I spoke too soon!

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After the most boring ferry ride ever we made our way to the train station in Ancona, which happened to be about a 2km walk . . . keep in mind we have all of our stuff and I swear my pack is 10lbs. heavier now than it was when I started! We get there and walk right up to the ticket counter and tell the man behind the counter we want to go to Sorrento. He never asks for clarification just repeasts back to us something along the lines of Sorrento with an Italian accent, I say again, "Sorrento" and he nods his head before beginning to type stuff in his comuputer. He prints off a schedule of that says we take a train to Bologna, then from there we taka another train to Trento. I'm thinking, Okay, Trento means Sorrento, I guess. I ask to make sure and he nods his head again (btw we're basically talking between a pane of class with a little mail slot at the bottom . . . isn't this asking for miscommunication?) So we buy the tickets and make our way to teh ploatform to wait. Trento seems kind of strange, but I don't think much of it; I figure the guy know what he's talking about and besides I'm hungry! The sooner we get to the platform the sooner I can break into the tuna, yum!

I eat my lunch of tuna sandwich, diet coke, and cookies with nutella (new fav. food!) and decide I should use the bathroom before we board the train. Before I leave I get out the Italy guide book because Jen wants to look something up. I use the bathroom, almost trip over some "raised" tile on my way back, and then am greeted by Jen with, "We have the wrong train tickets." Not too worried yet, I say, "Really? What do you mean?" She proceeds to show me in the back of the book on a map of Italy where we are now, where Bologna is and then were Trento is. It's further North than Venice and in the opposite direction (by about 6 hours) of Sorrento or even Rome! I'm thinking, "Ooo, that's not good. Hopefully we can change our tickets." Neither one of us freaks out too, much, probably because we're so travel savy now nothing really phases us (haha), so we gather our stuff and catch the same ticket man just as he's about to go on break.

I explain, we don't want to go to Trento we want to go to SORRENTO, as in South of Naples. He nods his head in understanding and his face shows a little more understanding as well. He tells us it will cost us quite a bit more to get there, but then prints off the schedule for us anyways. Then he tells us it will be 66 euros each and that doesn't even include the bus from Naples to Sorrento! Jen and I look at each other with a look of horror and in unison say, "Rome?" We quickly decide that we'll just go to Rome and stay there a couple extra nights and just do a day trip to the Amalfi Coast.

Alright, so now we have the right tickets, no problem right? Wrong. We now need to cancel our reservations in Sorrento and call to make sure the campground in Rome has room for us. Using the phone has proven to be harder than it looks and extremely frustrating at times, so it absolutely thrills me that we need to do this and do so quickly. We find the phone and after several attempts, figure out how to use the phone--it helps to read ALL the directions and indicate the language you want to read. 😊 I talk to the reception in Rome and they aren't sure if they'll have the exact accomodations we booked since we're coming early and she talks about bungalows, etc. I'm thinking, "Jeez lady it's not like we're made of money we want to know if there's a tent available." So I ask her about the tents and she practically laughs at me as she explains that there are always tents available and we don't even need to call ahead we can just show up. Yay, one problem solved!

Being the genius that I am, I also ask the receptionist for the number of the campground in Sorrento, which I then proceed to dial. I have just explained to the reception that I want to cancel our reservation for tonight and that the name it's under is Kool, K-O-O-L. Two seconds later the phone dies and spits out the 20 cents Jen has just put in and the screen says, "Phone temporarily out of service." What!?!?! How can it just run out of service in the middle of a call! Ugh! Next phone, second attempt, get through to reception again, explain again that I want to cancel a reservation, and spell out the name again. Then the guys says, "okay" and I say back, "okay" waiting for something else . . . nothing. So I say, "that's it? It's canceled?" He says, "yes. good-bye!" Alrighty then . . . good enough, I guess. We finish at the phones and head to platform three to wait for the train.

So we're sitting there waiting for the train, talking about where we're going, etc. and some guy in a Trenitalia uniform comes up and asks us something in Italian. We look at each other and then at him with the "sorry-I-don't-speak-Italian" look and smile. He repeats in English, "Are you trying to get to Rome?" We're like, "of course we are, why else would we be waiting at platform 3!?" Well he proceeds to tell us that the train to Rome, which leaves in 20 minutes is at platform 3 West, over there and points past the ticket building. Thank God he came along!! We would have missed the train and would've had to change tickets for the 2nd time! The would have been embarassing!

I guess when I said, "Oh yea! We totally have this transportation/navigation thing down!" to Jen on the way into the train station . . . I spoke too soon! Funny how that works, huh!? 😊

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