Our Trip to Rome

Since our first ever wedding anniversary was coming up, Lindsay and I decided to treat ourselves to something special and we booked a flight with Ryan Air to Rome. We left very early on Saturday morning (we had to get up at 3:30am) and we got back very early on Wednesday morning (about 3am, with a 2 hour delay, because we had to drop an engineer off at Trevino (Venice) Airport on the way back), so we had 4 entire days to enjoy the ancient city of Rome. We had fantastic weather the entire time - above 20 degrees and hardly any clouds. We even got a little sunburned, which seems strange to me now, being back in Wiesbaden with its 4 degrees. The "Bed and Breakfast" we were staying at was only really a "Bed", as breakfast was not included. It was on the fifth story of an old townhouse with one of those old-style cage lifts. It was clean and tidy and with its 70 Euros a night, good value for money (in Roman-terms!).

On the first day, we tackled the Capitoline Hill including the Piazza designed by Michelangelo and the Roman Forum with its temple ruins. We then headed into the Centre and looked at the Pantheon and a couple of other impressive churches.

On the second day we visited the Colosseum, together with hundreds of other tourists and got a feel for the masses of people it used to take in the past. They would not have had to go through the security checks that we had to go through, though. We then went for a walk along a narrow street with walls on either side to a gate in the Aurelian Wall (old city wall) and to the Via Appia Antica. On the way back we walked across the Circus Maximus Arena, which is huge, but pretty much just a grass strip nowadays. Not really worrying about our feet very much, we did more walking on the Palatine Hill, which has got the ruins of the huge mansions of Augustus and Severus, in amonst trees. In the evening we really felt our feet and just went to the Spanish steps and sat down near it somewhere (there was no room on it, because of the thousands of tourists!).

The third day we had dedicated to the Vatican. We left early to try and beat the crowds a little, but that didn't really work. We visited the impressive St Peter's Cathedral and walked up the 500 steps to the top of the dome, from where you get a really awesome view of the city. You also get to look down into the church from the dome, which is really cool, because you see little things like painters restoring parts of the church, which you can't make out from the bottom because of the vastness of the building. We then went into the Vatican Museum, where we spent quite a few hours. We walked through most parts, taking in some pieces of work more thoroughly than others (you would never be able to look at everything and get back out in one day). Lindsay took some sneaky illegal photos in the Sistine Chapel. To round off the day we visited the Trevi Fountain and had a nice meal in a quiet little street.

On the last day we went to Piazza Navona and had our first italian ice cream. We then went to the markets at Campo di Fiori and bought some bright red strawberries. We had lunch beside the Tiber river and then split up for the rest of the day. Lindsay went to the beach as he had never seen the Mediteranean before, whereas I went through the medieval looking streets of Trastevere and to the botanical gardens. I then walked all the way back to the train station where we met up, taking in the major sights again one last time.


The Roman Forum.














The Pantheon.














View of Piazza Rotondo through the pillars of the Pantheon.













The Colosseum.














Lindsay and I inside the Colosseum.














On the Palatine Hill.














The Trevi Fountain.



















Me in front of St Peter's Cathedral.














The inside of St Peter's Cathedral.














The oldest bridge in Rome (Ponte Fabrizio) leading to the island in the Tiber.













The view of Rome from the Janiculum Hill.