When in Rome... Travel Inspiration.
Ah, holidays. You never get tired of travelling. And even after you comeback home and you are back in your comfort zone you most definitely will start thinking of next destinations for your travel bucket list.
City breaks are needed as much as a long beach holidays. They give us a change to have a break from work, stress and mundane life and runaway to a different world, different culture and language, explore as many places as we possibly can in the limited time we have. This years city break for us was in Italy. Rome was our little getaway for a special occasion and have to admit that I fell in love with the city. Can't believe that we actually visited all places on my list in only 3 full days being there! Long story short, this is what we did:
We booked a hotel in the very centre to every attraction so that we were in a comfortable distance to everything and we could walk to everything within 15-20 minutes. Our hotel - Navona Palace Residenze di Charme - was a brilliant choice with beautiful room and a breakfast terrace on the roof. It was magical to wake up and have your morning late on the roof of old style Italian buildings overlooking the streets, watching the city wake up. Although the breakfast option was not the best that we had, it was plenty to keep us going whilst we were exploring Rome. Early hours of the day were so peaceful, but give it a few hours and you will be amazed by the buzz - the city is like a beehive buzzing with life.
The hotel was right around the corner from Navona Square (hence the name of the hotel) and it is a brilliant place to wander with one of the famous ice creams in your hand. There are loads of restaurants and souvenir places around the area with fancy liqueurs - but I would wait for that until the market.
Day one we vent to see the Colosseum, which was one of the places I was very excited to visit. Some
restoration works were taking place but they were letting people in to see the majority of this magnificent architectural history and I could not ask for more. I swear I could have wandered around it for hours and hours. There was a lot of history and exhibits displayed within, so if you took your time to read all the information and take your time, you could easily spend a lot of time embracing the beauty of the Colosseum. We pre-booked our tickets online and purchased "skip the queue" ones which at first didn't seem like it was making any difference, but then you go through the first queue to the entrance, after the security check you just go straight in instead of queuing again for the ticket - definitely saved a lot of time on that!
They are quite strict with the security checks, which is never a bad thing - you will generally feel like you are going through an airport security and they do not allow to carry large backpacks or bags. Also around the Colosseum you will see a lot of street merchants who will try and push everything they can on you - selfie stick seems to be very popular with them. My personal advice - try to avoid them as much as you can, unless of course you need a selfie stick.
On our way back from the Colosseum we walked through the Roman Forum. The entry price was
included in our Colosseum ticket and I definitely recommend doing the Colosseum first and then proceeding to the Forum. Simply because the Forum is open for longer time and it is much more pleasant to walk through admiring the ruins of the past without having thousands of people trying to push in in front of you. We finished our evening with a lovely meal on one of the restaurants next to Navona Square and drank our wine to the end of a brilliant first day in Rome.
Next day we have dedicated to The Vatican City. And the queues were ridiculous! Now here is where buying the online ticked worked brilliantly again - we decided NOT to visit the Chapel itself, and I do not feel like I have missed out at all. We went in to the Vatican City at the set time we booked and it was more than you could ask for - the art, the sculptures the views and everything about it was brilliant. The only downside was the amount of people. It was so hard to take a beautiful picture withing the walls because people were constantly moving around you and there is just too many visitors at the same time - in my opinion. But it in no way ruined the experience, it was still as great as I thought it would be. And as long as you take at least one good picture - it is all good, right?
The museums had so much to see it was unforgettable. IF you end up travelling to Rome - don't miss out on Vatican City! But don't say I did not warn you about the queue to the Chapel - it generally looks endless and I would not be a fan of waiting in that line under a boiling sun in the month of May. But I guess if you are determined to see it all - I admire your patience.
We spent most of our day at the Vatican City and after wandered down the other bridge to which we crossed in the morning to end up in a middle of a street market. That is where I bought all my funky pasta and spices, the merchants are generous with their liqueurs and let us try way too many flavours. We ended up going home with a bag-full of goodies and 2 bottles of Limoncello, 2 different flavours. A drink you must try whilst you are in Rome!
Day three we have spent at the Spanish Steps, The Trevi Fountain and The Pantheon. Which was a tick, tick and tick on my list. The beauty of the fountain was shaded by tourists trying quite literally hug the water in it. Never understood why people feel like sitting/standing right next to the famous landmarks as oppose to admiring it from a distance, but hey, you will never beat them. You can still see all the beauty of it and you can still take a gorgeous photo, but it is just slightly annoying.
We raced each other to the top of the Spanish Steps (he won) and stood for a few minutes at the very top, just embracing the moment, admiring the beauty of the city. Once again you will have a lot of tourists just sitting on the steps, as if it is the only place in Rome to sit, and you will see tons of merchants trying to sell you roses. Apparently it is a very romantic place in Rome, and I can see why, but it is really not worth it for a dying rose, trust me. Go get yourself an ice cream instead!
