Dear readers,
When Ms Lust asked me to make a list of places I would like to visit for my birthday, and knowing that we would be going for about four to five days, Rome was an obvious choice for inclusion which came to me without any need for thought. I’ve wanted to visit Rome for a long time, it just never seemed the kind of place to visit alone. So, now that I’ve found my perfect travel and life companion, I couldn’t think of anywhere better to go (Paris came in joint first place). I was drawn to Rome by the rich history of the city and the legacy of the Roman Empire, and the romantic atmosphere added another element I was sure to enjoy.
With that in mind, all the bookings were left for Ms Lust to make, and she did an excellent job. Our hotel was within easy reach of the city centre, which made exploring and reaching the main sights a breeze. She even managed to find a great restaurant in the neighbourhood which provided an excellent birthday dinner, but more on that later.
With my birthday being in the middle of winter, the weather was an important factor for Ms Lust when deciding where we would go. Being Sardinian she naturally didn’t want to go anywhere too cold (Bratislava had burnt that bridge already, more on that later in the year!), which is one of the reasons Rome was chosen over Paris. Unfortunately, as is often the case, the weather didn’t play along and we found ourselves once again exploring a city in the freezing cold. And when I say it was cold, I don’t mean that it was cold for Rome, it was during the ‘big freeze’ that caused so many problems in Central Europe and it was cold for pretty much anywhere! Most of the fountains were frozen to some degree, and the Sun did little to provide any respite from the biting wind. And there is the silver lining, yes it was very cold, but it was also sunny and dry for most of our stay and this allowed us to explore to our heart’s content (well wrapped up of course!).
When visiting a place as famous as Rome, it’s often difficult to deviate too much from the main tourist trail and therefore our itinerary was mostly chosen for us. Places such as the Colosseum and the Vatican City, albeit very crowded and touristy, just have to be included in any first-timer’s plans. So the places we would try to visit were more or less decided, however there was more to Rome that I wanted to experience than just the buildings. The first World Cup I can remember was Italia ‘90, and the sound of Pavarotti belting out Nessun Dorma will always bring those memories flooding back. I just had to experience my own slice of Italian culture first-hand, and I started looking for operas or concerts we could watch while we were in Rome. I also wanted to indulge in some true Italian dining experiences, and with my own personal guide there was no time like the present! So I guess this is how I’m going to split this post up, with my experiences of Roman attractions, culture, and cuisine.
Attractions and architecture
Most people would be able to name and describe the main sights in Rome, without even having to visit there. This is true of most major cities and tourist destinations, but I firmly believe that no amount of photographs or videos can compare to seeing these ancient wonders with your own eyes. As I have mentioned in previous posts, thinking of how these grand, ancient buildings were constructed all those years ago really does astonish me. In Rome, I felt like this from the moment the airport shuttle bus took us to the city centre right up until the moment it brought us back again. Everywhere you look there are buildings and ruins from the days of the Roman Empire, interspersed with magnificent Renaissance artwork and architecture. No matter how modernised and commercialised Rome may get, I don’t think it will ever feel very far removed from the Rome that the great emperors once knew. There is history in every street, and I wouldn’t be surprised if every building in this city has a fascinating story to tell.
The first major attraction that we visited was the Vatican City, and the Vatican museums. Unfortunately we were unable to visit the Sistine Chapel due to an early closure for the day, but it was incredibly impressive nonetheless. I haven’t visited very many art galleries previously, and I am far from being knowledgeable about anything art-related, and the galleries in the Vatican museum have probably ruined the experience of any I may visit in the future! The walls and the ceilings are absolutely covered with fine paintings from the most famous artists, accompanied by Greek and Roman sculptures and finished with more gold than I have ever seen in my life. Whilst a little extravagant for my taste, it is hard not to be overwhelmed by the sheer scale, history, and magnificence of their collection. I truly recommend it to everyone that visits Rome, and I’m sure we will come here again to finally see the Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo’s masterpiece. The exterior is no less impressive, with St Peter’s Basilica dominating the square. However we had arranged to have lunch with one of Ms Lust’s friends, so this would have to wait until another day.
