Leaving Lecce … Hello Rome

Piazza Duomo in Lecce at 5 am

I don’t know what is harder, travelling alone and not meeting people or meeting great people and having to leave them likely not to see them again.  That I find tough.  It’s that ol’ adage I have used before “Parting is such sweet sorrow”.  Although I am forever impacted by their acquaintance.  Once again I had a great couch surf.  The two guys were great.  Polite, considerate, total gentlemen.  They felt like old friends by the time I had to leave which was a god-awful hour of 5 am.  One of them, with his newly arrived friend from Germany, stayed up with me until I had to leave which was very good of them.  I don’t know why I booked such an early train other than I got a good deal.  But since we were all up until about 2 am it made no sense for me to go to bed for 2 hours.  But I can tell you, I am just too old to stay up all night.  I can’t do it like I used to in University.

Yup - I know it is dark but that is as good as it is going to get. Not everyone wants their picture on the net - not like the goof who is front and centre - d'uh - ME

Anyway, I managed to fall asleep for at least a couple of hours on the train to Rome.  But I felt sad leaving.  I had come to feel so much like a part of the life in Lecce in my three short days thanks to these guys being such great guys.  Who knows if we will ever meet again.  Thus the nature of couch surfing.  And of course it takes effort on all parties to stay in touch.  However, now I am in Rome.

Some of the funky dudes in the baroque details in Lecce

One thing I have found so far in Italy, and given that it is summer, not only do they normally siesta every afternoon from 1 or 1:30 for at least 2 hours, I notice here that after 1:30 pm everything is pretty much shut down until dinner.  I mean it is pretty hot but it was hot in Africa and Malaysia and things never shut down.  But here anytime after about 2 pm, it is like everyone is asleep and you can’t find many things or places open for the rest of the day and most restaurants not until dinner.

My cute little room at the meticulous B&B in Rome

If you are prepared, this is not a problem.  But yesterday when I arrived and I had not had much sleep at all for the past three nights and basically none from the night before, I just wanted to get something to eat and go to bed.  Well I wandered around and around until I finally found enough food stuffs and some liquid to get me by by about 6 pm.

Floating bods - my couch hosts letting water do its thing on the seaside east of Lecce

But talk about going from the sublime to the ridiculous.  In Lecce I am with constant companionship and in Rome I am by myself again in this big big city.  The B&B I am at is excellent.  Not central but that is better.  It is near the train station I need to get to Pescara next.  It is so clean and comfortable but I am alone again.  Which is o.k. but it is funny how when travelling it can be this way.  Anyway, today I shall go out to check out Rome since the last time I was here was 25 years ago.  Can you believe it?  Wow, time flies.  But it is a hot sunny day so I had better get out there before everything shuts down.

Later alligator!

The beautiful seaside near Lecce