Since we arrived in Rome six days ago Sam has harassed us constantly for a trip on a double-decker bus. He fell in love with them in London then spotted a number of hop-on/hop-off, open-top tour buses on our first day in the Italian capital. There are approximately 11 such operators in the city and after an evening of extensive internet research we chose the company with the stops to suit our purposes.
Armed with a video camera, snacks and a very excited four-year-old we rolled up to Piazza Navona (stop #5 on the route) and were perplexed when three buses failed to stop. Unsure of how to proceed we chased the next bus along Corso Vittorio Emanuele for about 2kms and finally discovered a bus stop near Piazza Venezia (stop #4).
We were happy when a large sign on the bus read, ‘PURCHASE TICKETS ON BOARD’, but our high spirits were soon dampened by an extremely glamorous but stern conductor who refused to give change. What followed was an awkward stand-off as the sexy conductor refused to give Chris ten Euros in change and my principled husband simply stood his ground and said , “Well, we could just get off and give you nothing.”
Fearing this face-off would result in a screaming child, I frantically rummaged through my wallet and found the appropriate money. All was well … we thought.
We hoped our 24-hour tickets would enable us to travel pramless to sites that were a little further afield, such as the zoo at the Villa Borghese Gardens (stop #12). But once we read the map that the angry conductor had supplied we discovered half the stops on the route had been wiped. The bus went past them but didn’t let passengers on or off. The 24-hour nature of our tickets was now useless as most of the remaining stops were within walking distance of our apartment. We completed the round trip back to Piazza Venezia without hopping off.
While Chris and I were disappointed with the experience, Sam’s hunger for a double-decker adventure had been satisfied and, having thrown our 24-hour tickets in the bin we instead did the long walk with pram to the zoo and back via the Spanish Steps today – with plentiful stops for coffee, gelato and pizza.
Cat nap
Jungle Jim
Damn those Spaniards for all of those steps…
A cafe a few doors from our apartment
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