The Textbook Journey

Today was pretty low key as well, other than the three hour adventure that Monica and I went on to try and buy textbooks. We were supposed to go to the Anglo American Bookstore by the Spanish Steps and directions there seemed simple enough…then soon enough I remembered that I was in Rome. We walked from the school to a bus stop across the river and looked for the bus that was supposed to take us right next to the bookstore. We didn’t see the bus stop at first because it was on a somewhat narrow stone street. When we finally realized where it was we went back and waited for the next bus. About two minutes later we saw the bus turn the corner and head towards us…and then go right past us without stopping. We started running after it and luckily an older gentleman on the bus saw us and told the bus driver to stop. We hopped on. This was a pretty small bus, and the directions told us to stay on for seven stops and get off at the eighth. Fifteen minutes later at what we thought was the eighth stop we got off and looked at the map and (we should have known) the bus driver skipped a couple of stops. It was about this time that it started raining too. So we tried to make sense of where we were and I (using my flawless sense of direction) started walking the exact opposite direction of where we were supposed to go. We ended up walking through this long tunnel and when we got to the other end of the tunnel Monica grabbed the map from me and took me back the other direction. So we kept on walking and eventually found where we needed to go. All in all, the trip should only have been about one hour and it ended up taking three. Oh, and they only had two of the four books that I needed, so I have to head back sometime next week.

This is the tunnel that I led us down going the wrong way (really I just wanted to get us out of the rain, but Monica didn't buy that).

This is Monica taking us back through the tunnel...the right direction.

Also, earlier today we bought train tickets and booked a hostel in Florence for the weekend. We got round-trip train tickets for 28 euro and the hostel is only 19 euro a night (we are hoping it will be nice). Monica, 5 of her roommates and I are all making the trip.