Off to Rome we go
We leave for Rome two weeks from this Friday. I have to get through exams and starting another practicum beforehand, but once my butt hits that plane seat...whew, the reward will be sweeeet!
I'm working on booking our tickets to places where you need reservations. I've booked a tour of the Vatican with a tour group that's very highly recommended on Trip Assviser (5 stars, 80+ reviews! You never see that). I just finished corresponding with a person at the Vatican about seeing the Necropolis. I'm glad I did that ahead of time, since we're booked for the last day we're in Rome.
But the be-all-end-all of pissiness for me involved booking tickets to the Borghese Gallery. You need reservations, and they only let a set number of people in for 2-hour time blocks. When I tried to book tickets online, I received an error message that the tickets would be free that day. I thought that was weird, so I labored over an email in broken Italian to the email address noted on the error message. I got an email back in broken English that the tickets were gone (291 were still listed on the website) and to try again. Turns out tickets were gone=tickets were released, you don't have a reservation. So, I tried again with the same credit card. Same error message. My brilliant husband suggested I try a new credit card, but being an idiot, I said no. Kept trying, kept getting rejected.
Turns out that when you use a Citib@nk card (thanks, jerks!) on an overseas website, you need permission first. On the first try, they flag your account and stop all activity. On the second try, they shut down your account and issue you a new credit card. So just like that, with 2 clicks of a mouse, my card is gone. How's that for customer service? Now, I can understand wanting to avoid fraud, but why not just flag the account and then you have to call them? Why all the rigmarole with cancelling it and making you reroute your billing (that's fun too) and get a new card? Hate. Rage.
Anyhoos, we now have gallery tickets thanks to my Ch@se card (yay, having a backup credit card!) and Ch@se was bemused when I called them to ask if they were going to cancel my account. Citib@nk, go take a hike, I'm going to look at pretty paintings in Rome!
I'm working on booking our tickets to places where you need reservations. I've booked a tour of the Vatican with a tour group that's very highly recommended on Trip Assviser (5 stars, 80+ reviews! You never see that). I just finished corresponding with a person at the Vatican about seeing the Necropolis. I'm glad I did that ahead of time, since we're booked for the last day we're in Rome.
But the be-all-end-all of pissiness for me involved booking tickets to the Borghese Gallery. You need reservations, and they only let a set number of people in for 2-hour time blocks. When I tried to book tickets online, I received an error message that the tickets would be free that day. I thought that was weird, so I labored over an email in broken Italian to the email address noted on the error message. I got an email back in broken English that the tickets were gone (291 were still listed on the website) and to try again. Turns out tickets were gone=tickets were released, you don't have a reservation. So, I tried again with the same credit card. Same error message. My brilliant husband suggested I try a new credit card, but being an idiot, I said no. Kept trying, kept getting rejected.
Turns out that when you use a Citib@nk card (thanks, jerks!) on an overseas website, you need permission first. On the first try, they flag your account and stop all activity. On the second try, they shut down your account and issue you a new credit card. So just like that, with 2 clicks of a mouse, my card is gone. How's that for customer service? Now, I can understand wanting to avoid fraud, but why not just flag the account and then you have to call them? Why all the rigmarole with cancelling it and making you reroute your billing (that's fun too) and get a new card? Hate. Rage.
Anyhoos, we now have gallery tickets thanks to my Ch@se card (yay, having a backup credit card!) and Ch@se was bemused when I called them to ask if they were going to cancel my account. Citib@nk, go take a hike, I'm going to look at pretty paintings in Rome!
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