Today, I had the bright idea that, instead of trying to find all the little incidentals that we felt we needed to supplement our accommodations here in Rome, we should just go out to Ikea and get it over and done with. Little did I know that by the time we had finished in Ikea, we would have done enough walking to take us from Rome to Sicily!!!
It was an adventure just to get there. Thankfully, ATAC, the Roman transportation system, has a great site where you input your start and end addresses, and they will tell you which bus or metro to take, your change points, and how many stops between each. So off we went. We arrived at a massive mall on the outskirts of Rome. In the distance we could see the Ikea, but there seemed to be a fence blocking any direct access to it. We found an entrance to the mall in front of us and eventually found our way to the exit on the other side. There was Ikea right across the road, but, so was a big fence, with no apparent opening. We started walking the perimeter of the fence and found an entrance to the underground parking that indicated we could get into the store. Through the parkade we went, and finally we were at the door.
Having only ever been in an Ikea, once, many years ago, I was not aware of the order and control that is subtly placed on the customer. It's out of place in Rome where everything seems so disordered and chaotic! After some time in the building we discovered we were going against the grain. The floor was clearly marked with arrows indicating the direction of travel. So we got on track, wandering through the two floors, at a leisurely pace, collecting the items we were looking for, blissfully unaware of this subterfuge. But, we were soon to find it out!!!
Through the checkouts we went - even negotiating self checkout. Now the aforementioned trek to Sicily began. We had a cart with us, so we took an elevator to get to the level out. It was the wrong elevator!!! It deposited us in the store again, and even though there was a turnstile that we could have easily gone back through, there was no way that store personnel were going to allow that to happen. No way!!! This is where I clued in to the labyrinth that had been created in the store. When I say labyrinth, I mean labyrinth. There was no way to go from area to another without following the designated path. Trying to do otherwise just ended in frustration. First we wound our way around one floor, then down to the next floor, the same process again, finally to the checkouts, where we had are purchases checked to insure we hadn't added any unpaid for items, then we were finally out the store. I was exhausted, but we still had to find our return transportation pick up point.
We saw no sign indicating where the bus stopped, but I did remember seeing a small sign, just before we entered the parkade on our way in, with an arrow and the bus number that we needed. So, taking a chance that was what we were looking for, off we went. Eventually, following the perimeter of the fence we found our bus stop. All was fine after this. Bus to the Metro line, Metro to our stop, walk back to the apartment, exhausted, fall on to the couch and bed for a nap!!!!!!!
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