When travel doesn’t work out the way you wanted it to

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I travel back to the UK to visit my family as often as I can, and when I do I like to add on a small trip to somewhere else in Europe. I miss being able to just jump on a plane, fly for an hour and be in a whole different country that’s very different from where I am at. And in most cases one that uses a different language.

Now I live in Canada. It takes longer to fly across the country than it does to get to almost all places in Europe from the UK. Also, even if I want to go international, the only place I can go without a long flight is the USA. While I love traveling to the US (it has some amazing places), it’s really not as exotic as saying “I’m going to Paris for the weekend, I’ll bring you back a croissant”.

The perfect getaway…maybe

So when I was visiting my parents, I decided to add on a little family vacation to Rome. I’d always wanted to go ever since I watched Roman Holiday. Audrey Hepburn always makes everything look so glamorous doesn’t she? Naturally I thought I might be whisked away on a Vespa for the holiday of a lifetime seeing all the sights the Eternal City has to offer. The universe had different plans. Much different. And Gregory Peck was nowhere in sight.

While you can plan and plan and plan, there are some things that are just out of your control. This was going to be an unforgettable vacation to Rome for sure, but not in the way I hoped. Now Rome is not all bad, nor somewhere that you shouldn’t visit (it’s a beautiful city with some of the most amazing places to see). But this post is more about how you won’t always have the perfect trip, but at some point you may end up with a funny travel story.

Planning our Roman Holiday

I’m a planner. I like to book my hotels in advance, have good access to a map and guide book and know exactly how to get to and from the airport. But still, there are things you can’t plan for. I checked out hotels online, and found that Rome is pretty expensive. I guess tourist hot spots know how to charge. We found a lovely looking hotel/apartment near the Vatican City.

Everything looked walk-able, the amenities seemed good enough, and it was within our price range. We had noted the train to take from the airport, and had our maps ready for getting to our hotel. I can tell you’re all cringing, wondering if I’m the kind of person who wears a money belt or socks with sandals. I am well traveled, but I also get anxious when things don’t go to plan. This vacation was going to end up a rough ride for me.

Getting to Rome

Traveling with my parents I often feel like I have to plan more. I don’t get to see them often with living on the other side of the world. So I want to make sure we get to see everything. Most importantly, I want them to have a wonderful vacation without any worries. While not knowing any Italian, I had faith that a trip to Rome would be simple enough. It’s got to be kind of tourist central right? Plenty of great food, the most famous sights that you’ve only dreamed about seeing in real life. It’s going to be perfect.

We flew from Manchester to Rome, only a couple hour flight. It was later in the evening when we arrived. Later than I had wanted to get there, but at least the flights were reasonably priced. Arriving at about 7:30pm we worked our way through customs and with a couple of suitcases between us, we set off to figure out the train. We managed to get a train ticket pretty easily and it seemed like a simple connection in the middle to get to our area of Rome. I fought with my Dad over who would pay for the tickets. I won, purchased them and off we went.

Beware of pickpockets in Rome

Changing trains is not an easy task with luggage. The metro station is similar in places to the London Underground, a lot of the older stations with all stairs and no escalator. We ended up almost flinging ourselves headfirst down the stairs trying to juggle suitcases.

As we ran for the train there were a couple of kids behind us, about 14 years old. They overtook us and got onto the train. We ran in as they held the door for us. They then turned around and walked off the train back onto the platform. As the train doors closed my Dad said “they’ve just taken my wallet” as we turned to see them standing on the platform waving the wallet at us. I really wish I’d let my Dad pay for the train tickets now. At least they would have about 40 Euro less of our money.

In hindsight it was kind of obvious we didn’t know where we were going and kind of looked like easy targets. Hands full, a little lost. But really, how can you not look like that in a new place if you have bags. Our trip was not off to a great start.

Getting to our hotel in Rome

The train doors had closed, we were off to the next stop whether we wanted to or not. At the next stop we got back on the train and returned to where we were robbed. I knew it was no use but we wanted to at least try and see if we could find the wallet. We checked the bins in case they’d thrown it away after taking the money, but eventually had to give up and get back on the train.

Related post: Taking local transport while traveling – the good, bad and crazy

My Dad had never been pick-pocketed before and after going through a whole range of emotions we landed on anger. Angry that it happened and that we couldn’t stop it. Mostly that maybe there was something we could have done to not have let it happen. We were going to have to make calls to cancel cards and file a report so it was good we were almost at the hotel.

We’re here…now we wait

Following the instructions to the hotel, we dragged our suitcases and our exhausted, angry, upset selves through the streets of Rome. What should have been a moment filled with “ooh look at that”, “I can’t believe we’re here” was in fact us getting frustrated at every pothole in the pavement as we nearly dropped our bags, and every motorbike that cut us off. But we finally arrived at the hotel. That’s when we found out it wasn’t a hotel. It was a nondescript door with a buzzer that invited us to ring for attention. No answer. 5 minutes went by, no answer to every buzz.

I hunted out the print out of our confirmation. There was a number on it (now who’s over-prepared?!). I called and tried to explain we were here. By this time it was 9:30pm. Nowhere did it say there was any kind of issue with after hours check in. Plus we didn’t expect to be robbed. They said they would be there in 15 minutes. 30 minutes later, someone arrived.

