Italy, part uno

We started our Italian adventure in Latina, about 60 kilometers south of Rome. After a flight to Rome and a train to Latina, we exited the Latina train station and watched as two taxis loaded their passengers and drove away, and we set our bags down at the designated taxi area to wait for the next one.

And then we waited.

And waited.

And then the local crazy guy got bored with checking the pay phones for change and came out to talk to Ben. "Taxi number," he said, pointing at a box on the wall with numbers written on it, and then walked off.

A minute later, he returned. "Go to school? NATO school?"

"Um, yes."

"Take da boos. Take da boos!"

"I don't want to take the bus. I'm taking a taxi."

"Why no take da boos? Take da boos!"

"No thank you."

The crazy guy finally gave up and wandered off again to stare at other travelers and left us sitting there wondering where the heck all the taxis were. And then we waited some more.

Finally we seriously considered the previously mentioned "taxi number" box.

Now the box looked like it may contain a telephone, so first, Ben attempted opening it. That didn't work. So, next step, pull out the NATO map with hand local business phone numbers on it and look for the number for a cab company. Aha, one of them matched the numbers plastered on the wall of the station. Surely we could get a taxi now.

So Ben dialed the first number. The box started ringing. The box. Was ringing.

This was either really funny or really bad.

So we dialed the next number. The man who answered the phone spoke enough English to repeat, "Yes, train station" several times, but we weren't entirely convinced that he was getting the point of our phone call.

At this point, I was pretty sure we would be living at the Latina train station for the next week, or until somebody realized that Ben never showed up for his class.


Finally, FINALLY, a taxi zips around the corner and pulls up to the station. And it is, in fact, the taxi that we had seen leaving when we first arrived. Latina may or may not have only two taxis for the entire city. But we got one of them in the end and made it safely to the hotel.

The rest of the week in Latina was uneventful. Ben went to the most boring class in the history of the world, and I walked and walked and walked around Latina and found that it wasn't really a very exciting place. I may have even refered to it as the armpit of Italy, but it probably wasn't that bad. But it was pretty boring.

To be continued with our tourist extravaganza in Rome...