There are people who have, what I would call, the travel bug. They have a kind of 'wanderlust', itchy feet to get out of the house and travel and see new places. I am not one of these people. I love to make a home and feel comfortable in it. However, I find a huge amount of joy and IMPORTANCE in taking small trips away. Over the past couple of years I have done quite a few weekend trips, here and there, all over the place, and I find them very beneficial; not only is it nice and refreshing to spend a short amount of time away from your normal routine, but short trips are just perfect for dipping your toe into a new culture or place, seeing something that you've never seen and learning new things too. Sometimes I find big holidays quite over-whelming and I am ready to come home quite a lot sooner than intended, but short visits always leave me wanting more, which I think is a good thing! Weekends tend to be ideal, leaving on a Friday and returning on a Sunday or Monday, and if you plan your trip right, you can fit everything in that you want to. Shorter trips like these also don't tend to stretch the purse strings too much either, so you can do more of them and see many different places, rather than only seeing one place on one big trip.
I have decided to start a new series on my blog, called 'Weekend In', and each post in this series will feature a different place. I will talk about the place that I visit, but also write about how I structured my time there, what I managed to fit in and how I planned it. Hopefully it might give you a few ideas if you ever think of spending a weekend in that place!
As you can guess from the title of this post, the first in this series features the city of Rome. I spent the weekend there a couple of weeks ago and I absolutely loved it. I was really lucky that I had met a couple of people before I went who were actually from Rome, as they gave me so many great tips for places to go and the best restaurants and bars etc.so I feel like, not only did I get to see the famous touristy things, but I also got to experience the real Rome too.
Friday
We arrived at Rome airport in the early afternoon on the Friday. From there we took a train to the central station in Rome - Roma Termini. There are lots of trains going from the airport into the city, and tickets cost about 14 euros each. Beware of lots of salesman, targeting tourists, trying to get you to take their private shuttles and cars!
Once in the central station, we bought a 3-day travel ticket, which works for all the city buses, trams and the metro, and cost 18 Euros each. You can also purchase just a 1-day or 2-day ticket too for cheaper, depending on how many days you will be spending there. We hopped on a street tram from right outside the station which took us to our hotel, located in the district called Pigneto. This is definitely NOT a touristy area; I would guess that a lot of Romans live around there and it might look a little intimidating at first, but turned out to be absolutely lovely.
After checking in we went for a little walk around, nipped into a nearby store to buy the toothbrushes we had forgetten, and found a street with lots of cafes and bars on it. We sat down in a nice cafe and ordered a drink and a toasted sandwich which were much needed at that point! We don't speak any Italian, and as this is not a touristy area at all, a lot of hand-gesturing was involved (when in Rome, do as the Romans, right?!) but the people are so nice and friendly it really wasn't difficult to communicate!
After our refreshments, at around about 5pm, we headed into the city and went to the Trevvi Fountain. As we were walking towards the fountain through the narrow and winding streets, we were noticing that it seemed quite quiet... but suddenly the streets opened out onto the square with the fountain and there were thousands of tourists, people taking photos everywhere and people selling touristy merchandise! I would remind you to be very careful of your belongings in an area like that - Rome is notorious for pickpockets - and if you get asked, as we were, if you would like your photo taken say NO! There are guys praying on the people taking selfies, offering to take their photos for them and then running away with the camera or phone.
After we had finished taking our own pictures, we walked to an amazing beer bar called 'Open Baladin', which had been recommended to us. They have hundreds of different beers to try - pale ales, IPAs, their own beers - and delicious bar snacks too. If you are a beer lover, this is a must see! It did seem to be getting quite busy, especially as it was a Friday night, and it is obviously a favourite haunt for locals, so I would recommend reserving a table here, so as not to feel hassled or rushed.
After having a couple of beers we walked for quite a while and this is something I would really recommend in Rome, especially in the evening and nighttime - the city looks most beautiful at this time, and in early June, the evening temperature is just gorgeous. We walked through the Jewish district, around the Piazza Venezia (a breathtakingly impressive building, if a little arrogant looking!), to the Collisseum, at which point it was getting quite dark. From there we took a bus back to our area, walked back to the street with all the cafes and bars, and ended our night in one, with a delicious cheese and meat plate (something you can find in most Roman restaurants and something I HIGHLY recommend!) and red wine.