We went to have lunch opposite The Pantheon and when the queue went down, wandered in there as well to tick it off our list. The nicest thing about it was that it was not as crowded as any other tourist attractions so we could actual;y enjoy the beauty of the city without any annoyance.
Rome stole my heart, and I would love to come back to it again and again! We ate way to much ice cream, we stayed way too late drinking wine in the romantic streets of Rome, we had way too much fun and we would love to return one day just to dive in in this craziness of the city. And we took a piece of it home with us.
Travel Inspiration Indeed.
City breaks are needed as much as a long beach holidays. They give us a change to have a break from work, stress and mundane life and runaway to a different world, different culture and language, explore as many places as we possibly can in the limited time we have. This years city break for us was in Italy. Rome was our little getaway for a special occasion and have to admit that I fell in love with the city. Can't believe that we actually visited all places on my list in only 3 full days being there! Long story short, this is what we did:
We booked a hotel in the very centre to every attraction so that we were in a comfortable distance to everything and we could walk to everything within 15-20 minutes. Our hotel - Navona Palace Residenze di Charme - was a brilliant choice with beautiful room and a breakfast terrace on the roof. It was magical to wake up and have your morning late on the roof of old style Italian buildings overlooking the streets, watching the city wake up. Although the breakfast option was not the best that we had, it was plenty to keep us going whilst we were exploring Rome. Early hours of the day were so peaceful, but give it a few hours and you will be amazed by the buzz - the city is like a beehive buzzing with life.The hotel was right around the corner from Navona Square (hence the name of the hotel) and it is a brilliant place to wander with one of the famous ice creams in your hand. There are loads of restaurants and souvenir places around the area with fancy liqueurs - but I would wait for that until the market.
restoration works were taking place but they were letting people in to see the majority of this magnificent architectural history and I could not ask for more. I swear I could have wandered around it for hours and hours. There was a lot of history and exhibits displayed within, so if you took your time to read all the information and take your time, you could easily spend a lot of time embracing the beauty of the Colosseum. We pre-booked our tickets online and purchased "skip the queue" ones which at first didn't seem like it was making any difference, but then you go through the first queue to the entrance, after the security check you just go straight in instead of queuing again for the ticket - definitely saved a lot of time on that!
They are quite strict with the security checks, which is never a bad thing - you will generally feel like you are going through an airport security and they do not allow to carry large backpacks or bags. Also around the Colosseum you will see a lot of street merchants who will try and push everything they can on you - selfie stick seems to be very popular with them. My personal advice - try to avoid them as much as you can, unless of course you need a selfie stick.On our way back from the Colosseum we walked through the Roman Forum. The entry price was
included in our Colosseum ticket and I definitely recommend doing the Colosseum first and then proceeding to the Forum. Simply because the Forum is open for longer time and it is much more pleasant to walk through admiring the ruins of the past without having thousands of people trying to push in in front of you. We finished our evening with a lovely meal on one of the restaurants next to Navona Square and drank our wine to the end of a brilliant first day in Rome.
The museums had so much to see it was unforgettable. IF you end up travelling to Rome - don't miss out on Vatican City! But don't say I did not warn you about the queue to the Chapel - it generally looks endless and I would not be a fan of waiting in that line under a boiling sun in the month of May. But I guess if you are determined to see it all - I admire your patience.
We spent most of our day at the Vatican City and after wandered down the other bridge to which we crossed in the morning to end up in a middle of a street market. That is where I bought all my funky pasta and spices, the merchants are generous with their liqueurs and let us try way too many flavours. We ended up going home with a bag-full of goodies and 2 bottles of Limoncello, 2 different flavours. A drink you must try whilst you are in Rome!
We raced each other to the top of the Spanish Steps (he won) and stood for a few minutes at the very top, just embracing the moment, admiring the beauty of the city. Once again you will have a lot of tourists just sitting on the steps, as if it is the only place in Rome to sit, and you will see tons of merchants trying to sell you roses. Apparently it is a very romantic place in Rome, and I can see why, but it is really not worth it for a dying rose, trust me. Go get yourself an ice cream instead!
We went to have lunch opposite The Pantheon and when the queue went down, wandered in there as well to tick it off our list. The nicest thing about it was that it was not as crowded as any other tourist attractions so we could actual;y enjoy the beauty of the city without any annoyance. Rome stole my heart, and I would love to come back to it again and again! We ate way to much ice cream, we stayed way too late drinking wine in the romantic streets of Rome, we had way too much fun and we would love to return one day just to dive in in this craziness of the city. And we took a piece of it home with us.
Travel Inspiration Indeed.
Comments
Post a Comment