Roma III: Missing the train and where scientologists get married

Writer's note: a bajillion more photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/manda_face/

********Sunday*********
I would probably have been pretty pissed if free breakfast hadn't been free. We each got a roll, a plastic package of two mini slices of hardened bread, and a single serving of butter, jam and generic Nutella. They asked what we wanted to drink and we all responded water. The gray-haired woman who was working brought us a pitcher big enough to fill four bathroom-sized paper cups with water. Lauren and I asked for caffé. We received a sizably larger metal pitcher of American coffee that tasted even nastier than coffee I've had at home and an equally large sized metal pitcher of hot milk that tasted like nothing.

Once we worked out money issues (we were 15 people, after all) we paid the hostel, checked out, left our bags so we could shop without burden, and left the place. The guys headed for home, as did Hailey, Kally and Christine who had decided they'd shopped enough.

The rest of the girls metroed once again to Spagna to shop on the main street. We were all determined to find Carnivale outfits, though we had different things in mind for what that meant.

A couple of us were looking to find something peasant-y and gypsy-y. A few unsuccessful stores, both for Carnivale and regular clothes, passed me by while a few of the others made their purchases. Maybe it was life just enjoying being ironic, but I found my perfect shirt at H&M. Also, a shirt-dress that Lauren bought in different colors, not for Carnivale but because it was fairly cheap and cute.

Not everyone found their perfect outfit though, and I still need a bottom half that I'm thinking will consist of black leggings and gray boots that I already have and either black or dark, dark blue short shorts that I hope to find in the next two weeks. You already know the shirt is peasanty, but I choose not to reveal more until the pictures of Carnivale are taken and surface.

Seul, Hanah and I split off from the group to get food, since the rest had stopped earlier for expensive pizza while we were still in a store. The rest went to look for their Carnivale masks and we would meet back at the hotel. We were right by the Despar from the night before so Hanah got some cookies, but we all wanted something more substantial. We walked back towards the Spagna metro stop. Hanah and Seul got trusty McDonald's, since we stopped there anyway for the bagno. I picked up a slice of pizza topped with fresh lettuga, pomodoro e tonno at the pizza place right next to the metro I had eaten at on Friday night. Sooo worth it, but while savoring we lost track of time a bit.

We sped back into the metro, out of the metro, into the hotel for our bags, out of the hotel, into the metro, out of the metro, and at the stop where we were to pick up the train back to Viterbo–just in time to watch it pull out of the station and its taillights disappear through the tunnel. Talk about depressing.

The next train to Viterbo wasn't for two hours since it was Sunday. Instead of sitting there waiting, we decided to take the train ending at the town with the Tom Cruise castle, which was on the same line as Viterbo and about 45 minutes away. Our layover there ended up being about an hour, which wasn't too bad since it was half the time and we weren't in a sketchy, deserted area.

We walked to the main road and found a cafe to sit at. Hanah got some gelato, but Seul and I stuck to our personal promises against gelato for a while. We got hot chocolate instead. I don't think the cioccolato caldo here will ever get old, even though I can only handle so little of it at once because it's so rich. We savored for a bit longer this time and then caught the train back the rest of the way to Viterbo.

A difficult end to the weekend between that and news about my grandpa's worsening condition, but I keep up hopes that all will work itself out in the end and hold on to the fact that I had another great italiano weekend.