I figured it was time to explore outside of Rome...things didn't necessarily go as planned.
This past Friday, two of my roommates and myself decided to take a weekend trip to Naples. Great idea, right? Mostly right. We took a scenic 3 hour train ride to the city south of Rome early in the morning with no plans regarding what we were going to do when we got there. This stressed me out but I thought I would try and live in the moment.
After arriving, we realized our hostel was about a 40 minute walk from the train station. I like walking in new cities so I thought this was a good time to get the lay of the land while saving money. Plus, what's the rush?
This was a horrible idea.
Turns out, the terrain in Naples involves more hills, stairs, and confusing alleyways. Eventually, we made it to our hostel after about an hour of following google maps and hauling all our weekend gear around the city. I remained optimistic that this trip was going to turn around.
We wandered around the shopping district, caught some great city views, and grabbed delicious pizza. Everything was a dream.
Then, I started to feel like I was coming down with something. I decided I was going to need a train back to Rome that same evening and my roommates were nice enough to come with me. We lied to the hostel saying I had food poisoning so we could get a full refund. By 8: 45pm we were back on a 3 hour train to Rome. This is the same time my body decided it was a good time to get the stomach flu.
So, my experience traveling back from Naples was less than Instagramable. I spent most of this train ride between two cars, sitting on the stairs, hunched over shopping bags. Not a beautiful picture to paint but it's the reality.
Three hours on the train and one cab ride later, I finally was back in Rome. Happy to be alive to tell the tale and glad I was traveling with people who were understanding of my situation.
Hopefully I will get back to Naples and get to Pompeii as well and this time remain healthy.
