Our last day in Rome was pretty crazy. Me, Ricky (another Kiwi on our tour who has been living in Australia since 2002) and Brett (an Australian) decided to hire Vespa´s for the day. Our logic is that not only would it be a lot of fun, but we could see more of Rome and not have to negotiate the Metro or walk everywhere.
In our minds it was a good idea...
Our group was actually going to be a lot larger but about 6 people saw the light and decided to back out at the last minute.
We hired the Vespa´s from just up the road from our hotel, and assured the owner that we´d done this plenty of times before and knew how to ride. This is despite the fact that we were complete novices!
Ricky lead the way (he was our ring leader) and was told by the owner to go 20 metres up the road and then make a left. Ricky instead went straight, and led us the wrong way down a one way street. He got through okay and then me and Brett had to duck for cover as a Mercedes Benz came rushing down the road. All of this was in full view of the owner...God knows what he must have been thinking!
We met up with each other at the next traffic lights, had a laugh and there were high fives all round. Ricky led off again and within 5 minutes had lost me and Brett. Not to worry though: Brett was the one with the map. At the next set of traffic lights Brett told me to go forward and then loop around to the right at the next intersection. I did and within 30 seconds Brett was nowhere to be seen (he later told me he stalled at the traffic lights - how I will never know given that the Vespa´s were automatics) so spent the rest of the day without a map and on my own.
Not one of my better decisions to hire a Vespa and not take a map let me assure you!
Let me also assure you that it was truly horrifying. For those of you who have been to Rome know that the roads and drivers are really crazy: the streets are cobblestoned, narrow, and you share the streets with busses, trams, cars and of course, other motorbikes. To top it off they drive on the right hand side of the road and there is a labrynth of one way streets.
Throw all of that together and it makes for a pretty scared ATB.
I rode around aimlessly for an hour trying to find the colleseum (our meeting point). I got completely lost. In the end I stumbled upon the Italian Monument - an impressive building in front of a huge roundabout. I was pleased to finally see something that I recognised (as I knew it was close to the colleseum) but bad to know that I had to negotiate it. The roundabout is Rome´s equivalent to the Arc de Triumph - its about 4 lanes across (with no road markings) and seemingly no rules to speak of.
We got told by our tour guide that the best approach when crossing the road here is confidence. If you walk out confidently cars will stop, its when you hesitate that you run into difficulties. I should have applied the same logic here but instead I ventured nervously on the inside of a bus (using the bus as my protector so no cars could hit me from that side). It was terrifying, and I vowed never to go through that roundabout again. After somehow getting through that unscathed I then found the colleseum but still couldn´t meet up with the others.
I then decided I´d pushed my luck far enough so decided to take the Vespa back. Of course finding where we picked them up from was incredibly difficult and again I got lost. After half an hour (and thinking I must be close) I found myself at the roundabout again. Goddam it!
I managed to get round it, then kept looking for Termini Station (Termini station is close to our hotel so if I found my way back there I could get back okay). After 20 minutes I saw signs to the airport. Crap, lost again!
Then kept driving around some more and asked a few locals for directions to Termini. I followed their instructions to the letter and found myself back for a third time at the roundabout! By this stage my nerves we´re pretty frayed. Fortunately the third time round the roundabout was the easiest as I got there in a break in the traffic.
Eventually I found Termini though and was able return the Vespa.
By the end I understood that the Italian drivers are not nearly as bad as they look. It seems like the law of the jungle out there but it really isn´t: even buses were prepared to give way to you, so long as you go with it and drive confidently.
In saying that I took the Metro for the rest of the day!
That night we all decided to do the Colleseum pub crawl. We´d heard it was awesome and for 20 Euros and you had all you could drink for 2 hours and then a free tee shirt.
Sounded like a good deal.
The reality was different.
There were about 70 people all trying to get their drinks from a tiny bar manned by 2 people. So you had to que for 20 minutes for every drink. We were then taken on public transport (!) to some clubs just out from the center of Rome. By this stage everyone was getting pretty annoyed, and when we got there is was pretty clear that the pub crawl was run by the Mafia (the clubs were in the middle of what looked to be a residential area, there were shifty looking bouncers that screamed "organised crime" and they tried to charge us 10 Euros per drink). It was a complete riot.
We did feel physically safe but in any event decided to collect our tee-shirts and leave. This too was a drama but we eventually got them and were told to wait for the buses (public transport again) to take us home. After 20 minutes of waiting I´d decided I´d had enough and me and 3 others just grabbed a taxi (which at 10 Euros was the only good deal we got all night!).
So we went to bed relatively early by Contiki standards (a mere 1 am) feeling ripped off.
Ironically though the next morning I compared notes of the night with Cameron (a NZér who decided to stay at the club after we left) and he said that about 30 mins after we left the place picked up and he had an awesome night!
So I guess we only had ourselves to blame...
I´m currently in Seville and enjoying the slower pace of Spain. Looking forward to Granada tomorrow!!
Hope all is well with everyone.
Anthony
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