When In Rome...

If you read my blog a while back, you will know that one of the places I would like to see was Rome. I can now tell you that I can tick it off my list, as I went, saw and conquered the Italian Capital. What follows is a description of our trip, including it's quirks, mishaps and a few handy tips for those of you who would also like to pay it a visit.

Arriving in Roma

Before you consider this trip - I will give you a polite warning. If you are a pedestrian of a nervous disposition, avoid Rome. I do not exaggerate when I say every time you cross the road, it feels as if you are taking your life into your own hands. My guidebook said this:

Crossing Roads
'First impressions suggest there can be only two sorts of pedestrian in Rome: the quick and the dead. Even if you cross roads by traffic lights and pedestrian crossings strictly in your favour, there is sure to be some sort of van or Vespa hurtling towards you with apparently homicidal intent...the best tactic is to be as confident as Romans.'
It was not lying. We just had to be confident and step out in the road and hope the cars and vespas would stop for us. Most times they did, other times we had to run or in my companion's case, cause one female scooter driver to test out how quick her reactions were. That was a close shave. I would not suggest hiring a car unless you are very confident and are able to break at superhuman speeds. It's all part of the adventure though.

Anywho, our hotel was quite far out of the centre but it was easy enough to get there. We caught a 5 euro bus from the airport to Termini station in the centre of Rome (you can buy tickets for these in the airport OR on the bus) and hopped in a taxi. I was very on edge throughout that journey as that was our first main taste of the roads of Rome. I felt pretty tense to say the least! After that, we asked in our hotel what the best way to get around was. Each day, we bought two 1.50 euro tickets that would allow us to use the buses and the subway to get into town. We soon caught the hang of it and got our bearings and it was a very cheap way to do it! It also felt more authentic as we were seemingly the only tourists on the bus.

Travelling Around

I would suggest you take a good guide book with you. I took this one, an Eyewitness Travel book which was ideal. It came with a useful map and lots of suggestions about places we must visit. I also used it in places such as the Pantheon to give me a bit more information about what I was seeing. You can also get maps from tourist information places that are really useful and they helped us to get around. Things are pretty well signposted which is very handy!

As I said before, we used the subway a lot which was really simple to work out. There are two lines, A and B and they all connect at Termini which has links for buses too. You can get a 6 euro ticket which allows you to have unlimited journeys in a day which we used on day 3 on our trip to Spagna.

In general, we walked a LOT. It was quite tiring and we ended up making use of the nice steps and cafes to watch the world go by a little. Their coffee is amazing, and now I am home it doesn't quite taste the same but be sure to order an Americano if you want a long coffee as if you just say 'coffee' you will be handed an espresso. Which I got used to drinking. Oh dear. 

Things we did.

As was suggested, the first thing we did was arrange an Open Top Bus Tour. We were able to buy tickets in our Hotel the night before so we bought a 24 hour pass which was great because we could then use it for 2 days. We caught the bus from outside Termini station and had to queue up as it was quite a popular tour. Here's the one we used. We met some Australians as we were waiting and my companion got sold a very attractive (this is sarcasm) straw hat to protect her head on the open top as it was a sunny day. After this, the guys would not leave me alone but I stood by ground and refused to purchase one of their ridiculous items. On the bus, we met a lovely American couple (which was all I was hoping for) who found us amusing. The tour was great, and we got to see everything we could've hoped to see. We took the whole tour once over and then hopped off at the Colosseum. The day after, we got back on the bus and took it to Vatican city to save us the walk, which worked out really well!

The offensive hat

Outside the Colosseum, you will find people in costume who to my companion were a dream come true, but to me - my worst nightmare realised. The lady who posed with them for a picture before us was most dignified. They sat her on the chair delicately, placed a nice leaf crown on top of her head, gently wrapped a robe around her shoulders and posed nicely to allow her to have a nice souvenir to take home to show her family. When it was our turn, this is not what happened. They grabbed my companion, threw her on the chair, ripped down the shoulder of her dress, pulled her legs up on to the chair so she was lying down and looked naked once the robe had been thrown around her and made suggestive comments in Italian. As I was bending over through laughing so hard and I had mascara in my eyes through the tears streaming down my face at the disbelief of this unprecedented situation. This is when the tables were turned.

