Rome, Italy.

[beuk]

Since I hadn't a real propper holiday I decided to treat the wife, kids and myself to some time off.
Had a long weekend last week and it was the perfect opportunity to visit Rome for 4days/3nights.
Thursday early morning left to Brussels South (Charleroi) to go with Raynair towards Ciampino (Rome).
Arrived in Rome at the airport I bought Roma passes. Those passes allow you to use the public transportation for free during 3 days and you get 2 free entrances to musea or historical sites. Furthermore you get discounts for places to visit and you can skip lines where you have to buy tickets if you don't have such a pass.
So there we were in Rome for our first time. Problem number one was already waiting at us behind the corner.
Getting a taxi to our hotel. 7 taxidrivers refused to bring us cause and I quote them '' Iesse too faare, iesse thirtyfiva minut driveuh''
Eventually we did found somebody who was willing to take us there and 70 euros(taximeter) and 30 minutes later we were at our hotel.
In the hotel we checked inn, recieved info about the busses and subway (where to take them, operating times etc.) and a map with intresting sites of Rome.
So off we were to discover ancient Rome. Quickly founded the what we thought subway and took it to our first stop, only to be kicked out by an angry ticketcollector 2 stops later. Apparently going 3 floors underground is not a subway but a train there and according to him a train is not a public transportion vehicle at least not for the pass we bought.

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[geir]

Rome is really nice, was there for 8 days in the early 90es. We spent most of the time drinking vine on Piazza Navona....It was back in the Lire days so we felt like millionaires.
We did a bit of looking around as well, Colosseum, Maria church and the Vatican. Great town with great history.
And the Italians seemed much nicer than most of the cheap charlies coming over here.

[PadMC]

^ Yeah I like Italy a lot. First time I went there was back in the early 90's, traveled around it a fair bit. My favourite spot was Sardinia. It would be one of my top places to retire, if I ever make it to that stage

[beuk]

So there we were in a new city to us and not knowing where we were. We wandered around for an hour or two without seeing ancient Rome or any landmarks that could direct us to where we wanted to go. Eventually we ended up in Trastevere and asked the locals if they could guide us into the wright direction. They were friendly and helpfull and told us what bus to take and where. 15 minutes later we were at the place we wanted to go.
The first sights of Rome were impressive as we saw the National Monument, Pallazio Di Venizia and a church next to it. The palace was marvellous with its statues, sights and marble. The church was even better according to me with the paintings on the ceilings, the gold and all the ornaments.
Back out of it and bought, haggled down the price, of some hats for the kids, wife and me and bought water from a local vendor.
Crossed the street into piazza Venezia to grab some great pizzas and pastas. The inner person was ready to go out again. We wandered through Rome and next thing we saw was the Pantheon and some churches (plenty of those). We sat down near a fountain and refilled our waterbotlles. Nice thing about Rome is that at almost every piazza, streetcorner or monument you can refill your botlles with free cold tapwater. We would use those things alot the coming days since it was really hot in the centre of town.
As it was already getting late we decided to head back to the hotel. We walked around for some more time through the streets of Rome and finally founded the entrance to the subway and made our way back to the hotel.
At the hotel we had a nice dinner with risotto, pasta and salmon. Around 9 we headed to our rooms to freshen up and get some sleep for the next day.

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[PadMC]

So there we were in a new city to us and not knowing where we were. We wandered around for an hour or two without seeing ancient Rome or any landmarks that could direct us to where we wanted to go. Eventually we ended up in Trastevere and asked the locals if they could guide us into the wright direction. They were friendly and helpfull and told us what bus to take and where. 15 minutes later we were at the place we wanted to go.
The first sights of Rome were impressive as we saw the National Monument, Pallazio Di Venizia and a church next to it. The palace was marvellous with its statues, sights and marble. The church was even better according to me with the paintings on the ceilings, the gold and all the ornaments.
Back out of it and bought, haggled down the price, of some hats for the kids, wife and me and bought water from a local vendor.
Crossed the street into piazza Venezia to grab some great pizzas and pastas. The inner person was ready to go out again. We wandered through Rome and next thing we saw was the Pantheon and some churches (plenty of those). We sat down near a fountain and refilled our waterbotlles. Nice thing about Rome is that at almost every piazza, streetcorner or monument you can refill your botlles with free cold tapwater. We would use those things alot the coming days since it was really hot in the centre of town.
As it was already getting late we decided to head back to the hotel. We walked around for some more time through the streets of Rome and finally founded the entrance to the subway and made our way back to the hotel.
At the hotel we had a nice dinner with risotto, pasta and salmon. Around 9 we headed to our rooms to freshen up and get some sleep for the next day.

