free internet in rome
it seems it is the little things that do it for me... like free internet and a colloseum
dragged ourselves and our packs away from the communal dining room, which makes one feel like they are sharing a house rather than sharing a dorm, to the courtesy bus bound for certaldo trainstation this morning and took several deep breaths before purchasing a ticket to sienna. the plan was to spend a day in this apparently beautiful medieval town before pushing on to rome to check in to our pre-booked (yep we are matured travellers) accomodation at the yellow hostel. the second part of this plan went without hitch of any sort. the part where we leave our baggage in the storage at sienna station, however, was a disaster as they are "temporarily" (read: permanently) out of order. we had gone to the added precaution of getting one of our fellow bassetto guests who were off to sienna on a day trip yesterday to check it out for us, but it seems the sign of doom did not catch their attention. it was only when realised our predicament that i recalled someone mentioning that most self-storage luggage stowage in italy have been shut down due to terrorist fears. and in florence we saw that they were x-raying baggage before stowage. so, quite obviously, sienna isn't a big enough town to warrant an x-ray machine... pity this logic did not extend to the realisation that sienna isn't quite a big enough station to warrant being considered any kind of terrorist target.
this situation led to a lengthy lunch-time conversation between lucy and i at the ridiculousness of fear, and the infuriating tendency for fear to impinge on commonsense. we enjoyed our parkside supermarket take-out regardless and imagined the medieval town so close, but so far away. we jumped on the next train to rome and already this unfortunate circumstance is a distant memory, the dense atmosphere of history and culture here has, in only our short post-dinner walk infused us with a new vigour to explore the city. the tuscan countryside was a fantastic break, but three nights here will most definitely not be enough. we have grand plans for sicily now, so three nights it is - may be time for some planning! the hostel is pretty cool here, nice people, free internet and not a bad kitchen; always good when the supermarket is a permanent fixture in one's daily plans. our dorm is strangely full (literally every person) of australians. i guess you come to expect these things in a travel destination like italy...
st peters tomorrow
dragged ourselves and our packs away from the communal dining room, which makes one feel like they are sharing a house rather than sharing a dorm, to the courtesy bus bound for certaldo trainstation this morning and took several deep breaths before purchasing a ticket to sienna. the plan was to spend a day in this apparently beautiful medieval town before pushing on to rome to check in to our pre-booked (yep we are matured travellers) accomodation at the yellow hostel. the second part of this plan went without hitch of any sort. the part where we leave our baggage in the storage at sienna station, however, was a disaster as they are "temporarily" (read: permanently) out of order. we had gone to the added precaution of getting one of our fellow bassetto guests who were off to sienna on a day trip yesterday to check it out for us, but it seems the sign of doom did not catch their attention. it was only when realised our predicament that i recalled someone mentioning that most self-storage luggage stowage in italy have been shut down due to terrorist fears. and in florence we saw that they were x-raying baggage before stowage. so, quite obviously, sienna isn't a big enough town to warrant an x-ray machine... pity this logic did not extend to the realisation that sienna isn't quite a big enough station to warrant being considered any kind of terrorist target.
this situation led to a lengthy lunch-time conversation between lucy and i at the ridiculousness of fear, and the infuriating tendency for fear to impinge on commonsense. we enjoyed our parkside supermarket take-out regardless and imagined the medieval town so close, but so far away. we jumped on the next train to rome and already this unfortunate circumstance is a distant memory, the dense atmosphere of history and culture here has, in only our short post-dinner walk infused us with a new vigour to explore the city. the tuscan countryside was a fantastic break, but three nights here will most definitely not be enough. we have grand plans for sicily now, so three nights it is - may be time for some planning! the hostel is pretty cool here, nice people, free internet and not a bad kitchen; always good when the supermarket is a permanent fixture in one's daily plans. our dorm is strangely full (literally every person) of australians. i guess you come to expect these things in a travel destination like italy...
st peters tomorrow
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