Italy Day One: The Alibus was My Favorite Part.

Okay, I would like to go all “professional blogger” here and write you an article full of tips on touring Italy. I cannot in good conscience do that. What do I know? I have toured all of one week, and I would rather tell you the stories, just the funny parts and the best photos, of course.

We landed in Naples, Italy, at the Naval Support Activity Naples in the early afternoon, I think. It is a teeny-tiny airport. Only military members and their immediate families can fly out of there. For more information on flying military flights, see my article here.

We slept on the airplane ride over. Including a long stop in Ireland, our flight from America to Italy took about twenty hours.

Our plan was to head straight to Rome on the train, but somehow we did not end up doing that. Instead, we hiked all over the navy base. We visited the hotel even though we were not staying there yet. I cannot remember why we did that. I guess we were gathering information. This was a last minute trip, and we did not exactly know what we were doing.

Then we went to the bank on post and exchanged our dollars for euros.

The dollar is weaker than the euro currently, by the way. Oh, also, aside from tourist areas, things like food were actually cheaper in Italy than in America.

I found a public restroom and switched my pants out for shorts since it was a million degrees outside, and walking was our chief mode of transportation.

Poor Alan mostly packed pants for this trip, and Italy was in a historic heat wave.

After miles of walking, we finally made it back off the Navy base, past the Naples International airport, and to the Alibus station.

Alan still felt excited. I was hot, sweaty, nervous, and tired. On the airplane ride over, I read a book about touring Italy. The book said to watch out for pick-pockets in touristy areas of Rome and Naples, so I was hyper vigilant. That is not my usual state, and feeling that uptight is exhausting to me.

I dislike being hot, not knowing where I am going, and I did not feel very adventurous. What was wrong with me? This is Italy for crying out loud.

Then the Alibus arrived.

The line crushed in. There were too many people for everyone in line to make it onto the bus, even with people crammed into the aisles, holding on to the rails. Plus, I was absolutely certain the whole family behind me was trying to pick-pocket my book bag. They kept moving closer behind me.

Guess what. I was the last person who made it onto the bus, which meant I had to stand in the very front, right beside the Alibus driver.

Y’all. This suddenly turned into my favorite part of day one. I have always loved a nice, zoomy ride in the front. It was like sitting in front of the windshield on my dad’s ski boat.

Do you know what Naples drivers are known for? Chaos. They drive fast and aggressively and have a ton of traffic. Also, there were hills.

It was so exciting! We were zooming through the hills of Napoli (Italian for Naples), and I had the best seat in the house. I felt like I saw half of the city on that ride. Somehow it even felt like the wind was blowing through my hair. It was magical.

Then we arrived at the train station for another first: our first ride on the speed train.

These trains go about one hundred and forty miles per hour! Isn’t that wild? I was so nervous about riding it, but it went quite well. You would never know that train is going that fast. The seats were nice, and it was air-conditioned. I was very happy to have some time to sit and relax and look out the window at the Italian countryside.

Alan was often sporting two backpacks when we were on the move because mine was too heavy for me.

We got to Rome and called a cab because our hotel was outside of the city. There was no public transportation from our hotel area, unfortunately.

There is a tip for you. Stay inside Rome, and save money and time on cab rides.

We were too excited to be in Rome to just chill at the hotel, though. Once we settled our suitcases and showered, we set back out on another cab ride.

In Rome, you can call a cab using. your Uber app. That worked perfectly. The prices were always reasonable that way.

The Colosseum was the closest site to our hotel, so that is where we headed.

We were dismayed to learn that we had accidentally purchased the wrong tickets for the Colosseum. Our tickets were not for the Colosseum at all. They were for all the stuff around the Colosseum, so at least we figured we could see that.

Nope. We got there after closing time. Oops.

We saw all that we could see from the outside looking in over there, which was still interesting. Then we decided to find food.

Dinner is eight o’clock in Italy. That is far later than we typically eat, but we went with it. That day, we found my favorite of the restaurants that we ate at in Rome. They even had a gluten free bread, so I was able to eat bread and oil. That was thrilling for me. And of course, the food was delicious and the service was excellent.

Actually, maybe this restaurant was my favorite part. I was just nervous about interacting with people, not knowing the language.

After dinner, we walked around a little more. We found the ruins of gladiator training quarters across the modern day street from the Colosseum.

When I went to Israel, I was thrilled to see the ruins. In Rome, I found the ruins to be more haunting. This was not a place where Jesus walked around healing people. No, the Colosseum was a place where they released poor people, gladiators, Christians, and prisoners into a stadium to fight and often die. And they did this all to roaring crowds. People watched others die for sport here.

The building itself is marvelous, but the reminder of how barbaric people can be is sobering.

Rome was as hot as the sun itself that day, and the next day, and the next day. You would think an Alabama girl would be better at coping with it, but I struggled mentally. Physically, I was fine. Mentally, I was whiny. Who takes a vacation to Italy and whines? Me. That would be me. I am not proud of it, and I tried to keep the whining internal.

I was so happy to return to our hotel that night. Normally, I have trouble sleeping in new places. We had zero trouble sleeping. We were so wiped out from all the traveling in the heat.

Besides, I knew we had the next day to further explore this magnificent city.

“Rome – the city of visible history, where the past of a whole hemisphere seems moving in funeral procession with strange ancestral images and trophies gathered from afar.”

-George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann Evans, an English poet