My group is growing ever so lazy, and wanted to sleep in this morning. I decided to leave them, and walk around downtown Rome myself. Since I'm the one keeping up with the budget, and have all of our travelers checks and available cash, I left them with $300 Euros to figure out the day for themselves.
After a meager breakfast at the hotel, I walked along the streets near the hotel. With a modest map from the hotel lobby, and no idea of how to speak Italian, I tried to keep up with my location by charting my progress on the map, so that I didn't get too lost.
I passed a bookstore on the street, and browsed through their selection, looking for anything in English. They had a whole section with American books, but I didn't find anything too interesting. I did happen across a book that was in Italian, but had a lot of interesting pictures of Italian landmarks and some (what I believed to be) descriptions and histories of the sites. Thinking this might be a good idea to pick out something interesting to visit, I purchased the book. Cost 15 euros.
I then headed to a local park, the Parco di Traiano. Surrounded by awesome stone buildings, I found a nice bench under a tree to browse my new book while watching the locals. I saw a couple of gorgeous girls walking together, and I thought I'd try a smooth approach to strike up a conversation with them, and have them direct me toward fun activities.
Unfortunately, these girls wanted nothing to do with me, and the language barrier sealed my fate. I packed up my bookbag, and headed to find somewhere to eat.
I stopped at La Gallina Bianca for lunch. A quaint pizzaria, I had the most amazing salad and bruchetta of my life. It was nice to sit outdoors and watch the other tourists and locals walking by while I ate. Cost was 11 euros.
I headed back toward the bookstore, with the idea of finding an Italian to English dictionary. I figured that it would be my only chance at conversing with the locals. Cost of the book 20 euros.
I headed back to the hotel to see if I could rouse up my travel buddies for another outing as a group. When I got back to the hotel, they weren't in the room, and didn't leave a note as to where they went. I decided to hang out at the hotel and work out some Italian phrases so I could understand what was going on around me.
by: Ben
Funds spent today: 46 Euros (rest of group has 300 euros)
Remaining Budget: $85208.28
Cash in Euros: 228.90
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