The following day was dedicated to the ancient Roman part of Rome, namely the Colosseum and the Forums. I am so glad that these places, although major tourist attractions, have not become too commercialised and have managed to remain authentic. With the exception of a few educational boards at the entrances and directional signs to stop too many tourists getting lost, very little seems to have been added to these ancient constructions. Even though they are obviously in a worse state of repair now than when they were first built, it really is easy to imagine yourself in ancient Rome while exploring here, especially in the Forums. I’m very glad that the institutions that look after these sites have decided to let the buildings themselves do the talking and ignite imaginations, and I sincerely hope it remains this way. Whilst the Colosseum didn’t take a huge amount of time to visit, the Forums were another story. You really should set aside a whole day just for this part of the city, to avoid the risk of missing out on the whole experience.
On our last day in Rome, we really only had the morning for further explorations before needing to head back to the airport. After some deliberation, we decided this would be ideal to return to the Vatican City in order to see the interior of St Peter’s Basilica. Despite not being religious, I couldn’t help but to be impressed with the rich history of this area. Added to this is the fact that everything looks so pristine and well-preserved, certainly not as you would expect for their age! This really isn’t like any other church or cathedral you may have visited, and worthwhile even if you are not that interested in the spiritual aspect of it.
But this was by no means the only places we managed to visit in Rome, just the major attractions that took the most time. The Trevi Fountain was the only fountain we saw that wasn’t frozen to some degree, and we fulfilled our tourist obligations by tossing a coin over our shoulders in accordance with tradition! Whilst it wasn’t too busy at the time we were there, I have been warned that it can become quite crowded and to be wary of pickpockets in this area. However it is well worth a visit, just be sure to take some coins with you!
The Spanish Steps were completely different to my perception of how they would be, and I was glad for that. Based on descriptions from friends that had visited previously, my imagination conjured up images of a grand, wide, outdoor staircase, so crowded with street traders shoving roses in your face and men proposing to their partners that you may not even be able to see they were there. Maybe it was due to visiting after dark, but fortunately this was not the case. Sure there is a grand staircase, and there are many couples embracing each other in one way or another, but it wasn’t too crowded and had many other beautiful features to compliment the steps as well. There is a lovely, small fountain resembling a boat at the base of the steps, which themselves lead up to a wonderful looking church that unfortunately we didn’t have time to venture inside.
I could go on a lot longer about all the wonderful things we saw in Rome, but this post is already becoming incredibly wordy! My advice is this, take some time to just wander around the city and take in the sights as you go. Even if you don’t plan it at all and just walk aimlessly around, there are amazing things to see absolutely everywhere and you will be astounded at every turn.
Culture
If you’re looking for an in-depth cultural analysis of Rome, I’m afraid you are going to be disappointed. Ms Lust’s post is likely to be a lot more informative, as her knowledge of Italian culture is unsurprisingly a lot better than mine! However as I have mentioned already, another part of the reason I wanted to visit Rome is to experience some authentic Italian music. After a bit of researching on the internet, I came across a church called St Paul’s Within the Walls which hosts musical concerts frequently. The concert that really caught my eye was called Tre Tenori, and if you visit Rome I would highly recommend it if it is still playing. As the name suggests this is a Three Tenors styled concert, with an accompanying string quartet, and in an amazing setting. The venue is small so you won’t have to worry too much about getting a good view or being able to hear, however my advice is still to arrive early to secure the best seats, and tickets are not expensive either. With regards to the show itself, these guys certainly do not disappoint, and you’ll be listening in awe to some well-known classics in no time. I’m not going to spoil it by listing all the songs that were performed, I’ll just say that my wish for some Pavarotti themed entertainment was most definitely fulfilled.
After this I couldn’t help myself not to check their website to see if any other concerts were playing while we were in town, and as a result we ended up returning to the same venue a couple of days later. This time it was for Luminaria, a piano recital and soprano performance which was equally as impressive as the Tre Tenori concert and the church was made even more impressive when lit by candlelight. However the songs were less famous (to me anyway!), and I can’t help but to favour our first visit overall. It would seem that any concert in this fine setting is worth seeing, so even if neither of these concerts are running I’d still recommend seeing what’s on and giving something a go.
