Ciampino wishes, not caviar dreams
Trip Start
Apr 08, 2011
1
12
17
Trip End
Apr 17, 2011
Ciampino, Lazio, Italy
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The route across the Appenines was less intriguing by night, and I found myself drifting a few times thinking about the day's activities. I had taken the wheel from Mark back in Pescara after he admitted exhaustion, and by the time we reached back to the Capital City I was ready to call it a night as well. Unfortunately, our change in plans wasn't as easily reconciled as one would think.
For those from the King County area, imagine Ciampino Airport is being like Sea-Tac, with E-80 as the equivalent of I-405 and A-24 being like I-90 to the eastside. At the intersection of E-80 and A-24 (i.e. Rome's equivalent of Bellevue) we came across a Novotel Hotel that I had seen on the way out. We finally negotiated our way to the check-in counter (no easy task), only to find two things: 1) The place was filled up with Burger King executives (that's right...BURGER KING) and even if it wasn't rooms were Euro 125 per night. PER PERSON. For those of you scoring at home that would be about $400 a night PER COUPLE. The girls walked out with jaws slack and we decided to head back toward Ciampino. Only, in order to keep my streak intact, we got lost trying to get back to the freeway. And as we wound our way through the streets of La Rustica trying to get our way back to E80 southbound, we encountered it...the inevitable (and obvious) site of the young ladies of Rome plying the world's oldest profession along the roadside. I forgot to tell my group that in Italy it is omnipresent, blatant, and evident. It's a good thing I was driving, as they were stunned at the spectacle. Having had to explain to my then 14-year-old two years earlier why we couldn't pick up the girl needing a ride in Rome when we had helped two girls in Ireland a few days earlier steeled me for this encounter on our way to the night's shelter.
We finally made our way back to the main highway and figured to find lodging near the airport so that we could get some sleep and turn our rental in at the last moment. Our next big surprise was that unlike most American airport towns, Ciampino didn't seem to see a big need for having much in the way of lodging. We found a decent looking place fairly near the airport, but when we inquired about a room we were met with an odd glance and were informed that there were no rooms. I am not sure what we did, but I am betting to this day both that there were rooms and that we inadvertently messed up our chance at some.
We crossed under a strange overpass between the airport and the town of Ciampino, and ended up and a very rough looking area. The concern was palpable as we only wanted to find some place to stay for the night. We finally found a narrow road with a sign for a hotel protuding haphazardly from it, and decided to follow it. When we reached the end we laughed at the fact that we had come all the way back to a hotel we had seen from the highway and dismissed as being too far away. In spite of its strange surroundings, the inside was very inviting, and Mark and I agreed that the rate was worth it. We had to arm wrestle a bit over our passports (they wanted to keep them overnight, we insisted on not letting them out of our sight...we won) but finally got into bed about 1 AM. Our long, crazy day had come to an end (a couple of phone calls from home notwithstanding, of course). Tomorrow we would turn in our rental, and that would be the end of self-directed transport.