Roman aqueduct - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I read before that the reason for so many fountains in the towns and cities was to control and regulate the water pressure...

[Dodger]

Beuk make sure before your last day you find out which airport you are flying from.

We went for a weekend and on the last day hailed a taxi, asked him to take us to the airport. Arrived on time, paid him and walked in not being able to see our plane departure time. We asked at information and was told there are two airports and we were in the wrong one!!!

So a simple question, when asking the taxi to take us to the airport, why didn't he simply ask which one??? We now had 45 minutes before departure and 1 hour by car to get there!!! lucky for us we had got the only taxi Nikki Lauder was driving that day and got there in 35 minutes??? think the hour told to us might have been a tad of an Italian hour, they probably have a siesta time included????

Of course I was impressed by all the historical buildings, just a few to many of them for me, there seemed to be one around every corner? also whats so impressive about the Spanish Steps??? I even walked to the very top, to visit a small little village church of nothingness and then trudged all the way back down, and why do all those people spend their lives sitting on the steps???

Oh yeah another thing to be aware of is that Transvestite clubs are not called transvestite clubs, but some better more alluring name, either that I was going through one of my more gay periods whilst in Rome, geezers in dresses in every place we ended up in???

[WarProfiteer]

I definitely loved Rome when I went... just wished I wasnt so hung over when I visited the pope's house. Ahhh to be young and foolish again...

[beuk]

Day 2.
Got up around 6.30 in the morning had a nice descent breakfast and off we were for another day of sightseeing.
First stop that day was to get to Circus Maximus. Already knowing how the subwway worked it was a quick transition to the stop we needed. Out of the subway and what do you see, yes finally without going into wrong directions or getting thrown out, the Circus Maximus. Not much of it is leftover but you still can get an idea of how big the place must have been back then. From there on and understanding the map a bit better it was a short walk for us to Palantin and Forum Romanum.
Since this is a paying site and we had 2 free entrances using our Roma pass it was easy to get inside. There wasn't much tourists in yet so we could wander around there nicely and get all the sights and viewings in us quietly. From the Palantin which again was impressive we hopped over to the other side into the Forum Romanum. It is really amazing how they build all those big buildings of heavy stones, pilars etc. in those days without the machines we know now.
From the Forum we crossed the streets towards the Colloseum. Lucky for us we had the Roma passes cause the line to get a ticket was gigantic. I think when we arrived, the people without a pass had to wait in line for more than 2 hours to get inside. So with the pass in hand we walked by all those people and 5 minutes later we were inside.
Gigantic, old, impressive and overwhelming was the idea I got at seeing this. Still in my eyes it couldnt beat the beauty of the National monument on our first day.
An hour later we finished our tour inside the Colloseum and headed towards some piazza to get some food.
Walking away from the Colloseum we once again passed by the national monument. At that moment we started realising Rome was actually pretty small but you can get easily lost in all the small streets. We sat down at a piazza to have again some great dishes of pasta and cottoletta milanesa. After lunch we grabbed some gelatto and started walking around again. Men do they have so much different flavors and good gelatto overthere.
Our next stop was actually Piazza Navona but once again failing to read properly the map we ended up at the Trevi Fountain. We sat down there some time taking in the sights, people and refilled again our bottles of water.
From there we walked towards the Spanish steps. It was nice as everybody was sitting and chilling there at the fountain or on the steps. I walked up the steps to visit a church again while the wife and kids relaxed at the steps taking in the viewings.
From there we took the subway to Villa Borghese. The subway stopped at the entrance of the park and we headed in.
It was nice to get out of the citycentre for awhile. We sat down at a fountain and rested there and did like the Italians there. Shoes out and footbathing in the fountain. In the park itself we didn't see Villa Borghese but saw lots of statues and Villa di Medici and another villa. Both were big and nice. From there on we walked towards the centre again. In no time we were at the top of the Spanish steps. Descended them, refilled our botlles again and of we went in search of Piazza Navona.
Wandering through the streets of Rome we passed government buildings, churches and lots of piazzas. Stopped at a place to eat near Piazza Navona. Had a nice conversation with some Italians there and we asked directions towards Piazza Navona.
They had a good laugh but were friendly and told us where to go. They laughed cause we were only 2 streets away which we didnt know.
Arrived at the Piazza Navona and looked at the 3 fountains on the square there. Watched artists painting. Went into a church to look at some painted ceilings, gold ornaments and other stuff.
After Navona we headed towards Castell San Angelo. Had a nice stroll along the banks of the Tiber and arrived at our destination. The bridges over the Tiber were also stunning and eyecatching. The castle itself we thought we had to pay our entrance fee but to our surprise it was still free although we already used our 2 free entrances before. The castle was huge and there were still some nice rooms with paintings in it. It used to be the home of emperor Hadrianus.
That was going to be our last stop for the day. As we went out and searched for a bus or subway to get us back we passed the impressive courthouse. We took a bith further a bus back to our hotel and called it a day. We had walked around Rome for about 12 hours that day.

