We made it to Roma!
Luca, my father and I took a long weekend trip to Rome to sightsee and celebrate my dad’s birthday.
We took the train South from the Santa Novella train station in Florence to Termini station in Rome. It was a smooth ride once we got on the train…it peaks at about 150 mph so it only takes an hour and a half from Florence. The platform number wasn’t announced until minutes before leaving so we had to rush to reach the platform and our train car. It was a little stressful but we made it. Whew. The same thing happened on the way back.
Rome was fun…and stressful. I booked a cute apartment in a fun area. It had everything we needed plus an elevator to the fourth floor (a rarity in Rome – or Italy for that matter). We cooked together our first night – steak and potatoes. Luca and I even decorated the living room for my dad’s birthday with balloons and a fun party garland.
We did a ton of sightseeing. We toured the Vatican and our tour guide was fantastic. She was well versed in her history & knowledge of the art, which I enjoyed. Someone mentioned that the Vatican has the largest art collection in the world, not sure if that is true or not but either way they own a ton of beautiful art. We went to the Trevi fountain – twice – my personal favorite – both during the day and at night. But I have to admit I was super grouchy and expressed my grouchiness in full glory not only at Luca and my dad but our poor, unprepared golf cart tour guide named Victor.
Here’s the story. I wanted to plan something special for my dad’s birthday. Since he has a bum leg and I knew we’d be dragging him all over the Vatican the day before, I set up a private golf cart tour of Rome. The reviews of this tour on AirBnB Experience were amazing. So I contacted the organizer and asked a few questions in advance about the pick up and drop off – they said they would come to the apartment, door to door service – they also said we don’t have to do any walking if we don’t want to. He explained all the stops on the tour and that the guide would explain the history and tell a few fun stories along the way. Perfect. I was so excited for this tour. On Saturday morning, we woke up to rain. Not great but we can’t control the weather so let’s just roll with it and dress appropriately. Victor, our unassuming guide, showed up but parked at the bottom of the hill. I was told door to door service but I’ll let it slide – we will just walk slow & steady down the hill. We all jump on the golf cart and away we went. Victor was not saying a word. Hmmmm. We arrive at the Colosseum and it is very clear that he doesn’t know much history of the place. He says a couple of facts that I’m guessing he found on Wikipedia, so I ask him a couple of questions and get a blank stare in return. Okay, I’m starting to get a little perturbed because we have paid hundreds for this tour…not just one or two but many. I try to let it go but Luca can start to see the look on my face is not good. I’ve never had a poker face. We all load back up in the cart and we notice Victor looking up stats for the next stop…which I had to ask where we were going because he wasn’t speaking to us. He was nice but not so personable which is kind of a requirement of a tour guide. We arrived at the next stop which was a view of the city…it was beautiful but again, no interesting info. I asked Luca to speak to him in Italian (as to not embarrass him and also I didn’t want my dad to know that I was complaining about this just yet) and let him know that we need him to be more engaging and explain more about the history and provide some fun information about each stop. I can see the poor, sad look on Victor’s face because he knows (and he knows we know) he doesn’t have any more information to give. He is basically a driver and his boss has put him in a really bad situation as a guide. So off to the side I discussed with Luca about how to handle this as to not end up in concrete shoes. He said that I needed to email the boss immediately and ask for either a new guide to meet us or a partial refund (which I don’t think I’ve ever done but this was my dad’s special day – so you do whatever you can do to make it eventful) because if I waited until the end, it’s too late and basically we’ve wasted our time and money. So I emailed a short, to the point, but friendly note. Victor’s phone immediately rang. Awkward does not even begin to describe this situation. I’m angry, but not at Victor, at his boss. I feel bad for Victor. This guy is totally out of his depth and he has to look us in the eye knowing that we know he is out of his depth. After a few minutes of haggling, Victor says the boss agrees to charge us less than half and we can finish the tour….sans the history less. I take a quick moment with Victor to the side and explain that this isn’t personal. I know he is doing his best but his boss let us down. And listen, Vic was a fantastic driver. He knows the streets like the back of his hand and I’m sure someday if he has the desire, he will be a wonderful tour guide but he needs to study.
My dad and I are off on a road trip to southern Italy today. Luca has to work all week so the heavy lifting (driving, translating, tour guiding, carrying all the luggage, and just being a good guy) he has done for us will be missed. We rented a car for this portion of the trip so wish me luck driving all over Italy with a manual transmission and not being able to read the traffic signs. Ha! I’ve done it before but I was 12 years younger and much more carefree.
So far we’ve made it to Assisi and eaten McDonald’s for dinner in the car like true American tourists. Don’t ask because that’s a whole other story for another day.
Goodnight and much love from Italy!
