Rome – where everything is so monumental

As I told, I didn’t have time to rest. I had a lovely 2 days in Rome with my friend. We are a bit crazy as we went from Saturday morning till Sunday night, so literally just for the weekend, but totally worth it. I highly recommend visiting Rome even for this short time, you will love it – I promise.

Our flight was at 7:30, so woke up at 4:45 wasn’t really nice, but you have to make a sacrifice. The flight was a bit delayed, but just 20 mins, so it didn’t ruin our plans.

From the airport you can either catch a train (if you buy from the machine it’s €14, if from the lady at the ticket windows it’s €16…) or catch a bus (it’s around €12-14). We choose the train, as there is no train in Malta, and also, it’s faster. It gets to the Termini station in 32 mins.

Rome is doable by walk if you have 3-4 days, but as we stayed only 2 days we decided to use the public transport. You can buy a 24, 48 and 72 hours card, which is valid on buses, trams and metros.

The 48 hours ticket is €12,5, so if you plan to visit everything I highly recommend to buy one of the ticket.

As a first stop we visited the Spanish steps, which is at Spagna metro station. Last time when I was in Rome, it was under construction, the whole steps was closed. The weather was really hot we were boiling so as a best option we decided to sit down and have a glass of wine.

We booked a room for a night on Airbnb very close to the Vatican – we could check in from 1pm but it was flexible. I really recommend that area, as the Vatican is beautiful by night and you can simply walk home. However, the metro station was really close, I hate using metros nighttime, okay daytime as well.

We checked in and went back to town by walk as when you pass the Vatican there is a beautiful street heading to the center. Our host left us a list of the best restaurants and ice cream places, but as I already visited Rome 2 years ago I had some favorite places.

We stopped for an ice-cream on Via della Conciliazione. If you visit Italy, you have to try the ice cream!

We walked along to the Castel Sant’Angelo, which I will visit one day, but we decided not to go in. Again 2 days is enough to see everything from outside… If you would like to go in museum you need at least 4 days. 2 years ago, I visited the Vatican, the Colosseum and the Forum Romanum so this year I told my friend I don’t really want to queue. I think there is only one place where we actually went in, but I will tell that story when I get there.

So, from the Vatican you can make a really nice walk to the center, passed by the Castel Sant’Angelo, Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Trevi fountain. From there the Altare della Patria is very close and one long road and you can reach the Colosseum.

We had a lovely lunch just in front of the Pantheon. There is a lot of restaurants there and that view is amazing. Rome is always amaze me as you sit watch and think what happened there 2000-2500 years ago…

The Colosseum is still amazing and monumental. It is really hard to believe that Julius Caesar was sitting there watching the gladiators and give the thumb. I just love this wonder and could sit there thinking about this days.

I wanted to show my friend a nice piazza, but I forgot the name and couldn’t find on the map either, so we just stopped for a drink close to the river.

I told my friend we have to wait for the night and the lights, as the night view is as beautiful as the day view. Especially the Vatican. 🙂

We went to the apartment to get some rest and prepare ourselves for the next day. I don’t need to say when I woke up I could not feel my legs. 😀 I didn’t mind to go with the metro this time.

Our first destination was the Circus Maximus. Next to it there is a market where we got some breakfast – sausage and bread. It was amazing. You can buy in a paper can with 5 kind of sausages for €3.20. Totally worth it and was enough for 2 of us with the bread.

From here we walked down to the river – unfortunately it was again a huuuuge queue to the mouth of truth, so we didn’t go in to take a picture.

On the small island (Isola Tiberina) there was a music and art festival so unfortunately half of it was closed.

We wanted to visit Park Villa Borghese and Medici Villa. On the way there I found that piazza which I couldn’t the night before. It’s called Popolo. How could I forgot this name? How??

Anyway, we sat down for a drink as it said cocktails for €5, so we had 2-2 and ended up with a bill €65. Was not expected that, I was shocked. Don’t go there. The cocktails for €5 was for takeaway. If I know this… I ask for takeaway – and might get penalty drinking on the street. 😀 So yeah don’t sit down at that area for a drink, doesn’t worth it.

From Piazza Popolo the garden is very close and the Villa as well. We walked up and decided we really would like to see the garden of the Medici villa, so we paid for visiting the museum. You can choose from 2 tickets, 1 for the exhibition which end up in the garden ant that is 6 EUR or a guide tour which is €12. As we still didn’t have a lot time we just paid the €6 one.

There was an exhibition where fist they gave us a bag “ I’m yours, take me home”. Oh did I mentioned we only had a handbag with us? No luggage at all. You can imagine our shoulders were in pain. And we got this: take me home. They told us, from every room we can take something or create something. The first room was full of postcards and posters, of course we took some. The next room had a lot of fire extinguisher, no worries we didn’t take any of them. And after we arrived at the steps where were a lot of second hand clothes. My god I have never ever been in an exhibition like this. We took 1-1 clothes too just in case… In the next room there was a phone where you could take picture and post it on the Instagram of the place, in the next one there were broken plates from which you could create a new statue… and as next room there they took us to the basement. Which was very creepy but finally we arrived in the garden. The villa is very beautiful. We wanted to take a photo but every time we moved 2 step somebody told us go back stay away from the bush etc. We managed some, but you can see in every picture that we are running.

For dinner we went back to the Piazza Navona area, there is a lot of nice restaurant in that small streets. You can easily pick one. 🙂

After we had to leave to the airport. 😦 As our ticket was still available for next morning 10am, we tried to find somebody who can use it. I was surprised a lot of people didn’t want to take it, but after we found 2 Spanish guy who were so happy that we gave it to them. 🙂 The flight was again a bit delayed, but we arrived back to Malta safe and sound.