Triphap - Funny Travel Stories and Travel Horror Stories

There are always funny, ironic things that happen when you are traveling. You really can’t escape it. However, when something a little bigger happens in the scheme of things, you may laugh a little tentatively while you and your travel partner suck in your collective breaths.

Kevin, my husband, and I were in Rome. We were actually on a cruise that landed in Civitavecchia and we drove in from the coast. It was the first cruise that we had been on and not our preferred method of travel, but that is another story. Nonetheless, we were going to Rome for the day, which is never enough in that fabulous city and we were eager to get there.

As we drove closer to the city, we decided on a whim that it would be best to park somewhere near Vatican City and hoof it from there. As soon as we made that decision, the sky started to cloud over. We thought nothing of it, but hoped that the rain would hold off throughout our day in the Eternal City.

We found a place to park and started to walk towards the beautiful columns that mark the perimeter of Vatican City and St. Peters Square. The sky grumbled ominously behind us.

We climbed the few steps that would allow us passage through to the inner area of the square and then it was as if an alarm went off. As soon as our feet stepped into the open area of St. Peter's Square, a torrential downpour, the likes of which I believe may be compared to a Category 5 Hurricane opened up and sent the visitors to Vatican City running for cover.

Now, just a note of reference, neither my husband or I are what anyone would call devout and we were included in those people who were running across the slick polished marble stones that make up the ground covering in Vatican City.

Let it be known that Vatican City doesn't have a lot of covered areas. The lines were long for all of the museums since it was pouring and we decided we would have a better shot of making it if we fled to the outskirts of the Holy City and looked for a nice bar where we could get a bottle of the best vino we could find to wait it out.

With that thought in mind, we ran as fast as we could to the edges of Vatican City, trying to get across the Tiber River to get to Rome proper.

We found that we didn't need to run for that long, because as soon as we stepped across the border that marks Rome from Vatican City, the rain stopped, and when I say it stopped, it stopped. In a flash, in a heartbeat! The skies shifted from black to blue and you could almost immediately hear birds singing. Eeek!

Kevin and I looked at each other and gave a nervous laugh. I don’t know if we will ever give the old joke about our less than spectacular attendance at church again, you know the old, "We are worried if we walk in, the walls will tumble down on us." Because when you think about it, they just might.