Posted by katiep on Tuesday, May 30, 2017 in 2017 Blog post.

For the free weekend I traveled to Rome with my villa-mates Cynthia, Izzy, and Rita. We arrived late Thursday evening with plans to wake up early the next morning to make it to the Vatican in time for our ticket reservation. Easily enough, there was a bus stop directly across the street from our AirBnB. The sign had various bus numbers and lengthy lists of each stop, all of which were unfamiliar. At home, I have my own car so have never really dealt with public transport other than taking the Metro into DC several times with friends and family or navigating New York subways at the guidance of friends. My inexperience lead me to stare at the sign blankly without any idea how to comprehend the information. Luckily, several elderly Italian
women at the bus stop helped tell us which bus to take in order to get the Vatican. We arrived without much trouble and spent three hours inside straining our necks, eyes, and feet in order to take in all of the beautiful artwork. After our tour of the Vatican we stopped for lunch and then hopped on another bus for the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain. During this time, our AirBnB host Michele texted us asking how we were doing and if we wanted him to make us d
inner that evening. We enthusiastically answered: “Everything is good! We’ll probably be back around 8 for dinner.” Little did we know, Rome had another plan for us.
After walking through the Pantheon and throwing coins into the Trevi Fountain, we stopped for gelato and began to make the journey back to our AirBnB via bus around 7:30 PM. However, we couldn’t remember which bus we needed to take to get back. We took a gamble and ended up on an unfamiliar street filled with numerous restaurants. When we got to the bus stop we decided to ask an elderly couple for help and they assured us we were at the correct stop. However, another woman overheard the exchange and told us that we needed to go across the street and take the same line in the opposite direction. Just like in Cefalù everyone was eager to help and we were all grateful and willing to heed their advice.

We ended up waiting for the bus for what felt like forever. I was hungry, tired, and it began to get dark so Izzy suggested we just call a taxi. However, we didn’t know how to call a taxi and hailing one off the street was proving a difficult task so I urged us to just continue to wait for the bus. During this time, Izzy’s phone died—our only way to contact Michele was now gone. Without the ability to communicate with our AirBnB host, I immediately appreciated the importance of cellular data and service. On a more basic level I appreciated maps and a simple knowledge of my surroundings. If we had only had the help of these comforts and benefitis that I take for granted at home we would have been at the AirBnB much sooner without any difficulties.

9:00 PM. I was hungry, irritable, and just wanted to be back at the apartment. So, when the bus finally came, I was eager to hop on. Once again, we weren’t quite sure where to go and began asking people on the bus. After misdirections from several well-meaning strangers we found ourselves in a questionable residential area. It was dark, there were several homeless men, and a drunk man walking behind us on the sidewalk. Needless to say I was beginning to feel uneasy. This feeling intensified when Izzy and Cynthia decided to ask two men to borrow a phone to call for a taxi. I wanted no part in this exchange so stood on the edge of the street with Rita anxiously waiting for a taxi to come down the empty street. Finally, I saw a taxi and began waving my arms frantically. The driver pointed at me and pulled over as I yelled: “Get your butts over here we have a taxi!” to my friends. This was the first time I had ever hailed  a taxi in my life and luckily it was a success.

When we finally got back to the AirBnB it was 10:30 PM. The entire ordeal had taken two hours. We were welcomed back into the apartment by a half-asleep Michele asking: “What on earth happened!?” We explained the whole scenario to him and he offered to still cook us dinner at 11 PM. Not only was his cooking amazing, Michele completely embodied the hospitality and warmth that I have been greeted with during my time here and don’t necessarily expect from strangers back home. 

In hindsight, getting lost in Rome was an important experience for me to have because it put me into an unfamiliar and uncomfortable situation without my usual reliable resources. When I go back to the U.S. I will definitely appreciate having technology to guide me but I will feel a little more secure about my abilities to navigate if something were to go wrong and leave me completely on my own.