We got to Verona after 1:30 and had to wait about an hour for our train to Bologna. Then it was a 1.75 hour train ride to Florence. After a short wait in Florence, we got on our last train of the day for a 2 hour ride to Perugia.
We arrived in Perugia about 8:10PM thinking we had only a short walk to the hostel, only to find out that the hostel where we had reservations was 20 kilometers outside of Perugia, in Ponte Falcino. It was very dark out, and we didn't know where we were in relation to the hostel, and we had no idea how to get there.
Luckily, we had a phone card and the woman at the hostel spoke English when Shari called there. The woman told us we could get bus number 8, that it would cost about 1 euro for a ticket,and it would be about a half-hour ride. The bus was at the stop when Shari got off the phone, so we quickly bought a ticket and luckily the bus driver knew of the hostel and said he would let us know where to get off.
When we got off the bus, the driver pointed to a building and said "over there." We had no idea where we were and everything was closed around us, so we walked to where he pointed and it was the hostel, and boy, were we glad to see it. Another day of travel adventures!
We had reserved a double room and it has its own bathroom and breakfast is included - all for 16 euros. The hostel is located in an older building that has been recently renovated. It's a nice place but the walls are pretty thin and you can hear people talking and moving around in the other rooms. We are booked here for 2 nights so we will probably take the bus into Perugia tomorrow to explore the town.
9/23: We got up leisurely and went for a walk on the grounds around the hostel. We walked in an area that was used for the study of various trees and plants, but it does not seem to be very well maintaind. I think they are trying to revitalize the town of Ponte Felcino (the town with the hostel) but the whole area needs a lot of work.
We got the bus around 11:15 to Peurgia and as soon as we got there we saw an internet, so we decided to use it before we walked around the city. What a difference in prices for the internet here versus what we paid in France. Here, we paid 1.80 euros an hour in the first internet place and 2.20 per hour in the second place. We were paying about 6 or 7 euros and hour in France. It was great not to feel rushed while looking at email, plus they had good computers, so it was very fast.
We walked around the historic center of Perugia but we didn't go visit any museums or chuches. Perugia is a well preserved medieval hill town and the historic center is way up a hill a few kilometers from the train station. We did get to see a sort of folk music performance in one of the piazzas at 6PM. It was put on by the music conservatory students and it was okay, but we left after about 45minutes. As usual we seem to get to a place either just before or after a musical performance that I think I would really enjoy. There was a classical performance last night and some more concerts starting on Thursday. We had eaten some pizza before the show, so we just got the bus back to the hostel at 7:30PM.
I hope we can find some place to do a book swap in Rome because I just finished my last novel and we now have three books to swap. New paperback books are expensive in Europe (they seem to run about 12-14 euros) so I would rather not have to buy new books. Oh well, off to Rome tomorrow.
9/24: We got the 11:20 train from Perugia to Rome and arrived in Rome about 2PM. We checked out 2 hostels which were both near the train station and only one block apart. We couldn't get in to see the rooms in the first hostel until 3PM so we went to check out the second one and decided to stay there.
We are in an 8-bed dorm room at the Freedom Traveler Hostel and it is not a Youth Hostel hostel (it is an independent hostel), so men and women are in the same rooms. We decided to stay there because they have a washer and dryer and a kitchen we can use for cooking, but I don't think either of us are happy with the place. It turns out to be pretty run down and the rooms and kitchen aren't very clean. I also think we aren't very happy with it because we have been staying in such nice places lately. Oh well, we paid only for 2 nights so we will probably move to another place on Friday.
After we checked in, we walked around the city for a while and went to fiind the used book store mentioned in our Lonely Planet book. We found it and turned in three of our books and bought three others. Unfortunately, we got only 4.50 euros total for our books and we had to pay 8.50 euros for each of the books we bought. They give you 1.5euros per book they buy from you, and turn around and charge 8.50 euros to sell it as a used book. It is much better to swap a book at a hostel, but this hostel and the last one didn't have any books to swap.
After the bookstore, we went to an internet place to use the card Anna (from the hostel in Padova) had given us. The card wouldn't work, so we decided just to use the internet back at the hostel. The place we were at was near Trevi Fountain (from Three Coins in a Fountain fame), so we walked over to see it and take pictures, and throw our coins in the fountain to make a wish. Then we got some pasta at a small restaurant near the fountain.
We went to the grocery store for lunch foods and snacks. We probably won't even use the hostel kitchen for cooking because it is so messy, but at least we can store our food in the refrigerator. We did a laundry and used the internet at the hostel and then sat on the terrace and wrote notes.
9/25: Breakfast was served in a small room off the reception area. Thery put out pitchers of juice, coffee, milk and croissants in a basket. No butter or jam, but the croissant was a nice change from a roll. It was a dumpy room though, and I'm still not keen on this hostel. We went on the city walk tour at 10AM. It was just Kerrin and Liza (he is from Australia and she is from New Zealand, but they have been living together in New Zealand for awhile and they are moving to London for a couple of years), Shari and me, and our tour guide, Daniel. Daniel looked about 20 (he is actually 28) and is from Denver, Colorado. He has a BS in history and has been living in Rome since April. He loves history and studied and read alot about the Romans, and boy, does he know his stuff.
Our tour lasted until 5:30PM and we had only two short breaks-one for a quick late lunch about 2PM and one for wonderful ice cream about 4PM. We started in the area of the Colosseum and at each place he would stop and talk for about half an hour and tell us the history and interesting facts of each place we visited. He also did a great job explaining the history of Rome, and told interesting stories of the Emporers.
We saw so many things on the tour, but the highlight were: the Colosseum, the Arch of Constantine, The Roman Forum, Capitoline Hill, Trajen's Forum, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain (much more interesting when Daniel told us its history and the size of its statuary), the Piazza Navona and the Spanish Steps. It was an incredible tour for just 10 euros.
Daniel recommended we check out a place on our way back to the hostel. It was called the Cemetery of the Capuchinos. It was rooms under a church that contained the bones of 4,000 Capuchin monks that were arranged in various designs. They had created designs on the walls using all sizes of bones, they had displays of skeletons dressed in monks robes and they even had hanging lamps made out of bones. It was interesting, but kind of creepy.
HOME PAGE
HOME PAGE