Month: December 2016

So, final day and another early start. It was the Colosseum today and as it was the first Sunday in the month, it was free to get in – so bound to be busy.

We got there just after 8:30 after a faff with the train again, to get this one you have to turn right as you get to the metro and go under the tracks to the other side. Two queues and no one really helping you other than what I assume are hawkers selling tours. We decided to queue against the smaller line on the right hand side as you come out of the station. Here you are given a ticket to the three parts, and then you go into the Colosseum via the “tickets” row which gets you in line with all the other queuers to go through security. As we got to the check point two very annoying people pushed passed flashing their “Roma Pass” at us – like it means something, anyway we just went around them and through. It was here that we realised that it was better to get the tickets before hand, as all the dudes who were queuing, had to get their tickets now, and we just walked passed… coolio.

I like this place, next time though I will look to book the basement tour, got exasperated by all the morons taking selfies and not actually looking at the building itself. Walked around every inch, then out.

Next was to walk around the forum, then up the road to get a pizza in a Chinese – which was odd.

Then it was about time to get the train back to the airport and home.

Like Rome, think we will return.

Up early today as we had tickets to see the popes pad.

Had a decent breakfast in the hotel, with hot dogs and burnt Pancetta with odd bread and non salted butter, and red orange juice.

Walked to the station and used the machine to get two single journey tickets 1.5E, nd got very confused as to which platform we should stand on. Sign’s in Italy are very confusing. Anyway after a little mucking about we were on the metro for a couple of stops to Cipro. Cipro is the nearest station to the Vatican Museum, but the metro tells you to get off a stop before, because that is where the start of the queue line is!

Anyway, no queuing for us – we walked straight in and up and up and got a talky tour and set off to look at some old stuff. There was quite a lot of that. I liked the map corridor best. After walking for some time we got to the main event – the Sistine Chapel… I didn’t really like it, its a big box with pictures on the walls.

We walked from there out and around to the famous place where the pope comes out, and there was a massive queue there, so I took Sian through the non scenic route all the way over to the Piazza del Popolo. We sat and had a little drink here and it started to rain a bit.

From here we walked down the road to the Spanish Steps, walked up them and into a church with a singing “security guard” then back down the other steps and back to the fountains for a big pork baguette.

Sufficiently sated we headed back down the alleyways to the Pantheon and went in this time – it’s free, and very cool – would be brilliant if it rained properly as the rain just pours in from the hole. From here we spent a while just wondering around, until we came to anther Piazza which had a statue of the guy from Assasins Creed on, where wefound a decent bar and sat out watching the people and football for a couple of hours.

More mooching from here an across the river to the Trastevere area and along the river to where the Mouth of Truth is. From here up the road to the views at the Basilica di Santa Maria and then down to have a look at the Colosseum. We got a bit lost here and ended up in the Druids Den, which was an Irish pub where we had a couple of real pints.

A little bit more of a walk and then some food in Amedeo Ristorante where I had a not as nice as last nights seafood pasta thing again, and we were entertained for a while by a very enthusiastic young American.

I think we just went home to bed after that. Long day, we walked about 10 miles I think…

We had been meaning to visit Rome for some time now, but never got around to doing it, so we booked it, and we went…

So on Friday, we set off to Bristol around 10:30, once arrived and parked up, and with  the knowledge that the pre-pay technology didn’t work – we had a quick beer after struggling through security, and we were on holiday – 2.5 hrs from Bristol to Rome.

Great train from the airport, the Leonardo Express, which takes you right into the heart of Rome in about 30 mins – you can get your ticket at the airport, and it really is easy. Once in Rome, we wandered over to the hotel.

I had booked two hotels, The Independent Hotel and The Navona Palace Residenze di Charme, both had decent reviews, but the Navona was right in the middle and noisier than the others. Baring in mind we had to get from the station to the hotel and then back again, I took the executive decision to keep us in the Independent, which was 5 mins from the train station.

Great guy at the counter, and we had been bumped to a room with a balcony, which was nice. After a quick relax, we walked into Rome proper for our first view of the place.

First thing to notice was how warm it was, baring in mind this was the beginning of December, I think we had over packed the warmness, we took a right out of the hotel, a right and a left and walked down a road with loads of armed guards outside the building – I assume this was the embassy’s? The we got to the Quirinal Palace with mor armed dudes, down the steps and another right and we were at the Trevi Fountains. Which are some fountains.

Took some photos of people taking photos, and was amazed by the number of people not actually looking at the attraction but taking selfies of themselves – all a bit odd for me, and something which happened more and more throughout the trip. After having a look at this stuff, we headed down Via delle Muratte towards the Pantheon. Just follow the road, and it takes you right there, passing many hawkers, who at this point we just ignored. We got to the Pantheon at the exact second it closed, so we carried on past it and over to Piazza Navono – where we thought we might have to put up with a Christmas market – but there wasn’t one.

We sat in one of the many restaurants, and looked at the prices – 21 Euro for a large beer, o we got up again and carried on walking around. Almost opposite was another place with a nice guy who wangled us in, medium beer was I think 9 euro – medium is half a litre, which is a little bit like a pint. We had two of those and left a little bit poorer. As we were leaving a hawker with bags did a splendid deal with an Italian customer who, no messing told the guy he would give him 15 E for the bag, which had initially started at I think 50 – something for later.

From here we walked down the allies until we got to our second hotel – it was really in the action, and I was happy with the choice we made. We walking aimlessly for a bit and passed quite a few places, until we found ourselves back by the Pantheon and a food place that had been packed previously. We sat outside, me in just a shirt, and had some very pleasent seafood spaghetti and a large beer. Food was grand and the beer was massive, a large beer is a litre, and came in a sort of stien that I had to use two hands to lift.

After a return along our original way in, we got back to the hotel and had a final drink on the roof top terrace. Rome was nice.