Home sweet home, our accommodation in Rome

After waiting outside on the street, we were finally in the “hotel”. The attendant was not best pleased that we arrived later in the day. We tried to explain what happened to little concern. Unfortunately we were just an annoyance that made them leave home late in the evening. We checked in and were shown to our family suite. The room was a double bed and single fold out bed that was too short for even my 5”6″ frame. It had all the stability of a paper house in a rain storm.

But it was late, we were tired, and we had calls to make. We’d figure it out in the morning. After cancelling our cards we were advised to file a police report, so spent the rest of the evening figuring out where the nearest police station was, then we went to sleep. Everything would be better in the morning.

At least the police are friendly

Waking up in Rome is the stuff of dreams. Or it should be if your first tourist stop isn’t the local police station. We left our “hotel” and walked down the street. We passed the walls of the Vatican, heavily guarded at each doorway. Walking further we came to St. Peter’s Basilica and continued through the city to the police station.

We were there about an hour, explaining what had happened. The police officer who helped us file the report was very nice, and tried his best to make us feel comfortable and reassure us that his city was worth the visit. His English was good enough to help us understand what we needed to do next. He did tell us that this is an issue Rome has had for a while now, with kids as pickpockets, and that we should be careful while we’re there.

Everything to see and do in Rome

With our pick-pocketing ordeal done with, there was nothing left to do but shrug it off and enjoy the vacation. Our hotel wasn’t ideal, but we were in a beautiful city and wanted to make the most of it.

The next couple of days we visited everything Rome had to offer. We spent the first day around the Vatican, inside the museum and saw the spectacular, if not overly crowded, Sistine Chapel. We finished our day with a delicious meal. The food in Rome was fantastic. I made sure I had all the pizza, pasta and risotto I could. All the desserts and pastries, the gelato and everything else I could get my hands on. On my last night I couldn’t decide between two things on the menu so got both. Hey, it’s vacation!

We spent time at the Roman Forum and the Colisseum, taking in all the history of the city of Rome. We walked around the streets, marveling at all the European architecture, the beautiful piazzas and the churches. I got to throw my coin in the Trevi fountain (after battling the hordes of people all trying to do the same thing). And I had my Audrey Hepburn moment on the Spanish Steps.

More accommodation problems

On day two we got back to our accommodation and the staff knocked on our door. They explained that they were going to have to move us as they had double booked us and we were in a room that was not meant for us. We asked if they could just move the people who hadn’t checked in yet and were told that they were a bigger family so we had to move. They told us to be out of our room by noon the next day and we could move to our new room in the afternoon. I calmly advised them we would not be spending one of our few days in Rome hanging around the hotel for them to move us.

So after some negotiating they agreed that they would move our things to the new room if we packed up before we left in the morning. After already being robbed once I wasn’t too thrilled at letting someone else handle all our things in our absence but it beat waiting all day. When we came back in the evening our new room was definitely smaller. I could touch the next bed with an outstretched arm and we had to sit on it before someone could open the door due to lack of floor space. But it was only going to be for one night and it was too much effort to argue more about it.

Grab your life jackets!

Our final night in Rome my Mum awoke at 2am and went to the bathroom across the hall only to be met with a flood in the bathroom. Yep, shared bathrooms, another check mark against this place. The toilet appeared to be overflowing and the water was not so slowly making its way into the hallway. Our room was one of the furthest away but after a while it became obvious we would get hit sooner than later. We called the staff (who, if you remember are not on site) and let them know. They shouted at us for calling in the middle of the night and told us to go to sleep.

We called again and they shouted again no matter how much we told them their apartment was flooding. We tried to wake the people in the room closest to the bathroom. They answered the door, looked at the water and went back to bed. I have never found people less concerned about the fact they might all have to swim out of bed. Eventually with no-one doing anything we gathered our things and got ready to leave. It was by this time 4am and our flight was at 10am. As we left the accommodation the staff showed up and we just checked out and sat in McDonald’s (the only place open) for a couple hours until we left for the airport.

Would I return to Rome?

The trip had its ups and downs. We were off to a bad start which didn’t help set the mood for the trip. Then the accommodation issues. I will say that I have become better at checking where I will be staying, and reading reviews but this place made all kinds of promises it didn’t deliver. They are now permanently closed with some colorful reviews online (mine is probably in there somewhere). I felt like around some of the tourist sites there were lots of scammers, like I’ve come across in other places too. In one case a Roman gladiator tried to get us to have our photo with him. We said no and he grabbed my arm and started to pull me back. All so that they would then charge us for taking a photo.

But all that aside, Rome was a lovely city with so much to see. I am glad I went, and honestly I kind of laugh about the comedy of errors-style vacation now. I would definitely go again, but would be a little more self aware on the metro and around the busy areas. The food was amazing, the people we met in restaurants and shops were lovely and I was in awe of the history of the city. Don’t let my post detract from the wonderful city of Rome, but use it more for tips of things to pay attention to when traveling in general.

If you’ve enjoyed this post please leave a comment or share using the social media buttons below. Have you ever had a trip where everything kept going wrong? Where did you stay in Rome that you found really nice?