Piazza Venezia
Collisseum by night
Street near hour hotel with lots of bars - loved the atmosphere!
Saturday
In the planning of our trip, we knew that we would obviously want to visit the Collisseum. From everything we had read about buying tickets, we thought it best to book our tickets to the Collisseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill in advance and this was a great decision! The queue for purchasing tickets on the day was hours long! We booked our tickets for 11:30am on the Saturday and we arrived at the Collisseum at about 11:20. We still had to queue for about 10 minutes just to pick our tickets up, but that was nothing compared to the other longer queue so I would definitely recommend booking tickets in advance whenever you can. We had also decided to get audio guides with our tickets, so that we would get more information about the history, and really know what we were looking at. These audio guides worked just for the Collisseum; for the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill we had to pay for new audio guides. The audio guide for the Collisseum was good - it gave useful information and I am definitely glad that I had it. However the audio guide for the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill was terrible! It was incredibly boring, and to be honest I just gave up on it after a while, which is a shame because I know I missed some vital information there. I think if I would go back and do it again, I would just pay the extra money for the guided tour, as they looked really engaging and fun, and I think they would really tell you more about what you were seeing.
Collisseum from inside
Roman Forum
These ancient historical sites in Rome are just mind-blowing! It is honestly amazing to walk into the Collisseum and imagine that this is once where gladiators fought and Julius Cesar ruled. The structure of the Roman architecture is just incredible - that these buildings have lasted so long is such a sign of their skills, ingenuity and intelligence; I wonder if such strong architecture could exist today, in our buildings and cities? It is also amazing that these ancient ruins are all over the city, you often pass them on a bus or just randomly around the place. I wonder if they lose their luster for the Romans who see them every day on their way to work...?
It took about 4 hours in total to do the Collisseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. I would guess it would take longer perhaps, if you were part of a tour group or wanted to go at a slower pace. I think by the end we were getting quite tired and hungry so maybe cut it a little short. We were also amazingly lucky with our weather - it was very warm, but not oppressive heat as I am sure it can be in Rome in the heart of summer. You might want to consider this when you plan your trip, as I could definitely imagine that touring these sites in the blistering heat would be horrible.
One thing to make very sure of in Rome, especially on a weekend trip, is that you have looked up the opening hours of restaurants before you go to them! We had chosen a nice pizza place to go to after the Collisseum (on recommendation), however we discovered when we got there that it was not open on Saturdays, as was the same with ALL the other restaurants in that area! This resulted in us walking around for a long time trying to find something open, which is not the best when you have already been walking around all day and are very hungry! We eventually found something very touristy and not that good but, at that point, we were happy to eat, and afterwards we went to an INCREDIBLE gelato place which more than made up for it. The gelato cafe was called 'Come il Latte' and was definitely the best ice cream I have ever eaten. I got salted caramel and mascarpone flavours and my partner got pistachio and buttercream - I would highly recommend visiting this place!
We felt much better after our ice-creams and decided to go back into the centre of the city, towards the shopping area. Here we found a really cute little comic book shop, which I was very interested as I am still enjoying my comic book phase! We also found quite a few stores that we don't have in Germany so we shopped around for a while and browsed the Italian fashion.
'Star Shop' - Comic Book shop
When we felt we could walk no more, we got back on a tram and returned to our hotel for a small rest. We had already picked out our restaurant for our evening meal - another recommendation, a small, beautiful restaurant called 'Pigneto 41'. It was right around the corner from our hotel and filled with only Italians, no tourists! The food was honestly some of the best Italian food I have ever eaten. I had bruschetta with aubergine and smoked ricotta, and homemade spaghetti in a red wine sauce (unfortunately I was too full for dessert on this occassion). The menu didn't just have pasta either, but some amazing looking pork tenderloin, rabbit and fish. For the quality of the food, it was also amazingly cheap! Main dishes typically cost around 8 Euros each, starters and desserts were around 5 and bottles of wine around 12. The meal was so good we went back the following night!
