Arrival

Our trip to Italy obviously began with the flight; we flew directly from Detroit Metro to Rome Fiumicino. The flight took about 9 hours and we arrived in Rome around 12:30pm on Thursday. Actually, I should say we arrived in Italy - Rome's airport is about 40 miles west of the city center. To get to Rome, we took the Leonardo Express, a train that runs directly from the airport to Rome's Termini station. Cost was a little steep at 11 euro per person, but the only cheaper option was a inner-city train/subway combination, which didn't sound appealing with hauling around luggage.

I'd definitely recommend the Express, and I'd strongly recommend getting your tickets from the yellow self-serve kiosks in the station. They're easy to use and you can pay by cash or credit card (depending on the machine). Plus, if you go through one of the information stands there, you'll likely be charged a 1 euro "booking fee" per ticket.

Hotel Aenea

Aenea is a little hotel on Via Urbana, about a 10 minute walk from Termini. It's down a fairly quiet street, but located well within walking distance of most of the major attractions. It's also more of an apartment-style setting rather than a hotel; in fact, there are apartments on the other floors of the building (the hotel is on the third).

We were quite happy with this place. Check in was easy - staff spoke English very well and were very helpful. Our room contained a fridge, coffee maker, and air. They also provide two croissants for each person in the morning and fill a basket every day with snacks. We stayed 3 nights and paid 140 euro per night, which is decent for Rome. We highly recommend Aenea.

Historical Center

I figured that we didn't want to be overwhelmed with the city, so we decided to go with a private tour guide for three half-day tours of Rome's major sights. I found Rich online; he's a Pittsburgh native now living in Rome. His English is great, and it's obvious he knows a lot about the city. His tours were very informative and useful, and he allowed you to go at your own pace. If you're looking for touring options, stay away from the big groups - you'll see them all over, usually with a headset on so they can hear their guide. For just a little more money, you'll have a much better time with Rich.

Our first day was a 3 1/2 hour tour of Rome's historical center. After we settled into our hotel, we met Rich at a little cafe to start the tour. After being 10 minutes late (we quickly learned Rome's streets can be difficult to follow), we started.

Some of the highlights:

Torre Argentina and the Cat Sanctuary

An archeological dig of four ancient Roman temples started our tour. The Largo di Torre Argentina is the area that holds these four temples (called Temples A, B, C, & D) and also the remains of Theatre of Pompey, which is where Julius Caesar was believed to have been killed. The area is now home to many cats; there's a cat sanctuary next to it. We saw a lot of them wandering the ruins, and we also stopped into the sanctuary and pet a couple of them.

Piazza Navona

Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi fountain highlights this square, and it's quite amazing. After seeing a few ruins to start the tour, this was definitely breathtaking. We only spent a little bit of time here before heading out to the Pantheon, stopping by a few churches to get a taste of the art, sculptures, and medieval history of Rome along the way.

Pantheon

The dome of the Pantheon is well-worth seeing. There's always a crowd, but walking inside and looking up at the dome is awesome. There's really not a whole lot else to see - a few paintings and some tombs (it is technically a temple to the gods, after all) - but Rich explained a lot of the history, so that helped add to the awe.

Trevi Fountain

After grabbing some gelato (our first of many), we came to the famous Trevi Fountain. It was crowded full of people, but it was obvious why: it's beautiful. This was probably one of our favorite sites in Rome - it's especially great at night when it's all lit up. It's not very peaceful, but it's nice to sit on the steps and people-watch.

Spanish Steps

We ended our tour here, at the famous Spanish Steps. Frankly, we were kind of less than impressed. The Steps are nice, but there's not really a lot to see - just a fountain and steps. Nice views at the very top, however, next to the Trinita dei Monti church.

After leaving Rich, we walked around the Piazza di Spagna area a bit, then headed back to our hotel. We grabbed some pizza, then got some much-needed sleep.

To see all of our Rome pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.

Beauty of the Vatican

Our second day in Rome was primarily focused on the Vatican. We had a tour set up with Rich at 1:00pm, so we did have the morning to walk around and explore a bit. We decided to stroll into the Piazza Venezia area first.

