During the ICTP summer school, we had a weekend in between and the plan was to make full use of it. Although there was a news of train strike during the weekend, fortunately it did not happen and we could stick to our earlier plans of visiting some places. Just after the lectures on Friday were over, we had dinner and then left to Trieste Central Railway station. By the time we reached, the ticket counter was closed and the only option left was the buy tickets from the machine. I got my ticket without any difficulty from the machine. But when my three other friends tried to buy their tickets together, somehow the machine did not deliver them and 130 euro got stuck inside. We went to the customer care and the guy (in little English and more Italian) told us that we have to fill up a form which he would sign and then show it to the ticket counter on weekdays (during work-hours). Losing 130 euro just before going out for a long trip was damn frustrating. But still we did not change our plans. My friends bought their tickets individually and we left for Rome.
As expected, the train was crowded and we could not have enough sleep in the train. The ticket inspectors kept coming one after another to check the same damn ticket and waking us up. I probably slept for 2 hours just before reaching Rome and that proved to be good enough for me. Just after getting down at the Rome station we bought a day ticket for the metro and went to locate our hotel. After asking couple of people on the streets, we finally found the hotel. The guy at the reception (to our surprise) was a Bangladeshi. He offered us free breakfast, although we could not check in at that time and he asked us to come at 2 PM. We then left for St. Peter's Basilica by metro. This place is damn crowded specially on weekends and fortunately we booked the entry tickets online and hence did not have to stand in those ques. We went to Vatican Museum, Vatican Church and finished everything there by noon. That was remarkable indeed. After that we went to see the Colosseum. There also we applied a trick (which was suggested by one Indian who is a ICTP regular associate). Instead of waiting in the long que in Colosseum to buy the ticket, we went to Roman Forum where there was hardly any que and bought the combined ticket to see both the forum and Colosseum. It took around 2-3 hours to see everything there. We felt tired indeed after that. We took rest in the hotel for sometime and came out in the evening to see some other places like Fontana di Trevi. We went to the Colosseum again to see the night view, it was really amazing. One very funny thing happened in the hotel with us by the way. We all four were(half naked) on our beds and gossiping, suddenly a lady came in and tried to teach us how to use the western toilet. Her English was pretty bad and one of us had to go with her to the toilet and understand what she wanted to say. We could not believe it, using the toilet was such a trivial thing. May be she thought we don't look western and might not be used to such toilets ;)
Next morning we went out for Pisa. It was a four hour journey by train, and was pretty enjoyable. The train was running just along the western coast of Italy and the beautiful beaches were often coming on the left side of our train. Pisa is a very small town with river Arno passing through it. Apart from the leaning tower there was nothing much to see there and hence we finished everything within 1-2 hours and then went to Florence. It took around 1 and a half hour to reach Florence. Florence was really amazing. The architecture, the various sculptures, the crowd, music and everything there were simply incomparable. The city has tiny streets with huge buildings on both sides, we found many street singers who were as good as professional ones. The river Arno added another charm to it. We had to come to another station at night to catch the train back to Trieste. We had lots of problems in finding out the station called Carpe di Mar (I guess). We got lost at many places as we did not have a map of the city. Finally a German lady helped us a lot. And we could manage to find the station. We had to wait there for couple of hours as our train was at 1:45 am. The train was again crowded and I could not sleep much which forced me to bunk the lectures on Monday (except the first one) :(
Next morning we went out for Pisa. It was a four hour journey by train, and was pretty enjoyable. The train was running just along the western coast of Italy and the beautiful beaches were often coming on the left side of our train. Pisa is a very small town with river Arno passing through it. Apart from the leaning tower there was nothing much to see there and hence we finished everything within 1-2 hours and then went to Florence. It took around 1 and a half hour to reach Florence. Florence was really amazing. The architecture, the various sculptures, the crowd, music and everything there were simply incomparable. The city has tiny streets with huge buildings on both sides, we found many street singers who were as good as professional ones. The river Arno added another charm to it. We had to come to another station at night to catch the train back to Trieste. We had lots of problems in finding out the station called Carpe di Mar (I guess). We got lost at many places as we did not have a map of the city. Finally a German lady helped us a lot. And we could manage to find the station. We had to wait there for couple of hours as our train was at 1:45 am. The train was again crowded and I could not sleep much which forced me to bunk the lectures on Monday (except the first one) :(
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