Technology has made travel easier than ever. Everything you need is now stored on your smartphone – boarding passes, plane tickets, maps, and payment cards, all just a tap away. Important documents like passports, travel insurance, and booking confirmations are safely tucked away in the cloud.
Apps for bus and train transit make city navigation simple, and Google or Apple Maps provide turn-by-turn directions. Even cash is becoming obsolete – just tap your phone, and the bill is settled. Gone are the days of traveller’s cheques and confused tourists stranded in town squares, desperately looking for street signs that don’t exist.
It’s all so simple. I mean, what could possibly go wrong? As it turns out, plenty.
Picture this: We’ve been on a three-week road trip through Croatia and Slovenia, with a final stop in Rome for a major event. Tonight, at the Stadio Olimpico, grunge legends Pearl Jam are set to perform an epic show – and we have tickets!
After a leisurely morning, we head out to explore. Our accommodation is 10km southwest of the city centre. It’s not exactly in the ‘posh end’ of town – far from it fact, but after three weeks travelling (and spending) funds are low. We chose it because it was cheap, and a bus stop right outside will take us where we need to go. We’ve purchased three-day MetroBus passes, and our route is planned.
We visit the iconic sights – the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, and Pantheon – before heading north through Villa Borghese, catching a bus to the stadium. At 9pm, the concert begins, and what a show it is!
Everything goes smoothly – until it doesn’t.
Pearl Jam are known for giving fans their money’s worth. Three and a half hours later, the final encore ends, the lights come on, and 40,000 people spill into the streets. That’s when we realise we have a problem.
The bus schedule we researched no longer applies – night routes have taken over. These buses not only run at different times but follow completely different routes, none of which are near us. Our “foolproof” plan is unravelling.
We reach for our phones to check for an Uber (surge pricing is at €120 even if we could find one), and that’s when we realise: after a full day of sightseeing, our batteries are critically low.
In case you haven’t been in this situation before, let me confirm: 4% battery won’t get you very far. A new plan is needed – fast.
We quickly check Google Maps, using as little power as possible, to determine a general direction. Then, we turn off our phones to conserve the last bit of battery for when we truly need it. We start walking toward the main square, hoping to find a central bus hub. An hour later, we arrive, scanning the area for any signs of the right bus. Information boards are nonexistent; our only clues are the destinations flashing on the buses as they pull in.
It’s 1:30am. We power up a phone briefly to check if the next arriving bus is at least heading south. It is. We jump on.
Night buses in Rome don’t display upcoming stops inside. The journey in took 20 minutes, so we estimate our exit. When we step off, we find ourselves in an unfamiliar part of the city. The streets are dimly lit, and shadowy figures watch from a distance. A sense of unease creeps in.
We turn the phone on one last time and, miraculously, an Uber is available – and at a price that we’ll not need to remortgage for. I attempt to book it – only to realise I don’t remember the name of our accommodation, or its street.
Emma powers up her phone, desperately trying to access the cloud for our booking confirmation. As her screen flickers to black, she gets it just in time. I enter the destination. The booking is confirmed. And then my phone dies. Now, we wait, hoping the figures watching us are merely curious, not something worse.
Fifteen minutes later, a black Mercedes van with tinted windows glides up to the curb across the street. A tall man in a black suit steps out, adjusts his jacket, and lowers his glasses. My mind races – are we about to be kidnapped, drugged, and ransomed to the UK government?
He catches my eye. A brief standoff. Then a broad smile spreads across his face as he calls my name in a questioning tone. It’s Simone, our Uber driver. Our saviour!
We walk toward him, attempting to appear calm. He opens the van door for us, and we slip inside. It slides shut with a reassuring clunk. The drive takes only ten minutes. At 3:30am, we collapse onto our bed, exhausted but relieved.
Many lessons were learned that night.
The first: always carry a small power bank – enough to charge two phones, just in case. Heavy use of 4G, geolocation, and photography drains batteries fast. We should have anticipated that.
But there’s an even simpler backup plan: paper copies.
Keep a small card with your accommodation’s name and address. Carry a real paper map – it might take you a while, but you can always walk back if you know the way. A few Euros in your pocket wouldn’t hurt either, along with a printed bus timetable. Assume digital tools will fail, and be prepared to go old-school.
Technology is incredible, but over-reliance on it is risky. That night in Rome proved it. At one point, we seriously considered finding a park bench to curl up on and wait for sunrise, when the city’s normal transit resumed. We made it home, but it took three hours and wasn’t much fun.
Backup
noun
/ˈbækʌp/
A person, plan, or piece of equipment that can be used to replace another if necessary.
So.. always have a backup!
If reinvention were a sport, I’d have a gold medal. Former chef / hotel manager, now designing websites and taking the odd photograph. Currently plotting a grand escape as a digital nomad.
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