And here it is... Civita!
In order to get to Civita from Rome you have to take a train to one city and a bus to the city next door to Civita called Bagnoregio. Then you walk about 20 minutes to get through Bagnoregio and to the foot of the bridge to Civita (if you have a car you can drive to a parking lot next to the foot of the bridge). Then you walk about 10-15 minutes across the bridge that gets a lot steeper as you approach the city. Make sure you are in shape before you visit!
Being in Civita is like stepping back in time. The town has existed since the 12th century and over time the buildings that have been built here have eroded away with the land. Today there are only 14 residents, but it still survives!
The road that we walked on used be part of a road that connected Civita to the Tiber Valley and Rome.
Here is a view of the gorgeous valley that surrounds the town. In our Rick Steve's travel guide (which I highly recommend) he suggested that this valley is Italy's "grand canyon." It is truly breath-taking to see this beautiful valley surrounding the city.
Autumn was in the air and the leaves all around were showing their wonderful fall colors.
This is the door that leads to thin air. The rest of the building eroded away years ago with the land beneath it. We read that Civita at one time had five palaces. This one, as with several of the others, eventually disappeared.
This is what I think of when I picture Old World Italy! Here I am walking back to the bus in Bagnoregio. I loved the streets here.And now the real adventure...
Upon leaving Civita we embarked upon a very memorable experience! The trouble (little did we know) had started that morning, but we didn't realize it until our bus ride back. When we got to the bus station that morning we had a little bit of a problem communicating with the man in the ticket booth. He didn't speak English, and we didn't speak Italian! With some difficulty we communicated through gestures and broken Italian that we wanted to go to Bagnoregio. We thought he asked us whether we wanted return tickets for the same day and we said yes. (Apparently that wasn't what he said!) So we paid for our tickets (2 for each us for the two buses there and we thought for the two buses back), asked where the bus was, and got on.
Well the trip to Bagnoregio was uneventful, and we really enjoyed our walk to and through Civita. We even made extra sure we were back at the bus stop on time. We were careful to get on the right bus and stamped our ticket in the machine (although we didn't know it at the time we were fortunate that our ticket had not been stamped on the second bus to Bagnoregio because the machine had been broken). Surprisingly to us halfway through the trip we were told to get on another bus. (Apparently on the way back, there is a transfer.) As we got on the second bus we thought that the ticket we had stamped on the first return bus must still be valid so we stamped it on the second bus (2 stamps on one ticket).
Then the trouble started... at the next stop two Italian Bus Inspectors got on. At first we didn't think anything about it, but when one of the inspectors looked at our ticket with disapproval because it had been stamped twice (it would have been three times if the stamp machine had worked on our trip to Bagnoregio) we began to get nervous. We explained that when we bought the tickets we didn't know the return trip took an extra bus ride. The first inspector then went and got the second inspector, and they both stood over us eyeing our invalid tickets. Once again we explained that it was a mistake. We told him that we don't speak Italian and the man at the ticket booth didn't speak English so we misunderstood what he said. At this point we were told to wait right there in our seats and they walked away. Immediately , Robby turned to me and said, "Stay calm and say a prayer!"
Right here I must stop our adventure and explain why we were so worried. Before we had left for our trip I had read one woman's experience in Rome. She and her two boys (ages 11 and 7) had arrived in Rome several months back and were unfamiliar with the bus system. Most of the time you buy bus passes from magazine or tobacco stands, and occasionally you can buy them from the bus driver. Well she offered money to the bus driver and asked to buy a pass, but instead of giving her one he waved her to the back of the bus. She figured she could pay when she got off. Like us, at the next stop the bus inspectors got on, and when they discovered she and her boys had no passes they proceeded to fine her 250 euros! She tried to explain that it was a misunderstanding and offered to pay the fare, but they wouldn't leave her alone until she paid the full fine! She then said that bus inspectors in Rome can be very unforgiving sometimes. So now you understand our concern!
Back to our story... we waited patiently until we arrived at the bus station, and since the bus inspectors did not pull us aside (they were busy arguing with two other passengers who were Italian) we walked off toward the station (to buy a proper fare for the rest of the trip). As we were leaving the inspectors approached us, but fortunately the head inspector simply explained more clearly how the tickets worked and showed us to our new bus. Thankfully he had mercy on us! We were only dumb American tourists, you know!
We were so glad to pull away in the second bus and we figured our adventures were over! Or so we thought! About 10 minutes into the next bus ride our bus broke down and they made the whole load of people get off!