Before I explain what happened to me, I will tell you this. If you have ever looked into love languages, you will know that one of the languages is 'physical touch.' On a recent test I took, that category came out as zero. Acts of service was the winner as I would much rather people did something such as make me a cup of tea than give me a foot massage. I am famous for having a rather large zone of personal space, and if a stranger touches me even if to shake my hand - it makes me quite uncomfortable. I rarely initiate physical contact with anyone unless they are a baby in which case I just want to cuddle them non-stop. This is where my Roman nightmare comes in. Through all the laughter and tears and the misfortune of my companion, imagine the shock of me being grabbed by a bunch of men who took my prescription sunglasses off my face (so I was blind) threw my handbag off my shoulder, flung me onto the chair pulling my legs up so that they were crossed over and tugging at my dress to throw the robe over me. Not only this, but one of them pulled off my flip flop to try and lick my foot - which makes me feel physically sick when I remember it whilst another grabbed my left hand to put it on his bare, exposed thigh. Once the photo was over, I practically ran to get away from them throwing the crown off my head and the robe off my shoulders. I was physically shaking for about 10 minutes after and I was forced to pay 20euros for the pleasure.

I didn't need this picture to remember this moment.

Unless you are 2 young women travelling together - i'm pretty sure you won't have the same experience as we did, as we did attract a substantial amount of non-subtle male attention. I will explore this later.

We did go inside the Colosseum, which for us was great because if you are 18-25 and a Euro citizen you only have to pay 7.50euro to get in. It was raining the day we visited so we had to buy some appropriate cover ups that would help us blend in with the locals:

As with most of the trips, you can find people outside who will offer you a tour with more information however there are lots of signs inside that explain enough about what you are seeing to allow you to save a bit of money. We just wandered around under the cover and read what we wanted to. 

We also went to the Trevi fountain, which was one of my favourite spots of the trip. There were loads of tourists there doing the 'throwing the coin into the fountain' thing. Which we also did. I threw two in which apparently means you will find your true love so I'm pretty excited about that.

After we caught our tour bus again, we visited St Peter's and the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. We were offered tour after tour by guys who said they would give us discount even though we didn't have our student cards with us but we decided against it. We just took photographs outside St Peters and then walked to find the Vatican Museum after a quick bite to eat.

Me and the Pope.

The Vatican Museum was absolutely huge. There is no way we saw even half of it but we reached a point whereby we decided we had seen enough. We walked through about 10 never ending, beautiful and ornate hallways that led to more and more impressive statues and paintings.

The Sistine Chapel was incredible, getting to see paintings that you have seen on cups all your life is pretty exciting. I didn't take any photos in there as I have a thing about not photographing things in Churches and as that was a rule, I decided to follow it. It was also supposed to be silent and un-photographed however when we finally got inside, it was packed full of loud tourists who were taking photographs with the flash on, which for me ruined the moment really. I just found that very disrespectful. I think there are certain things in life that if you are able, you should see for yourself because it is much more exciting. 

My favourite day involved visiting Spagna, which was a couple of train stops away from Termini. This is where the Spanish Steps are located. The night before we went, I spent some time flicking through my guidebook looking for things to do and on this occasion, it came up trumps. It boasted an English Tea Room which sealed the deal for me and we went straight there. 

Babington's Tea Rooms - opened originally for homesick English Tourists

It was a rather expensive brew, so we opted for a take away Iced tea of which I chose Earl Grey and we sat and drank it in the sun on the Spanish Steps which all felt very idillic.

After this, the guidebook recommended that we look at the fountain on the Piazza de Spagna which was at the bottom of the Steps. It was pretty beautiful but my companions choice of footwear (crocs) which did not suit the wet conditions one iota, meant that she could not pose for this photo opportunity. I could though:

The street ahead of us I would imagine is quite a famous one. The shops it contained ranged from Louis Vuitton to Gucci to Bvlgari. Safe to say we didn't pop in any of those establishments. I remember seeing a man who had 2 giant Gucci bags and 3 Tiffany's bags and thinking he probably spent more on one item than we did on our entire trip and that made me feel a bit sick. The reason for visiting this street was because the guide book had suggested a really good Greek restaurant that is worth a visit so we went to find it. When we reached it, we soon realised that it looked scarily expensive so I opted to simply have my photograph outside of it.

Instead of eating there, we found a side street which had a nice looking cafe that allowed me to have a Parma Ham and fresh Mozzarella sandwich with a fanta for 6 euros. The waiter said he wanted to come and stay with us in England. I hope he has short term memory loss as he was at least twice my age. After lunch, we looked in a few nice shops that I wanted to look up online at home as Italian fashion just looks so effortless and comfortable.

I had read about this museum:

I have relatively little knowledge about English poetry, or poetry in general but seeing as though we were there, I thought it would be a shame to pass up the opportunity. I went round this alone and found it to be an extremely peaceful place. I could see why Keats would feel inspired by his surroundings just through the view of his bedroom window:

To find out more information about this museum, check this link. It has certainly inspired me to read more poetry, especially Keats and Shelley having learnt about their lives. I think it was well worth the 4.50euros entry fee. It felt very quintessentially British, which I enjoyed about it. Look at this beautiful ceiling:

After this, we caught the train back and decided to take a coffee in a nice place that would allow us to drink coffee and people watch. Much to my companion's annoyance, I insisted we kept walking even through we had passed about 1 million coffee shops because they weren't quite right. I'm glad we did, because I had found exactly what I was looking for in this place:

We sat here and read, whilst we met a nice Canadian couple.