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[beuk]

Beuk make sure before your last day you find out which airport you are flying from.

We went for a weekend and on the last day hailed a taxi, asked him to take us to the airport. Arrived on time, paid him and walked in not being able to see our plane departure time. We asked at information and was told there are two airports and we were in the wrong one!!!

So a simple question, when asking the taxi to take us to the airport, why didn't he simply ask which one??? We now had 45 minutes before departure and 1 hour by car to get there!!! lucky for us we had got the only taxi Nikki Lauder was driving that day and got there in 35 minutes??? think the hour told to us might have been a tad of an Italian hour, they probably have a siesta time included????

Of course I was impressed by all the historical buildings, just a few to many of them for me, there seemed to be one around every corner? also whats so impressive about the Spanish Steps??? I even walked to the very top, to visit a small little village church of nothingness and then trudged all the way back down, and why do all those people spend their lives sitting on the steps???

Oh yeah another thing to be aware of is that Transvestite clubs are not called transvestite clubs, but some better more alluring name, either that I was going through one of my more gay periods whilst in Rome, geezers in dresses in every place we ended up in???

The airport was no problem for us, we knew wich one and got to the wright place.
I find the steps also strange, but hey when in Rome do as the Romans. I had other places which intrested me alot more.
Even some of the stupid small churches were more alluring to me then some monuments or has to do places.

[beuk]

Day 3
Our last full day in Rome for sightseeing. On our last day since we had walked so many the passed days, decided to do it easy and relaxing. On the program was Vatican City.
Got up early again cause we knew that it was going to be crowdy.
Took the subway to Ottavinio (Vatican Musuem). When we came out there was a line waiting to get in the Vatican and the waiting time was 4 hours just to get inside the Vatican museum, not even St. Peters Basilica that was another line of a couple of hours. I don't really like to go on a tour with a guide with a big group but this time it had to be done. No way we were gonna stay in line that long. So arranged a tour which made us certain that we had the museum, Vatican gardens, St Peter's basilica and Sistine Chapel. Had to pay quiet alot but avoiding all those lines were well worth it.
The museum itself is hughe and saw some intresting sculptures, paintings, carpets and other stuff. The guide was really good and you could tell he loved this job and told with passion about different pieces inside. He had a time limit however but still answered peoples questions and took his time for everybody. That was really nice.
After the museum we went inside the Sistine Chapel. Okay it's nice and painted by a great artist but I had something like meh. I had seen other paintings in churches already and it wasnt blowing me away. Anyway you have to see it when you are there.
After the Chapel we took the steps to the top of the dome of St Peter's . Too bad it was crowdy but you still had a great view over Rome and St Peter's square. I founded it mindblowing the view you got.
Down again and into the Basilica itself. Now I was really blown away. The view inside of it, the gold, the marble, the paintings, sculptures everything was breathtakening. Now I am not a practising catholic and church doesn't intrest me but this was just awesome. Spend along time inside there just watching with an open mouth to all those things. Still it wasnt done. Took a stair downstairs and ended up in the catacombs below St Peter's. All the graves of all the popes, true masterpieces of craftsmenship. And then all the sudden we stayed back outside. Spent some time in the gardens, had some small talk with priests and employees of the Vatican. Just relaxing in silence and still taking in the views from before.
Out of the gardens and there we were standing at St Peter's square. Looking to the Vatican from the outside. People of all nationalitys walking there, priests, fathers, nuns from all over the world walking and standing there hoping to catch a glimpse of the pope. In the late afternoon we walked away from it, sat at expensive restaurant overlooking St Peter's square, basilica and the Vatican. I knew it was going to be expensive but when I got my bill some unholly cursing escaped before I knew it.
8 euro for a coke damn but the food was great. We called it a day cause it was getting way to hot and walked back to catch a bus to our hotel. At the hotel we relaxed at the roof patio and looked at the Dome of the basilica and thought to ourselves it was a nice trip.
Next day it was up in the night the head back to the airport. As we drove back to the airport we saw many buildings and monuments by night and also many places we didnt even had time to visit.
Will we go back, maybe one day yes but the next trip will be Paris with the wife and then it will be London with the kids.

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[beuk]

Pictures will follow of the trip. They are on another pc stored back home.

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[t0rn]

A really magical city with hidden gems all over the place.
Enjoyed your report - reminds me I must return soon!