Casa Olmata Rome

Bill: We have made it to Roma and it is great. The train ride to Rome was not so great though. Actually the whole day getting to Rome was a bit of a right off. First we got out of bed an hour after we planned to, **** but not the end of the world. So we worked out that the bus we had to catch to Selerno (train station) was going past at 8.55. This was cool, we made it to the bus stop well before this and so we could just wait and it would be all good, you would think. Unfortunetly the bus had...

Susanna. Susanna, if you remember dear reader, is the "gorgeous Swedish girl" from Florence who I hoped I'd bump into in Rome. I remember talking to her on the patio of the Archi Rossi and after hearing she was on her way to Rome, I wanted to give her my card so we would meet up, but I'd barely talked with her. She was one of the quietest of the group and the only impression I had of her was sitting in the corner, looking amazing, and practicing silence while she smoked her cigarettes. I didn...

OK so we've been back for a couple of weeks now and I realised I may have forgotten to publish the blog *oops*. Well anyway... here's what happened after we left Naples on Monday 20th July.

So we got a quick train up to Rome and it finally sank in that we only had a couple of days left of travelling! To make matters a little bit more depressing we realised there was no way we were going to be able to see a small percentage of the sights in Rome. There's an old saying, "Roma, una vita n...

Hi everyone! Okay so now you can all calm down we're finally updating our journal. But you know what its like travelling around europe, all the seeing famous stuff thats really old, the relaxing on the beaches, the (window) shopping & all that eating really take it out of ya.....well the eating bit is a lie, we're always starving! we're looking forward to that chicken pie kathleen!! So yeah about Rome. It was so long ago I can hardly remember but i'll try my best. The WORST train ride! we sat...

(By Bri) Cue the accordians, we're in Rome! And loving it. We arrived at the Hostel Olmata at around 4 pm, after (of course) waiting in the train station and taking the long train all from close-by Naples, which took all day and shouldn't have. Story of our lives--messed up train issues! I guess we can't complain...we're in freakin' ROME! As in, you know, where the core of the Roman Empire existed years ago, and still infuses the city with its ancient ruins and rich tradition. We settled in, ...

...do as the Romans! Apparently that means drive like a bat out of hell, ignore the concept of waiting in line, and exhibit a passion for life (and your city) that is found nowhere else. Despite warnings that Rome is a crowded, hectic city that is best seen as quickly as possible, I'm actually really enjoying my time here. I can see how it can be pretty overwhelming, but I have enough time here to take things leisurely, stopping every bit for a gelato or a siesta in the afternoon. That seems ...

I didn’t think much could top the train ride from Vienna to Venice. The train ride from Florence to Rome did. We sped along the tracks on a high-speed train among the hillsides of Italy. Little cottages dotted the hills and farmers worked out in the fields. The horizon was covered with mountains and the whole thing looked like an Olive Garden commercial only minus the cheesy music but still complete with plenty of Italians (like the guy sitting next to me talking on the train, for examp...

Casa Olmata, Rome Ricki: This place is still pretty much second rate, but is infinitely better than the last, though it took us a while to end up here. Yesterday we had been approached at the station (after the first guy, Capt'n Snooze, had taken us to Soggy Simona's) by another guy who wanted to know if we needed accommodation. His name was Zorro, would you believe. ("What mother would name her child Zorro?" I asked Alex, to which she replied, "Well, I can think of two.") We told Zorro that ...

Casa Olmata, Rome Alex: Mauritzio, whose name is no doubt spelled very differently to that, and who brought us to this hostel from the train station, had promised us among many other wonderful things, a "big breakfast" included in the price of our room. Well this morning our "big breakfast" consisted of kiwi fruit and mandarins, and cookies and little packet cakes. Ricki and I nibbled on these meagre offerings, and then disappeared to the kitchen to polish off what was left of the muesli we h...

Casa Olmata, Rome Alex: Breakfast this morning was similar to yesterday, except that the cakes had been replaced with bowls of cornflakey things and warm milk - and we had no cereal of our own to fall back on. The day's plan was to have a look around the Vatican, St. Peter's Cathedral and the Sistine Chapel; we took the scenic route along the River Tiber so it was close to lunch time before we got there. After Ricki made a 40 minute phone call to Justin, during which time I fell asleep in the...