I got lost in a map after being distracted by all the hustle and bustle and we decided to try and find the Pantheon, so that we had seen as much as possible. In the end, we managed to find it and I'm glad we did as it was free to get in there and it was absolutely spectacular.

Other things we saw along the way involved ruins:

One of my favourite places which was called: Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri which features 'the last great architectural genius of Michelangelo.' That place made me think a lot. I found it very inspirational.

My favourite building, which just got me every single time was this one, which is used as a museum:

I just found it so incredible to look at, with those giant statues that just looked so stereotypically Roman. Every time I saw it, I took another picture because I just couldn't get over it, it is absolutely stunning.

Food to eat and drinks to drink

We only had four evening meals as it was a short break but I did manage to eat pizza nearly every night. Pizza is just not like that in England. I don't think I've ever eaten a whole one as they are two thick and full of toppings but in Italy, they are all cooked freshly in special ovens and are very thin and crisp. They don't overdo it on toppings and when I had Margarita it was easy to finish. I also had a lot of bruschetta, which tasted like a revelation. I couldn't believe how good it tasted! Lots of restaurants do special deals that include a starter and a drink which meant that eating out could be done on less than 15euros a meal. My favourite order was this Tirimasu:

Take me back.

Sandwiches during the day were also fresh and very cheap, generally about 3 or 4 euros and could be purchased from one of the million pavement vendors scattered all around the city. I would be aware of the vendor nearest to the Colosseum as I paid 4euros for a bottle of Fanta which I could've thrown in the guys face when he told me the price. Sometimes, it pays to wait if you don't want to get completely ripped off.

One thing we did make use of, was the amazing fruit shop that we walked past twice a day every day to get to and from our bus stop. We took to visiting it of a morning and couldn't believe how cheap it was! We bought nearly a kilo of fresh, giant grapes for 79cents - about 60p. At home, it would cost at least £2 for a pack of grapes half of that size. 

The Italians seemed to have a thing for big watermelons.

As I mentioned earlier, Espresso is what they drink. So my caffeine addiction grew ever so slightly whilst I was there and it is going to be difficult to even it out again. Much like Greece, the Italians also serve a lot of Ice Tea which I love so some days, my only liquid intake would involve caffeine. Woops.  Coffee was cheap as chips though, and my Cappuccino was the best I have ever tasted, ever. I brought some good coffee back home with me.


A Brit's Observations

If you are English, female and travelling alongside another female - you will turn a lot of heads. One day, as me and my companion were bickering about where she should best pose for a photograph, a random onlooker said to me that we were both 'unbelievably English.' Everywhere we walked, people stared at us. We especially attracted a lot of male attention, which is something of a rarity for me especially as in England I can only recall drawing the eye of drunken forty somethings in Weatherspoons pub (which, in my town is the cheap one you use to start your night out). It surprised me how obvious the men were too. One day, I popped my head around a corner to check whether the road was safe to cross and a bus driver flashed his lights and raised his eyebrows at me. In England - bus drivers tend to drive past you so as to ruin your day and make you wait an extra 30 minutes in the rain for the next one, just because they can. So that one came as a surprise.

Lots of the men said we were beautiful and one of our waiters kept reiterating the fact that they served cocktails until 2am, possibly in the hope that we would stay. One of the hotel workers made a few tongue in cheek jokes about how he would've enjoyed a night with us to which we laughed and ran to bed, promptly locking our door. Though I am making them sound creepy, it wasn't like that. We were probably quite different to the norm - curvy and adorned in bright florals instead of slim and classically dressed. I would be lying if I said I wasn't flattered, as Englishmen especially are very reserved and would never act in this way unless under the influence of alcohol in a sweaty club, which isn't the most romantic of settings. So, if all else fails, I may find someone in Italy.

One thing I found unbelievably tempting was the urge to buy a brightly coloured umbrella so as to pretend I was a tour guide to distract the tourists away from their pack and make loads of stuff up that they would believe and go home and tell their friends and look silly. I blame my Britishness for this, buy I dreamt of doing that a LOT.

Conclusion

All in all, we had a great trip. It was very tiring, as we managed to cram a whole Calendar's worth of places in 3 days. We tried to do it cheaply, so didn't opt to do add ons such as tours/buy tour guides as we just worked it out for ourselves or just read up on it. The city is all go, but is full of fascinating artefacts  buildings/architecture and vehicles. It is easier one might think to get bearings and work out how to get about. I will leave you with one of my favourite snaps, as before we went I found it a stereotypical Italian image:

Much Love xxx