The other stars on the cultural front were the Italian public themselves. I don’t mean to make fun of them, but in certain situations they are so entertaining! I had heard about the Italian style of driving before, so I was already expecting to be run over at least three times during our stay and to hear nothing but the sound of car horns for the entire trip. But I didn’t expect them to be so innovative in their driving practices. What should you do if there is a left lane and a right lane, but you want to go straight ahead? Well you simply drive half way between the two and create a lane of your own of course! And if you ever have to chance to witness Italians queueing for a bus, please do not pass it up as you won’t find anything more entertaining elsewhere!
Cuisine
With all this exploring and sightseeing we certainly worked up an appetite, and you don’t have to ask me twice when Italian food is involved so this naturally became a bit part of our trip. It began in a small restaurant near our hotel with a coffee and a sfogliatella (a lobster tail shaped pastry), and I was already hooked. We ended up coming back to this restaurant for my birthday meal, not only for the food but for the great service and friendly atmosphere as well.
Obviously pizza and pasta were the main dishes of the holiday, and there were good ones and some not so good ones. Unfortunately some places in Rome cater solely for tourists, and as such are less concerned for the quality and authenticity of their food and their establishments. My advice for choosing where to eat in Rome is this, avoid the city centre and take advice from locals if you can. With the exception of the restaurant I mentioned above, all the good restaurants we visited were suggested by friends that either live or have lived in Rome, and they were all outside of the main city centre. Try a small, back‑street trattoria, you’re more likely to find a true Italian experience here than anywhere else.
Also, don’t be scared to try something new. A margherita or a pepperoni pizza isn’t going to taste all too different than it does at home, neither will spaghetti bolognese, they will just be made with fresher ingredients and in the traditional way. Take the opportunity to try some traditional Italian recipes, you’ll be surprised what can be good as a pizza topping (I even had one with salad on it!!). I also discovered a wonderful, new dessert as well, forming a new love for pannacotta. So much so I even managed to find a recipe and recreate it myself back in the UK. I also had the chance to have breakfast as the Italians do (imagine a French breakfast, but with a complete disregard for diabetics!), which although it hasn’t convinced me to change my normal habits, it’s an experience I am grateful for and would recommend.
I had an unbelievable time in Rome, and every moment was filled with discovery and wonder. There is so much to see and do here that we just couldn’t fit it all in, but that just means we have a great excuse to go back! We already have another long weekend’s worth of places to see and things to do on the wish list, so stay tuned for our return visit at some point. But for now, I’m going to leave it here and I hope you have enjoyed reading about our experiences in the Eternal City.
Happy travels!
Mr Wander
***
Dear readers,
Have you ever had any dream places to visit? That kind of places that make you decorate your room with posters and have a piggy bank with stickers of the city to save money and go? Maybe not, maybe I am that kind of weird, but I did. I had two places that were like that in my dreams. When I was a kid, that place was Rome, while as an adult the dream city was New York. There is a big risk in doing that: You end up idolising the place so much that it will be utterly disappointing once visited. It is what happened to me for New York, but then the company was the reason for that, so I am looking forward to going back to make up for that. As per Rome, it seems strange to think that I made a big deal of it considering how close it was to me. Well, I said already in the introduction that travelling was not a thing at home.
Anyway, for a long while I dreamt of visiting the Eternal City but I didn’t have a clear plan to do it. The culture, the ruins of the ancient civilisation, the allure of a capital city were extremely seductive but I never managed to visit properly until now. I had the chance to go twice before, always for one night, once on the way back from Tuscany, and another time for Pope Johann Paul II’s funeral. They were both very peculiar experiences, but none of them allowed me to enjoy the city at my pace. The first time I stayed in a mansion with one wing all to my parents and myself, because there is where my aunt was staying at the moment, but a lot of ceremonies would not allow for too much time out. The second time, having graduated a few days before and with a huge need for a change of air even if just for a few days, I just booked the boat ticket and went. That time, I slept on the cobblestones of Via della Conciliazione with thousands of other followers and tourists that converged there in an extremely surreal atmosphere. With this as a background, you can imagine why, when Mr Wander shortlisted Paris and Rome for his birthday, the reduced budget directed me to an obvious choice: We were going to visit Roma Capoccia!
As it was all on me to plan as a treat to Mr Wander, I had some flexibility. Not happy about that, I planned very little. It doesn’t make sense to go to a place like Rome for four days and have a tight schedule that falls into pieces if one time slot moves. We downloaded a Rome in 4 days itinerary to have an idea of what we could include, but we immediately decided to discard the general idea of ten minutes slots for lunch and mad ideas like that.
