Thursday, May 26, 2005
citta cinese
sabrina here. so we're in rome now, land of hi-speed internet connections, qwerty keyboards, costly lodgings, and lots of chinese people! we're staying in a youth hostel in which our 2 beds in a room of 10 cost as much as our private, beautifully tiled room with vaulted brick ceiling off a courtyard on a hill by the sea in Tunisia. as hostels go, though, this one is pretty decent -- sparkling clean bathrooms and quiet, respectful guests (the owner sends away those he deems likely to be rowdy, even if they've made reservations). and it's in a convenient neighborhood that not only is close to public transportation but also appears to be something of a chinatown. so so far we've had chinese food every day. the food isn't wonderful, but it's been nice to have rice and dumplings and baby bok choy and to listen to all the chinese folks speaking italian.
getting here was itself lots of fun -- we took a 17-hour boat that's sort of in between a ferry and a cruise -- there's a sundeck/heliport, a bar, an arcade, a cafeteria, and a tv room with reclining chairs for those who don't purchase cabin space. no pool, though I was sure I saw one pictured in the brochure. there were only about 50 people on the ferry with us, though the boat probably has cabin and TV room space for at least 6 times that many. we got off at civitavecchia, a very pleasant port town, and from there caught a train to rome, about an hour away. we'll be taking a ferry with another company back to tunis later, this time from just south of genoa, and we're looking forward to it.
after seeing the other colosseum, the forum, the spanish steps, and st. peter's basilica, we decided to hop on a random city bus (we chose #36) and see where it took us. we ended up in a lovely residential neighborhood and entered the second pizza place we saw; soon after we sat down, the tables all around us completely filled up with locals of all ages, and we soon found out why -- the food was delicious and cheap.
we also decided to spend our final night (before going to meet serge's friends at the villa) in the town of arezzo, for no other reason than that it's a train stop at which we'd have to make a transfer anyway. so we'll see how that goes.
getting here was itself lots of fun -- we took a 17-hour boat that's sort of in between a ferry and a cruise -- there's a sundeck/heliport, a bar, an arcade, a cafeteria, and a tv room with reclining chairs for those who don't purchase cabin space. no pool, though I was sure I saw one pictured in the brochure. there were only about 50 people on the ferry with us, though the boat probably has cabin and TV room space for at least 6 times that many. we got off at civitavecchia, a very pleasant port town, and from there caught a train to rome, about an hour away. we'll be taking a ferry with another company back to tunis later, this time from just south of genoa, and we're looking forward to it.
after seeing the other colosseum, the forum, the spanish steps, and st. peter's basilica, we decided to hop on a random city bus (we chose #36) and see where it took us. we ended up in a lovely residential neighborhood and entered the second pizza place we saw; soon after we sat down, the tables all around us completely filled up with locals of all ages, and we soon found out why -- the food was delicious and cheap.
we also decided to spend our final night (before going to meet serge's friends at the villa) in the town of arezzo, for no other reason than that it's a train stop at which we'd have to make a transfer anyway. so we'll see how that goes.
