Italy - Part 7 - Chiusi

The next morning we woke up here, having placed our tents so they'd be in the shade in the early morning. Some people showered in the morning and Alex lent me his razor so I could shave. I just shaved down to a goatee with mustache. Alex also decided he wanted to relax and spend a day at the campsite and around Chuisi which he studied when he was in Italy for the design school. So, I talked to Gordo and we decided we would go ahead without Alex to Rome that day and explore it on our own before meeting Alex the next day.

Before we left though we went down to the lake and out for a good lunch. This is the first dock we found at the lake, but then we went along further to a park where there were picnic tables and people fishing. No one was swimming but Gordo and I wanted to go swimming so we dipped our feet in the water at the end of one of the docks. Then I turned around and lowered myself into the water just to find out it was only up to my waist! I swam/walked out about 60 meters but it didn't really get any deeper... so much for that idea.

We went over and joined Alex, Greg and Jon in their game of Fluxx although it was soon over. Then we started to leave the park but Alex stopped and talked to an old couple who were having a picnic in the park. They gave him a cup of their wine and I had a little too. I could understand a little of what they were saying. They seemed to be enjoying life.

We got back to the campground where there was a restaurant called La Fattoria, which I believe means the farm. It was a nice restaurant though.

Alex and I both ordered the full 3 course meal which was kind of silly since it meant the other were watching us eat for some of the meal, although we did share some with them. I had spaghetti, a big piece of chicken, fries and then my choice of dessert.

For dessert, Alex and I were led into the building where there were 6 different dishes to choose from. We both chose tiramisu and it was excellent.

At the end of the meal we had to once again figure out who owed what and the payment of the meal was supposed to be what balanced out the bills for the trip. This was our last meal as a whole group. After the meal Gordo and I were ready to head off. There was some debate about where we should meet Alex in the morning. Alex thought we should pick the spot or meet at a place familiar to him but Greg said we should meet near the train station and Gordo and I had no idea of a good place to meet. We decided on a piazza about a block from the train station.

Gordo and I then biked off towards the Chiusi train station and despite taking a few wrong turns we reached the station with about 45 minutes to wait for the next train.

On the train Gordo read his whole journal to me from the point the biking started to when I arrived which was pretty sweet. They had some awesome times in France including some nice beaches on the island of Corsica, that it's too bad I missed.

Arriving in Rome, we found a hotel info booth where a lady was willing to book a hostel for us. Unfortunately she couldn't find Hotel Lodi, the name of the hostel Greg and Jon recommended. So we asked her to just book a place nearby and preferably one where we could keep our bikes inside. She asked if we needed our own bathroom or a private room but we just said No, get us something cheap. So then she booked a place nearby for us and gave us a map to it. She also charged us 8 Euros for booking it.

Here's Gordo being somewhat hysterical about how the day has gone so far - shortly after we got into our private room. Yes, at the hostel we had a private room with a TV and a fan. We also had a bathroom directly across the hall and they wouldn't let us keep our bikes inside anywhere. They had to be locked up on the street, so it was the opposite of what we asked for. It was however very close to the Colloseum and train station and it was cheap. Also, the guy said it was a safe neighborhood and there were a lot of other bikes and scooters on the street.

So once we took showers, we got ready to follow a walking route Greg had outlined for us through the streets of Rome at night. We wanted to lookup on the Internet how to take the metro to get to the start of the tour. At the Internet room there was a guy from Nicaragua who told us we should just walk it. "You are two big strong guys, you can walk. You go on the metro and you got guys all in your face and pick-pocketing you. You walk the street you get to see things on the way." He showed us a map of all the places he had walked which was all over. So we grabbed a map of the touristy areas for ourselves and set out on foot to explore Rome.