Upon leaving Civita we embarked upon a very memorable experience! The trouble (little did we know) had started that morning, but we didn't realize it until our bus ride back. When we got to the bus station that morning we had a little bit of a problem communicating with the man in the ticket booth. He didn't speak English, and we didn't speak Italian! With some difficulty we communicated through gestures and broken Italian that we wanted to go to Bagnoregio. We thought he asked us whether we wanted return tickets for the same day and we said yes. (Apparently that wasn't what he said!) So we paid for our tickets (2 for each us for the two buses there and we thought for the two buses back), asked where the bus was, and got on.
Well the trip to Bagnoregio was uneventful, and we really enjoyed our walk to and through Civita. We even made extra sure we were back at the bus stop on time. We were careful to get on the right bus and stamped our ticket in the machine (although we didn't know it at the time we were fortunate that our ticket had not been stamped on the second bus to Bagnoregio because the machine had been broken). Surprisingly to us halfway through the trip we were told to get on another bus. (Apparently on the way back, there is a transfer.) As we got on the second bus we thought that the ticket we had stamped on the first return bus must still be valid so we stamped it on the second bus (2 stamps on one ticket).
Then the trouble started... at the next stop two Italian Bus Inspectors got on. At first we didn't think anything about it, but when one of the inspectors looked at our ticket with disapproval because it had been stamped twice (it would have been three times if the stamp machine had worked on our trip to Bagnoregio) we began to get nervous. We explained that when we bought the tickets we didn't know the return trip took an extra bus ride. The first inspector then went and got the second inspector, and they both stood over us eyeing our invalid tickets. Once again we explained that it was a mistake. We told him that we don't speak Italian and the man at the ticket booth didn't speak English so we misunderstood what he said. At this point we were told to wait right there in our seats and they walked away. Immediately , Robby turned to me and said, "Stay calm and say a prayer!"
Right here I must stop our adventure and explain why we were so worried. Before we had left for our trip I had read one woman's experience in Rome. She and her two boys (ages 11 and 7) had arrived in Rome several months back and were unfamiliar with the bus system. Most of the time you buy bus passes from magazine or tobacco stands, and occasionally you can buy them from the bus driver. Well she offered money to the bus driver and asked to buy a pass, but instead of giving her one he waved her to the back of the bus. She figured she could pay when she got off. Like us, at the next stop the bus inspectors got on, and when they discovered she and her boys had no passes they proceeded to fine her 250 euros! She tried to explain that it was a misunderstanding and offered to pay the fare, but they wouldn't leave her alone until she paid the full fine! She then said that bus inspectors in Rome can be very unforgiving sometimes. So now you understand our concern!
Back to our story... we waited patiently until we arrived at the bus station, and since the bus inspectors did not pull us aside (they were busy arguing with two other passengers who were Italian) we walked off toward the station (to buy a proper fare for the rest of the trip). As we were leaving the inspectors approached us, but fortunately the head inspector simply explained more clearly how the tickets worked and showed us to our new bus. Thankfully he had mercy on us! We were only dumb American tourists, you know!
We were so glad to pull away in the second bus and we figured our adventures were over! Or so we thought! About 10 minutes into the next bus ride our bus broke down and they made the whole load of people get off!
Although it is hard to see, this picture shows a crowd of people standing next to our broken-down bus! We were glad though because it only took them about 10-12 minutes to send another bus for us. I must say we were so glad to get back to our room in Rome that night!
When we arrived at the room that night we found another reason that we had to count our blessings for being back safe and sound. In looking through our travel guides Robby found a warning about the bus inspectors. It reconfirmed the fact that many of them have no pity for uninformed tourists, and if you are caught with an invalid bus pass or without one completely they will fine you at least 70 euros a piece. If you do not have the cash on hand the inspectors are known to march you to an ATM machine where you are expected to with draw the amount. Well, we didn't have that much cash on us and we didn't bring our ATM cards! We had American travelers checks which we didn't know whether they would accept. It went on to say that if you could not get the money then they were known to throw you in jail for at least 24 hours! Yikes! At that point we were even more grateful that our inspectors had been understanding! (Especially since we had flights to Vienna scheduled for the next day!)
6 comments:
Wow, that's a good story. I ran into Aunt Carol the other day. I told her you had made it home but there was an arrest story I hadn't heard yet. She said, "They were probably late for something."
I love Rick Steves, too!
Everyone- If you plan a trip to Europe I highly recommend checking out Rick Steve's guides! They are great like Tommy says! Pretty much everywhere we went our Rick Steve's guide provided us very insightful information that made our visit even more interesting and exciting.
Sum - What did Aunt Carol mean by that? Has our perpetual tardiness become a subject of family lore? ;) Okay, I will admit that we have a punctuality problem! We are trying to work on it!
I can totally see why you liked Civita. I still want to blink myself there.
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