The National Monument of Victor Emmanuel II (or The Big White Building as Heather liked to call it) was the first stop. A lot of stairs leads to a small museum up top, which wasn't really that interesting. The bigger attraction was the view and the building itself.


Once leaving the Monument, we made a stop into Santa Maria in Aracoeli. It's a very beautiful church; fairly plain on the outside, but gorgeous on the inside (as you can see below). It was set up for a wedding, and we saw the guests arriving as we were there.


After having our fill of the Piazza Venezia area, we started our walk to the Vatican. We walked along the Tiber River for a while, then jumped onto Via Giulia (one of the recommended walks in one of our guide books). There wasn't a whole lot to see here, although it was somewhat pretty and peaceful.


We crossed the Ponte Vittorio and decided to check out Castel Sant'Angelo, a former stronghold built to protect Vatican City. To our pleasant surprise, the tickets were free for the weekend. It was worth the time; the "museum" parts were fairly interesting, the view on top was very good, and just walking around the castle was fun.


We grabbed a gelato at a place called Old Bridge (cheap, very good gelato close to the Vatican Museums) then sat down for lunch at Ristaurante Paolo because that was where we were to meet our tour guide. It's a classic tourist trap restaurant; someone outside waving people in, pricey, and not-sure-if-it's-really-from-scratch food. Decent, but not recommended. We expected our guide to be there (since a lot of other tour groups also meet there) but Heather ended up spotting her across the street, so we were actually a few minutes late again, even though we were in the right spot. Oh well.

The good part was that another couple was also touring with us, which brought our cost down a bit. Our guide wasn't Rich, but an associate of his. She was alright, but we had a better time with Rich. Our tour started in the Vatican Museums - I won't go into any details - if you're going to Rome, you'll be going here - but here's a few pictures:





A few of the rooms are boring, but quite a few are pretty remarkable. At the end, you finally get to the Sistine Chapel. The chapel is just incredible to take in; it's really amazing to think of how Michelangelo did it.

After leaving the museums we moved into St. Peter's Basilica. The grandness of the building is awesome, but I found it to be almost too big; it felt less intimate than a lot of other places. I guess it just didn't have the effect on me that I was expecting.


St. Peter's Square, however, is something to see. It's easy to imagine thousands of people crowding this square to see a glimpse of the Pope.


My recommendation - don't take a guided tour of the Vatican. You'll miss out on some information by doing so, but I think it'd be better to walk at your own pace and soak everything up. Take a good guide book and you'll be fine.

After leaving Vatican City, we took a walk to Piazza del Popolo, a Roman square which is near the northern gate of the Aurelian Walls. There happened to be a concert going on in the square - some sort of MTV-sponsored free summer concert - but we didn't recognize any of the bands, so we didn't stick around too long.


We stopped by a cafe and grabbed a panini and coffee. After that, we walked by the Piazza Venezia, Trevi Fountain, and Spanish Steps (each very cool to see at night) before heading back to the hotel.

To see all of our Rome pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.

The Grandeur of Ancient Rome

Our third day in Rome was all about ancient Rome. Rich's tour started at 9:00am and took us to Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum, the Arch of Constantine, and the Colosseum.

Palatine Hill is home to some amazing excavations of homes, palaces, and stadiums. There's so much history here; it's awesome to walk around and see remains of buildings that are well over 2000 years old.




The ticket for Palatine Hill also covers the Colosseum; we had the good fortune to go on a day when everything was free. We're still not really sure why - some sort of celebration, I guess - but that was definitely a bonus.

On the way to the Colosseum, we got a chance to take a look at a couple of the best-known Roman arches. The Arch of Titus:

And the Arch of Constantine:


After that, it was time to hit the Colosseum, arguably Italy's most recognizable attraction. And it doesn't disappoint. You get a real sense of how huge it is immediately when you walk in; it's like going into a football stadium, but then you realize that it's almost 2000 years old - that makes it a bit more impressive.



The Roman Forum was next up on our tour. The Forum was the heart and center of the city in ancient times. Now it mostly consists of a lot of ruins, although there some good stuff here, including the supposed site where Julius Caesar's body was burned and where Marc Antony gave his famous speech. Interesting stuff.


