Rome Report

While I was in Rome I found myself wishing that I had a wide angle lens with me, I think that is a good general metaphor for what visiting Rome is like, there are so many things to see, hear, taste, smell. I knew only the vaguest things about Rome before planning this trip. What I hadn’t appreciated until I was there is how once you are in the centre you can walk between everything, and how if you just wander about you stumble across lovely fountains, piazzas, and historical sights that in other places would be THE sight but here are one of hundreds.

This Rome trip was partly Simon’s Christmas present from me to him, he is not really someone who likes trinkets and random gadgets (unlike myself who is ridiculously easy to get gifts for) so a trip is a good gift for him, plus I get to benefit, ha! In recent years I have really grown to appreciate how near the rest of Europe really is to Britain. This appreciation is partly down to reading blogs from other continents where trips to Europe are big once-in-a-lifetime investments. Sometimes when things are on your doorstep it is easy to pass them by so I am glad to have been shown what a treat it is.

The top picture is of course the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Museum. We visited the Vatican Museum with a huge queue of fellow tourists on the last Sunday of the month when entry is free (normally €15 per person). There is only one route to go through the museum with the Sistine Chapel right at the end of this route, so it is a good long walk. The very act of visiting such a busy place was a sight in itself, huge crowds (nuns, priests, and all) jostling through the museum. It really is worthwhile seeing the Sistine ceiling, it is one of those sights, like the Mona Lisa or the Statue of Liberty.

Wall paintings. Vatican Museum.

St. Peter’s.

St. Peter’s.

St. Peter’s Basilica is spectacular! What a ‘must see’ place. Entry is free. We visited on a Sunday afternoon and there wasn’t much of a queue. Perhaps in summer it might be more hectic.

St. Peter’s Square.

St. Peter’s Square

Trastevere.

Trastevere.

Our apartment was on this street. We stayed in Trastevere, the area itself is lovely, little old winding narrow roads, plenty of restaurants. I think it could perhaps be noisy if you stayed in an old building with your bedroom right on the street but we stayed in this apartment, the shower and toilet were tiny but the apartment turned out to be a real little find, much nicer than the photos. The Trastevere area proved to be very well placed between the main tourist sites of Rome, with Vatican City to one side, the main centre just a short bridge crossing away, and the Colosseum on the other side. The good location of Trastevere meant we could pop back for a brief sit down between the various sights.

Colosseum viewed from the Palatine.

Palatine, Forum, and Colosseum. A good tip I heard and used is to buy a ticket to all three sites together and to get this ticket from the Palatine entrance where there are no queues, and this meant we could bypass the big Colosseum queue as we had our tickets already. It was also a nice route to start at the Palatine, then walk down through the Forum, and out to the Colosseum. Also if anyone needs such tips, there is what seems like the only public toilet in Rome tucked away around the road side outside the Colosseum.

La Bocca della Verità ‘Mouth of Truth’. Must watch Roman Holiday again.

Birds by the Tiber.

Our shadows from a bridge over the Tiber.

At the legendary Tazza D’Oro for coffee. Pay for your drink first at the till then pass your receipt over the counter.

Giolitti for ice cream. So very good, I had pine nut and pistachio (before lunch!). The texture and flavours were fantastic. Again you pay first at the till then show your recipt at the ice cream counter.

Pantheon.

Pantheon. It seems it is not much different now from how it was in 1732.

Circus Maximus. The ancient chariot racing stadium.

We sat reading for two hours in the sun in the beautiful botanic gardens on our last day (where I met the duck), €4 entry, it is right there in Trastevere. Very peaceful apart from the cannon that is fired above it at noon.

Of course all this sightseeing needs to be fueled so it is a good thing that Rome is such a fantastic place for eating. As we were staying in an apartment we had the treat of going to a foreign supermarket (does anyone else like doing this??), but as there were so many great eating-out opportunities we really only ate in for breakfast. Lunch was generally a slice of pizza from a bakery ate in hand sitting by a fountain. We tried a few different bakeries including the well known Forno Campo De’ Fiori, were we also bought and shared half each of the above Torta Di Riso (it’s like rice pudding and a custard tart all-in-one) and an apricot filled shortcrust biscuit. Dinner we ate out, I don’t have any particular recommendations to pass on, we had so much good pizza and antipasti. I don’t know how the Romans manage to eat a full Italian meal though, with antipasti, pasta, a main, desert, coffee, we struggled to get through one pizza each!

DIY antipasti with drinks in our little apartment one evening. Both of us had been off booze for all of January so it was a real treat to be able to try out different Italian wines, and so very much cheaper.

Trajan’s Column. The lettering at the base of the column is of typographical interest for designer types.

We also visited several other excellent sites that are not pictured here. The Basilica of Saint Clement where you climb down to a rather chilling pagan temple underneath it. The Capitoline Museum was open until 8pm so we were able to go home after a day of visiting other sites to gather our strength and then pop out to this before getting some dinner, so many treasures but we really liked the big feet, hands, knee and elbow of the colossus. We threw a coin in the Trevi fountain, walked around Piazza Navona, and we passed Santa Maria in Trastevere a couple of times a day.

In conclusion, we really enjoyed our visit to Rome. It has the good qualities for a tourist of there being many of things to do and excellent food. Budget-wise we came back with more € left than we thought we would, the food and especially the wine is not expensive, there is no need for transport other than the train from the airport, and many of the sights are either free or fairly reasonable. Molte grazie Roma!