full day (if I get to go to the footy tomorrow) to see Rome. It will also cost me another 20 odd Euros in fares.
Oh well, it could be a lot worse as at least I know where it is. That’s the problem when you’re tired trying and constantly organising loads of stuff though, at some point you are bound to make a mistake.
So by the time I’d sorted all this out it was too late to attempt to get a ticket for Roma vs Livorno. Now I have to hope that you can get them on the day from somewhere.
As was expected with the way things were going, my evening eating ventures didn’t work out too swell. Me and a lad from Australia (an Aussie in a hostel, fancy that) went looking for some cheap grub but with all the tourists about there aren’t too many places that fit the bill and you have to pay just to sit down in most of them. Eventually we found a little bistro doing spinach, ricotta and meat ravioli at a decent price (about €6 I think). What came was a tiny portion of pasta in a bit of cheese sauce and drowned in peas, I’m not a big peas fan. Not very filling or satisfying at all really.
So I got a slice of pizza on the way back and I even managed to bugger that up, what I pointed look like a meaty mother. It was actually meaty looking tomatoes, now I’m not keen on pees but I positively despise tomatoes that aren’t in a paste or liquid format. Mingin’. One of those days eh.
This hostel will be comfortable enough but I don’t really like it. It’s one of those that you can see that it’s more about the bottom line than a good hostel experience. Fair enough they are businesses but I’ve seen enough of them to know that they can be successful and offer a nice service too.
What I really feel like doing now is getting on a scooter and tearing round Rome on it. And with the help of these fellas that is just what I intend to do sometime soon. They do a 3 hour tour of Rome on classic scooters (some even from the 50s) but at €120 it’s well out of my price range. You can rent a PX though and I will try and do this for Tuesday, then I can get round all the sights quicker and have a good time doing it. It’s also quite pricey at €60 for 24 hours but I’d love to do it. I just hope I can get one on the day as they don’t have many and I’m not riding one of those ‘orrible automatics.
One good thing about this hostel though, I saw the below on one of the walls. It’s the very same picture I once used for a custom t-shirt I had made.
Send The Bugger Back 
