hellbent hikers homers home

Coming into Roma at night is spectacular! We trained through towns like Casserta,Fogia and Cassino and now in front of us is an awesome light show illuminating the Roman skies. I must admit travelling by train is a little exhausting but we seem to be holding it together. After all we are well seasoned travellers?????????? WE broke down today and had a Big Mac.  It was just so convenient and we were so hungry.  We vowed in blood not to have American fast food in Italy. I'm gunna hate myself in the morning! Anyhoo, I don,t even know the date today. Tomorrow I,ll figure it out.  Once we get into the station we still have to take the subway to Octavian and then the bus to camping Roma  So far so good.  We feel a little lost without our own vehicle. You,re dependant on public transportation, waiting and waiting then a little more waiting is what it,s  all about.  Met a few guys from New Zealand going to Naples and Bologna just doin the sights like we are............................Well I guess this was our first real challenge....the train was 20 minutes late so we found ourselves at Termini Statione at 11 pm which means all subways are closed.  We asked around but nobody knew which bus to take so, dodging all of the cabbies yelling Taxi ! Taxi! ,Angie walks over to the first bus we see , in a lot of about 20 , and says to the driver  "Vaticano?"  Si , Si ,the bus driver says so on we board with luggage in tow.. We high ten each other not believing our luck. 15 minuti later bus driver yells  Vaticano,  and points to us. " Gratzi" we say and get off at another bus stop. I ask another guy ,Vaticano? and he replies" yes just wait here for trolley train#19".Once off the trolley we find out we had  missed the last bus for the evening but just at that moment a guy pulls up in an old beatup car and says "Taxi?"High five'in once again me and Angie load the car  and off we were, headed down Via Aurelia, to our camp. Finding ouselves at some unknown street corner in Rome at 12 midnight and have an old car pull up and offer a ride.......priceless! Angie says I had a lot of nerve bargaining with the guy considering our situation.....middle of Rome at12 midnight,bags and suitcases , buses and subways stopped for the night..... what would we have done if he said "no" to our offer of 10 euro instead of the 20 he wanted . Good thing we knew the area around Via Aurelia.. we had no problem explaining to the driver where camping Roma was. Angie says the whole experience made her feel like we were one of the teams on Amazing Race! A 10 minute ride later and here we are lying on our bunk   .... what a day!