Things you absolutely want to plan ahead:
- Book your bus to/from the airport, queueing is a nightmare in Italy and, even with a booked seat, you will be scared of not getting on the bus on time!
- Book your visit to the Vatican Museums and allow at least 4-5 hours before closing time, we ended up in one of those last minute tours because everything was booked already (we went on a Bank Holiday weekend!) and we missed the Sistine Chapel, epic fail! Nonetheless, we saw so many masterpieces that have been covering the walls of my room in ancient times, The School of Athens by uncle Raphael above all.
- If you go in winter, pack extra layers, we ended up there on the coldest week of the year, with frozen fountains and sights that were uncommon for locals and tourists alike, but in general the buildings are not planned for a cold weather and everywhere is chilly and full of drafts, restaurants and bars in particular.
- Walk as much as you can, we got four 90-min bus tickets to start with and we used them the last day to go back to the station; it may sound like a stereotype, but there is so much to see in every corner and every street that the vast majority of works of art would be missed if travelling by bus.
Food in Italy is a must and we had awesome lunches and dinners everywhere apart from the first night. I never thought Rome could be so cheap but, trust me, we ate scrumptious meals and paid ridiculously cheap bills. The Roman specialties are so many that we could not even cover a tenth of the basic list. If you are staying near the UK embassy like we were, two places are not to miss: Da Gianni (Via Montebello 130), not only is the food amazing, but the staff are incredibly nice, you are not a customer, you are immediately part of the family, and the waiter will tell you want you want to order… trust me, let him do it, he knows his stuff! Pizzeria Bella Napoli (Via Alessandria 13) was suggested by a local and we are glad we gave it a shot, superb pizza, a full belly when walking out, and only the regret of not having ordered the chard like the couple next to us did! Also not to miss is Trastevere, the neighbourhood across the river that made the Roman food scene so famous thanks to its trattorie. We were lucky enough to have a local showing us around and taking us to a delicious hidden place called Dar Poeta. This was a special treat for us, Jenn, our local guide, is one of the best persons I have ever met, and to have the chance to spend a few hours with her and to introduce her to Mr Wander would have been special enough without adding all the rest. After the meal we just wandered in the little streets of Trastevere and breathed in a little of the Rome that Cinecittà celebrated in its works of art. As it was January, the sunset was early enough and we managed to see it when while crossing the river again.
In a way, we tried to follow a path that was related to movies and TV series, or at least I did. We went to Fontana di Trevi to throw our coin, but we didn’t get in like Anitona did in La Dolce Vita; we went to Trinità dei Monti and Piazza di Spagna to see the famous place that gave the name to an Italian TV series that may have had only me as an audience when I was a kid; we visited the Colosseo and the Fora to see the Circo Massimo from Ben Hur. Of the things in our list, we left out the Mouth of Truth from Roman Holidays, which will be the first one next time.
Main suggestions on what to be prepared for:
- Chaos, everywhere, it is in our genes, from boarding a bus to defiantly crossing the street in front of an ambulance with sirens on;
- Disturbing breakfasts, from croissant-inspired pastries that taste more like stale bread than actual pastry, to tea and juices that don’t help you start the day with the right foot;
- Uneasiness, with tank-looking military cars and two soldiers with rifles outside every metro station, the city seemed more like a war-torn territory than a peaceful city celebrating the end of the Christmas season.
I could spend hours talking about the sculptures, the fountains, the monuments, and the ruins, and maybe I will in another post, but for this time I just want to tell you one thing that is easy to miss and you should not miss at all. You may know what a genius Bernini was, and that nothing he would do was casual, every piece of art is charged with symbolism and is mathematically perfect. When he planned the colonnade of St Peter’s, he wanted it to look like the arms of the basilica reaching out to the believers and enclosing them in a hug. When he laid out the columns, he lined them so perfectly that if you stand in a specific spot you don’t see them all scattered as they usually do, you just see the rows all perfectly aligned. People always stand on that spot without knowing what it is and they miss out something incredible. When we arrived, a group of guys were standing on top of the tile and had no idea. We told them and they were amazed when they saw what we meant. Next time you go, watch out for this:
A presto,
Ms Lust
The spur of the moment 