Pisa-Rome

Worst day of the trip so far.

Driving from Pisa to Rome was again very bad. More tolls, we ran out of cash (remember we have the extra fee when we drop the car off). Our tax return still hasn’t come through and we really need the money now. We couldn’t use Ev’s credit card as we don’t know the pin. We had enough cash to pay for fuel but had to put food back. We didn’t have a GPS to rent and were in desperate need of a map. After we finally found a service station that sold maps, the only one we needed of Rome had been sold out. We finally found a map and Dan bought it with cash while Ev called her bank to ask what her pin was. The bank said her card does have a pin but couldn’t tell her over the phone; they’d have to generate another pin and post it. That’s really helpful WHEN WE’RE IN ITALY!! There was no way we could get cash out. We drove through the streets of Rome which was another whole level of stress from lots of one-way streets that weren’t indicated on the map, no lines on the road and cars that just push in front of you. We finally arrived to the hotel in the northern part of the city to drop off our bags and by the time we got there we were so stressed that Ev was shaking inside and felt like vomiting and Dan had been cursing many expletives about the roads and no signs on the streets. We dropped our bags into the hotel but our room wasn’t ready so the unhelpful staff allowed us to leave our backpacks literally in front of the Reception desk where all of their guests could see our things. We didn’t feel very welcomed and were clearly stressed. Anyway, no time to rest, we have to get the car fuelled up and back in time or we’ll be charged extra. We fuelled up close to the train station where the rental company was. We drove around the terminal 3 times before finding the poorly labelled car park entrance which was on the 7^th floor and by that time a bar had gone down on the fuel indicator and we stressed that we’d be charged 150 euro for not bringing it back full. We found a close by self-service depot that had a sign saying ‘credit cards accepted’. We checked before putting in fuel if they actually take credit, they didn’t. What the hell!!! We’re taking the car back anyway and pleading that we don’t get charged 150 euro because the fuel isn’t full. Turned out the missing fuel bar was ok. Maybe she could see how desperate and stressed we were. Exhausted we left and decided to catch a train back to the hotel. Surely things couldn’t get worse, but it did. It took us 45 minutes of walking around the terminal with poorly marked signs to find the information centre. We finally found it and were told we should take the Metro A line which was what we thought we should do. We went to the ticket booth with coins and tickets were very cheap at only 1 euro each. We had 1 euro and 20 cents. Come on!! We walked around stressed thinking of what to do because we still couldn’t withdraw cash or use credit. We headed back towards the Information Centre but Dan had a good idea of exchanging one of our souvenir notes from Ireland or Scotland. We really didn’t want to do that, but had no choice. The exchange staff were on a break. Oh My God!! Can’t anything go right for us? The sign said only for another 5 minutes, we waited 15 and were first in line. Even the staff aren’t in tune with us. We saw a sign that we could get a cash advance, (Horray!!) so once it was accepted we finally had some cash and didn’t need to exchange one of our notes. Dan had a wave of relief refresh him, but it took Ev a lot longer to de-stress. Finally some money and a good backup option until our tax return is in our account. We took our time and headed straight for food. Finally, we had greasy pizza from Italy at the train station which was the best remedy to the most stressful day of our lives. It was seriously the best pizza we have ever had, and we now had change for the train ticket. We finally crashed in the hotel room at 6pm. What a ridiculous day. 

Today we just want to go home back to Australia.

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