Sunday
Before our trip we were a bit worried that things might tend to be closed in Rome on Sundays, as they are in Germany. So, we decided to do the 'Rome Free Walking Tour' to the Vatican on Sunday morning, as we knew that would be something to do at least. We have done a few of these free walking tours in other cities, and they tend to be quite good - they run based on tips to the tour guide. We met our tour guide by the Spanish Steps, in a group of about 20, and she guided us from there on a 2-hour tour through Rome, around lots of important monuments and buildings including the Pantheon, to the Vatican. I was not aware of this, but the Pope atually comes out every Sunday at 12pm to greet and bless people, so we arrived at the Vatican just in time for this! Of course there were thousands of people there, there was music, lots of security, even Swiss Guards! But we got to see the Pope, if from a great distance, which is cool!
View of the Vatican
Vatican City
St. Peters Basilica - the Pope is up there somewhere! Also broadcast on big screens.
The tour itself was good too; our tour guide was a Roman woman and she was able to tell us a lot about the history of the city and answer all our questions too. The same company also offers a free walking tour to the Collisseum, and both of these tours happen every single day at 10am and 4pm and I would say they are very worth doing - it is a great way to see the city.
After the tour ended and we had got our fill of the Pope, we stopped for some lunch at a cafe that we had spotted on the walking tour - just some simple pizza but it was really good. Then we headed back to the Pantheon, as we wanted to go inside and have a closer look. They say this building is so secure it is impossible to deconstruct - this idea just blows my mind!
The Pantheon
The amazing open dome inside the Pantheon - architectuarl genius!
Also near the Pantheon is Rome's most famous coffee place, 'Cafe Sant Eustachio'. This is obviously quite a tourist spot; the line goes out the door and there is a 5 Euro bill just for table service! Of course, being big coffee drinkers, we had to try this famous coffee - we drank it inside at the bar (where you don't have to pay for service) with a couple of pastries they had on offer too. I would say it was good coffee, but we also drank absolutely fantastic coffee in many other more humble places, all over Rome! It's nice to go and see this old cafe, but don't worry to much about drinking the coffee.
Also in the same area is a church called 'Church of Saint Louis of the French'. It is a little bit tucked away but definitely worth checking out. It is filled with breathtaking Caravaggio frescos, and it is wonderful to go and sit in there and just look around you. On a short weekend trip like this, we decided we didn't really have the time to spend a whole day at the Vatican museums, or one of the art galleries. We thought instead we would check out this beautiful church, which turned out to be a very special and quiet spot.
After we had seen enough of the church, it was about 4pm and we didn't have any other plans, so we decided just to wonder. We stopped at Open Baladin for another beer and also found a place called a 'Cat Asyleum'! This is a small retreat for homeless and abandoned cats, tucked away in some ancient ruins. You are able to go down the steps and have a look, stoke the cats, and play with them! The team of people who run this asyleum are so friendly and tell you the stories of each cat, how it has come to be here and the problems it might have. You also have the opportunity to adopt a cat, which is a cool idea! If you are a cat person, you will just love this!
Cat Asyleum tucked away in the ruins
At this point in the afternoon we were pretty exhausted, so, again, we made our way back to the hotel for a rest before going back out to Pigneto 41 for dinner. This time I made sure to leave space for dessert - I absolutely had to try a Tiramisu in Rome, and it definitely lived up to all of my expectations! After dinner we sat outside for a long time and savoured the last of our Italian wine before calling it a night.
Sitting outside at Pigneto 41
Monday
On Monday morning we just had time to get a last wonderful Italian espresso, and a last gelato at the Roma Termini, before heading back to the airport to catch our flight home. If you can possibly travel back home on a Monday, rather than a Sunday night, I would recommend doing so. There is a much more relaxed feel to it - you don't feel so hassled as all the people fighting to get back home on Sunday night so they can make it to work the next day.
Overall, it was a perfect weekend in Rome! We saw the sights, tasted some wonderful food, drank delicious wine, and we just had a great time! If I was staying longer, I would have liked to get out of the city and visit one of the nearby coastal towns, which I have heard are beautiful. But I think it is important to remember, when you only have a weekend in a place, that you simply cannot see everything - you have to choose the things that are most important to you, and not get stressed out by changes in plans or worried about the things you missed. There will be a next time!
Be sure to check back into my blog for the next in this Weekend In' series. I've got some really great places lined up!Labels: Travel
