Day 6: Raining in Roma

Today I was planning to head to Siena and then Florence. Trouble is it's pouring. I decide to skip Siena. Instead, I sleep in and then Kenny and I go downtown with my big backpack in search of vegetables and a train ticket for Florence. Pizza and pasta may be part of a complete diet but not when they're the only part of your diet.

We head to The Beehive, which is supposed to be an amazing place for people who are sick of party hostels. You have to book months in advance but you can check it out and get tasty vegetarian cooking beginning at noon. There's only one woman who works at the restaurant. She's the cook, the waitress, and the busser. She's also not so nice. Thankfully, she's a great cook. We are very happy to eat her lasagna, eggplant tart, and salad.

Afterwards, Kenny walks me to an Internet cafe and then we say goodbye. Hopefully we will see each other again in July in San Francisco. After 2 hours of Internet, I go to catch my intercity train to Florence. I get there 15 minutes early and the train is already packed. Today is a holiday in Italy so EVERYONE is traveling. I finally find an empty seat. When I ask the nearby occupants if it is taken, I realize no one speaks English. We spend a lot of time gesturing until I understand that you need a reservation with a seat number. When I booked my ticket and it said "no seats" I didn't take it literally. I thought it meant general seating. Turns out I was wrong. There are seats in the aisles so I find one of those. Then I realize I haven't validated my ticket. I turn to the person next to me and make gestures saying that I want to validate and he points outside. Ackk! I don't want to leave my bag so I drag it outside the train to validate. Now there are even more people on the train.

In the end, I find myself standing in an area by a bathroom in between cars. By the time the train starts 30 minutes late, there are 15 of us crammed into this little space. I quickly adjust my water drinking habit. Small sips for the 2.5 hour ride because there can be no bathroom breaks. The 2.5 hour ride turns into a 4 hour trip... standing. Thankfully the scenery is nice and everyone in the space is in good spirits. Even better, the guy right in my eyeline is very nice to look at.

I arrive in Florence as the sun is setting (shoot!) and I'm at the wrong station! After some frustration, I learn that I can get to the right station in 5 minutes on another train. On that train, I hear American English so I start talking to those I hear speaking it to find out whether it's safe to walk to my hostel. This is when I meet 4 incredibly nice exchange students from Florida Central University who have just had the worst weekend in Naples (let's just say it involves a similar bus story to my previous one and sleeping in a metal vegetable cart). After some discussion, the students walk me all the way to my hostel even though it's not in the direction they are going. Awesome!

I check in to PLUS Florence, which is brand new, meet some people, eat some food, and pass out in my 5-person all female dorm.

Lesson of the day: If you are traveling on a train on a busy day, make sure you have a seat!

P.S. I will write up Day 5 soon. I have it written on paper somewhere and I've got to find it!