It's also home to another arch, the Arch of Septimius Severus:


With our tour with Rich ended, we walked around the Piazza Venetia area for a while but then decided to head back to the hotel for a little rest.

Later that day, we decided to head back to Palatine Hill (it was free after all - and we felt like we wanted to spend some more time there). Along the way there, we stopped by a few churches.

The beautiful Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore:

San Pietro in Vincoli, home of Michelangelo's Moses:

We went back into Palatine Hill, taking a few more pictures along the way.


After we had our fill, we made the long walk through the Circo Massimo to the Trastevere area and then on to Campo de' Fiori. It was there that we found a bar that had a free appetizer spread, so we had a couple of drinks there before dinner.

Our first true sit-down Italian restaurant dinner was this night. We were looking for a restaurant in one of our guide books, but didn't find it, so we chose a place on our walk back. After overcoming a little language trouble (our waiter was annoyed with me quite quickly), we had a decent meal, including Heather's favorite spaghetti carbonara.

But we weren't done yet - after dinner we went to the Colosseum and got some pretty good night pictures. A nice end to a long day.


To see all of our Rome pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.

Arrival

We took off from Florence fairly early - I think it was around 9 or 10 - and took a train back to Rome. We opted for the cheaper regional train; it was around an hour longer than the Eurostar, but half the price.

Hotel Andreina

We decided to stay close to Termini, which made sense since it was only for one night and it saved us from hauling luggage around more than we had to. Hotel Andreina is a couple blocks away from Termini in a building that shares space with other hotels; Andreina is on the 4th floor, but it has rooms on the 3rd. In our case, we had to go through the 4th floor lobby, then down a private elevator to the 3rd floor to get to our room. To leave the hotel, we had to take the elevator back up to 4th and leave that way. It's an extremely annoying process, and would've driven us nuts had it been more than one day.

The room itself was fine; it was quite large (ours had a double and an extra twin bed) and it was quiet enough for the location. No breakfast (although it's an option, for an extra charge) but overall it was decent enough for the 100 euro fee. The entry/exit was so inconvenient though that the only way I'd recommend it is if you doing a 1-night stay with connections at Termini.

One More Look

With one more day in Rome, we wanted to revisit a couple places, namely Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. First, however, I convinced Heather to walk down to the Laterano area - I knew there was a large church there that we hadn't seen yet. We were a bit skeptical on the way there - the area directly south of Termini isn't exactly high-class - but once we got there it proved pretty amazing.

The Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano was our destination, and it's definitely something to see. It's the official seat of the Pope (not St. Peter's, which is what I assumed), so it's very important in the Catholic Church. Interestingly enough, the basilica is considered property of the Pope even though it is territorially within Rome.


The inside of the basilica is massive and beautiful. The main draws for us were the statues of the twelve apostles (set in niches in the middle of the church) and the seat of the Pope (at the front). Even after seeing a lot of churches on our travels we were still impressed with this one - make sure you don't miss it, even though it's outside of the main tourist area of Rome.


We headed northeast after that, our destination being Piazza Navona. We passed by the Baths of Caracalla and thought about going in, but decided against it since it was already late in the afternoon by then. We walked by the Colosseum and the Forum, then headed back into the Pantheon one more time before arriving at Piazza Navona. After getting a few pictures and being satisfied with getting a chance to see these amazing places one more time, we stopped by the same bar in Campo de' Fiori as before for drinks and appetizers.



Our night ended with trying to find something to eat. The restaurants around the Termini area aren't impressive, at least to us. We walked around for a while before deciding on the fanciest of places: McDonald's. It's funny to think that our last dinner in Italy was there, but it was interesting to notice the differences between a McDonald's there and here in the States. And they have a killer cappuccino shake flavor there; it'd be great if that made it's way over here.

Heading Home

And so ends our Italian vacation. We did grab a bite to eat for breakfast at a little pizzeria near the train station before taking the Leonardo Express back to the airport, but otherwise that was it. We didn't have any problems with our flight back, so everything went pretty smoothly.

To see all of our Rome pictures, go to our Picasa Web Album.