Italian Adventure Day 8: Travel to Rome

We headed to breakfast bright and early and headed through the narrow streets of downtown Florence with ALL of our bags. Being that it was during the week, you are not allowed to drive through downtown without a permit. They have cameras at all entrances that will fine you if you enter illegally. So we elected not to chance it and parked right outside the fined area in a little parking lot. We packed up the car and headed out of the city on our 2.5 hour journey to Rome.

We took the long route to Rome because we wanted to stop by Siena to check out it out as Rick Steve’s said we should. We found a great parking spot because we were early and started to hike up the mountain. Thank goodness they had an escalator that went up to the city because it would have been a very long trek in that heat, but either way it was worth it. This town is what you picture when you think of Tuscany. It was like stepping back in time, the entire city was enclosed by the original city walls. We made our way to Il Campo, the best town square in all of Italy and it was fantastic. On our way we passed the Duomo and we just couldn’t resist stopping to look at it. We took a few pictures and then continued to the square where the boys dipped their heads in the Fountain of Joy to cool off. We walked around a bit and then grabbed lunch and sat in the shade in the center of the square. It was a nice way to spend a couple of hours. It was time to head back to the car to continue our journey to Rome.

Testers making their handprints in the world.

We were determined to turn this trip around, but just when we thought all was going well, we get to our last toll and it is automated. Danny tried to put our ticket in, but for some reason the machine was not taking it very well, so he tried to help it along and then when it took it, it did not register that we had even put a ticket in. So we push the service button and the man say “oh you have no ticket”, “no we have a ticket, the machine took it”. He obviously didn’t understand what I was saying because the next thing you know a fee of 66 Euro pops up on the screen and he says you have no ticket. I pushed the call button again and I told him “we had a ticket, but it was stuck in the machine“. Then a receipt pops out of the machine and the gate raises and he said “you pay tomorrow”. I was confused and took the ticket and we were on our way. I started reading the ticket and realized it said we had 15 days to pay the 66 Euro fine or we would have to pay court costs and other fees on top of this. Are you kidding me, what is wrong here???

But we were so close to the camp and were excited to relax at the pool for a bit. We checked in and I asked the lady at the registration about the toll booth and she said she had this happen recently to someone else and she told them not to worry about it. I am going to call and see what I can work out because we had our ticket and the toll should have only been about few Euro since we were only on the altostrati for about an hour tops. We unpacked and headed down to the pool to cool off. The pool was nice, but this place was definitely geared more towards college students, but that was alright with us. They had great drink specials at the pool bar and good slushies. Right about the time it was time for us to leave we met a lovely couple from Ireland that we started talking with. They had a son that was 10 and they invited us to join them at the bar later for some pool.

The restaurant serves dinner a bit later so we headed back to our cabin and showered up and then went to the camp restaurant/pizzaria for dinner. Ryan shockingly said he did not want pizza tonight and he ordered schnitzel and fries, I tried the lasagna (not traditional, more of a creamy cheese base), and Danny had the ½ rosemary chicken with potatoes. Brayden picked at each of our plates, but I think I was the only one that didn’t really care for my food too much, but the prices were great.

After dinner we headed right next door to the bar where it was pretty bare, but we got the boys ice cream and then waited for our new friends to finish up and join us. At 10pm the bar started happy hour with awesome drink specials again and by 11pm the bar was packed and the party really got started. We continued to play pool, Ireland vs. US and I started out pretty good, but they ended up beating us. Brayden was addicted to the fussball table and kept asking for .50 Euro cent pieces, but he was having a good time, so it was no problem. Ryan was loving hanging out and playing pool, but around 1230 we headed back to our cabin so that we could get some rest so that we could head out to the waterpark tomorrow to do something for the kids before we took to Rome to do the things for us. Looking forward to getting cooled off and it is looking up already for our trip.

RYAN’S CORNER:

Today is finally the day. We finally get to go to Rome. I can’t wait to see the campsite, but first we stop at Sienna. Brayden was whining and crying that he didn’t want to go to Sienna. He wanted to go straight to the campsite. We went inside only one place then sat down for a bit outside the place. After a while we got some pizza and left Sienna. After two hours in the car we finally got to the campsite. Hi campsite. It was really cool. There was a park, swimming pool, restaurant, and a bar with games. When we got into are bungalow we relaxed, then after a while we went to the swimming pool. Me and Brayden made two friends that day: Alex and Cahill. They’re really nice. After the pool we went to dinner at the restaurant , then we went to the bar to play games. I played some pool. I played about 4 games of it. At about 11:25 we left. At 11:45 me and Brayden fell asleep. Good bye. Adios’. Asta lavista baby.