Scammed! (and other fun news from Rome)

This morning we woke up in Florence, checked out of our super-Americanized hostel (complete with 80+ other recent college grads, bar/discoteca, and free pasta for everyone starting at midnight) and boarded a train to Rome. The ride to Rome was beautiful as we passed through 3.5 hours of rolling hills and quaint towns.

Once in Rome we walked out of the train station, to which I realized there is really no such thing as fresh air in Europe. Even if you are outdoors enjoying the sunshine it is a safe bet that there are at least 15 people around you blowing smoke in your face. ew, I really dont understand that part of the culture. Anyways, we headed to our hostel, which is a little eclectic...

It is called the Bavaria B & B and the picture online was of a huge, ornate German-inspired building/castle, so you can understand how our expectations were high! Once we followed the directions and found the address we were faced with a simple brown door, on a regular street in Rome... we were a little confused. We were then buzzed up by Carlo, a portly older gentleman in a tank top and slippers (it was 4 in the afternoon...) who showed us all around his apartment. This was after we wound up 3 flights of dimly lit stairs and walked through several dodgy hallways. He and his wife have turned their flat into a bed and breakfast of sorts, with multiple rooms for guests, 2 bathrooms, and a nicely-decorated kitchen area with free internet! Despite the somewhat misleading description/picture online, they were very kind and set us up with a map of the city and some tips on where to go.

We headed out to the Santa Maria Maggiore Basillica and the Colloseum for the afternoon, but I will leave those to Matt to describe. After the Colloseum we ate dinner at a restaurant nearby and got a great deal on pizza, lasagna, bruschetta and wine. For added entertainment we sat on the patio right next to the "Coming Out!" gay restaurant next door. (N.B. I have absolutely nothing against gay people, despite finding the experience somewhat comical.) We then wandered back to the hostel, meeting up with 2 other travelers like us along the way who were standing under a streetlamp looking confused, clearly holding a free map from some other hostel. Turned out to be from Texas and OK, so we chatted about San Antonio for awhile.

Next came the "lesson learned" part of the evening where we got scammed by some gelato con artists! We wandered into a gelateria/caffe in a piazza near our hotel and asked the friendly chap behind the counter how much the small was. "2 scoops for 2 euros!" he replied. Great, we thought, we will each have some. "To sit down or to take away?" he inquired. "We my as well sit down and enjoy the evening..." we responded. So we sat and they brought out the gelato in glass bowls, each with a couple of biscotti cookies drizzled with chocolate.
Later, when the bill came, it was for 17 Euros!! (Which is rougly 30 bucks...for ice cream!) Matt asked what was up with the bill, as we were led to believe it would be 4 euros total, to which they cleverly explained that to sit and eat costs 8.50, instead of 2. Needless to say there were some words exchanged, as they tried to act like it is common sense to assume the price of food increases by over 400% when you sit at their lousy table. We searched in our wallets and only came up with about 8 euros total (well we at least tried to make it look like thats all we had.) Then they insisted that I go to the ATM across the street and withdraw more money to pay for the rest of their incredibly overpriced ice cream...I am not proud to say that we made up a story about how my ATM card wouldnt work because I hadnt called the bank to let them know I was traveling, pretended to try the ATM anyway, and eventually gave them around 11 euros and called it even. We got out of paying 17, but feel pretty ripped off anyways.

In other news:
-America: 1 point, Italy 0 (in regards to having to pay extra money in order to drink water with your dinner)
-And I discovered that my 4 years of Latin education officially got me nowhere, becasue despite being surrounded by ancient latin inscriptions throughout Rome, I can only remember the translation for 1 word. (agricola = farmer)

Sorry this post is miles long, free internet will do that to you! Hope everyone is doing well!
-Carlyn