A Rome Welcome
As I stepped outside of the Rome–Fiumicino International Airport, I was immediately confronted by the summer heat. I was warned about the uncomfortable muggy climate, but I underestimated my abilities to withstand it. The warm temperatures were the least of my worries as I still needed to reach where I would be meeting my school group. I pulled out my phone with the saved directions I was given. It told me that I needed to catch a bus that would take me to town, but I couldn’t find the correct bus stop or number that I needed to catch. I spent nearly half and hour looking for it because I was too stubborn and proud to ask anyone for help. After failing to figure out where I needed to be for the bus, I chose to switch routes and take the train which was easy to find by all the signs directing people.
Once I was in the train station it was manageable to navigate which train I was supposed to catch and where to buy my ticket. After paying €8 the saleswoman handed me a ticket and told me that I needed to be on the 1st platform. Riding public transportation into a city was not unfamiliar, but when the train arrived and I boarded, I asked a gentleman if I was in the right place. He looked confused as I pointed at my phone showing where I wanted to be, he communicated via small gestures and shook his head in disapproval. I took that to mean I was in the wrong place and debarked. After the train left, I asked a different train assistant and she told me that I had just missed the train (the one I got onto), but that there was another one in 10 minutes. Well at least I knew for sure I was finally headed in the right direction.
I boarded the train (again) and sat by the window in one of their plastic bold colored seats and finally rested. The monitor showed which stop the train was at, the expected time of arrival, and where it was headed. All of this was comforting but I was still anxious that I was going to fall asleep and miss my stop. When I got the the Trastevere train station I was then supposed to catch a tram or was it a bus? My directions gave me both options, and I couldn’t find either one of them. I spent an hour looking for some tram and/or bus that I was supposed to catch but found only a ticket kiosk for the train. I was extremely frustrated and my phone didn’t have any wi-fi access or data service for me to look up or ask my school group for help.
I walked into the café at the station and asked a man for directions. He didn’t speak a lot of English but he tried telling me to walk out the door to some yellow building or other. I tried to head in the direction he pointed at, but after 5 minutes came back and asked him to explain again. As a modern man he pulled his phone out and searched up google translate. He had me repeat my question into the phone and it translated it into Italian. Then he recorded his response and finally I understood that I was supposed to head left out the station and that the tram would be down the street. I thanked him profusely, and on my walk to the tram I stopped at a green newsstand. In the informational email I was given, it said to buy bus or tram tickets from a newsstand (which seemed odd to me). Yet after asking the vendor if she sold tickets and I purchased one, I was all set to catch the tram across the street.
The journey was nearly over, however after the tram ride I did not have any information about where I was supposed to go next. After looking around, I instinctually decided I should walk up the hill and headed in that direction. After a total of 15 minutes rolling my suitcase right and left, down and up, where different shop owners directed me, I arrived.
It was 3 hours since I had first landed at the airport. I could have gotten there in under an hour if I had decided to catch a cab, except I wanted to—well—save some money, and I was determined to find my way via public transportation. My teacher and director were impressed that I had arrived by train and had packed extremely lightly (as in one carry-on suitcase and a backpack). Perhaps I should plan my arrivals more thoroughly in the future. Nevertheless, I learned Romans are friendly to lost tourist like myself and that even on my own I can handle adversity in a foreign city.