Ciao, Roma!

We had no particular plan for our last day in Rome. We felt like we had hit most of the "must-sees" of the city, and I had the idea that we could wander around Trastevere, a part of Rome that wasn't quite as touristy as the other bits.

With the encouragement of our concierge, we hopped into a taxi and got out in front of Santa Maria, a basilica focused on the Virgin Mary and built in the 12th century.

It's a bit off the beaten path so we got to enjoy our visit peacefully without the usual crowds we had encountered elsewhere in Rome.

I got a crick in my neck from looking up the entire time - the ceilings were beautiful.

And there is a stunning mosaic showing the coronation of the Virgin Mary.

Once we left the church, we wandered the streets and watched local life unfold.

I couldn't get over how empty the streets were of other tourists! This was the first time I encountered shopkeepers that couldn't speak English, but luckily, I spoke a bit of Spanish, they spoke a bit of Spanish and so we managed to make it work.

It wasn't long before we popped into yet another church, the Santa Maria della Scala. The interior was filled with crystal chandeliers, and we found ourselves completely alone in the church.

I think we were both getting a bit of church fatigue, so J and I and crossed the Tiber on the Ponte Sisto and walked until we hit Campo de' Fiori, a lively market selling all things edible.

I was flummoxed by all the different kinds of pasta that were available!

We had also noticed how common zucchini (courgette) flowers were on Roman menus.

We didn't buy anything, but there were a few things I wished I could take home with me...

Much too quickly, it became time for us to head back to the hotel and pick up our luggage and go to the airport. Our flight was delayed by several hours because of the dense fog in London. Home, sweet home.

Visiting 2nd Century A.D.

We planned on tackling the Colosseum and Palatine Hill and the Forum on Sunday, but we decided to check out the Pantheon first on our way there.

Since it was Sunday, we were part of the growing crowd waiting outside for services to end so that we could check out the interior. Yup, it's still a working church! I thought the exterior itself was pretty nice...

We had some time to kill so we roamed the nearby streets and did some souvenir shopping at a fab paper shop nearby, Il Papiro, where all the paper is handmade and hand-painted!

We were eventually admitted into the church, and we got the chance to see the largest unsupported dome in the world. It was pretty damn cool, especially since I took an architecture class in college and never imagined that I'd be seeing the Pantheon in person someday. It's unbelievable that it's been standing since the 2nd century A.D.!

Afterwards, we walked to Piazza Navona to check out Bernini's famous fountains. Three of them reside in the piazza. There's the Fontana del Moro, and the Neptune Fountain at the north end.

The most famous is the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, which resides in the center of the piazza and represents the four great rivers known at the time.

Other than the fountains, there's loads of artists in the piazza all plying their trade, which reminded me a lot of Paris.

We were pretty tired from all the gawking we had done thus far and the day's heat was getting to us so we decided to break for lunch at Il Focaccio nearby. We were pretty hungry by then and the waitress had to convince us that we didn't need to order a pasta entree on top of the two pizzas we had already ordered.

A Roman friend had recommended the restaurant to us, and the pizzas were absolutely amazing and really reasonably priced! We were pretty sure that it was going to be good when we sat down since we were surrounded by obvious locals i.e. a flock of priests dressed in their church duds.

We still had a bit of room so we wandered down Vicolo Savelli to a small family-run pastry shop called La Deliziosa, where we bought the most delicious chocolate eclair we had ever tasted. The people who ran the shop were so charming and incredibly nice. We definitely got some jealous looks while we dug into our eclair.

Fed and watered, we decided that we were ready to tackle the Colosseum.

First, we had to fight the massive crowds that had turned out for the local Sports Day, but we could see the Colosseum from afar and headed in the general direction, and we could gauge how close we were by the many "gladiators" began to appear.

We managed to get there late enough to avoid most of the large tourist groups, but we still had to queue up for tickets in the internal corridors to go inside the Colosseum.

The inside was definitely worth waiting for!

We could see where the gladiators' entrance was and the complicated underbelly of the arena where the animals were kept before they popped out of the wooden floor for their dramatic entrance.

As gruesome as its history is, the stadium is pretty freaking impressive. And of course, I couldn't resist the chance to pose as a victorious gladiator. J just egged me on by reciting lines from the movie Gladiator - "You, who are about to fight, we salute you!"

After I was done acting the fool, we crossed the street to head over to Palatine Hill and the Forum.

Let me just say, Palatine Hill is sprawling and the paths are more like trails. J and I negotiated our way in our street shoes, but hiking boots probably would've been more appropriate. It was also a good thing that we visited rather late in the afternoon as there is no cover from the heat.

Palatine Hill seemed more like a huge park with a ton of ruins than like an archaeological site. It used to be where all the politicians and wealthy lived, kind of like the Beverly Hills of back-in-the-day. We saw the house of Augustus and Livia, which were pretty nondescript, and the Stadium (garden? racetrack? no one knows).

 

We moved on to the Forum, where we were pretty much surrounded by ruins. They weren't roped off or anything so you could pretty much touch them if you wanted to.

My favorite was the House of the Vestal Virgins. The virgins were charged with keeping alight the flame of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth. The virgins were always noblewoman, and they served for 30 years. If they ever lost their virginity during this time, they were buried alive. Talk about hard-core...

We were both pretty worn out by then, physically and mentally, and I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes, so we were pretty happy to beat a retreat back to the hotel as the sun went down. We were so tired and our feet were sore so we made the very wise decision to order room service and call it a night.

Vatican City

Saturday morning, we stuffed ourselves full of delicious pancakes and headed out to Vatican City to see St Peter's and the Vatican Museum.

Vatican City is only 3.7 km away from our hotel and the weather was so lovely that we decided to walk. We even managed to catch a view of the Palace of Justice and Castel Sant'Angelo along the way. I kept waiting to encounter the scary Roman drivers, but it wasn't that bad at all, but then nothing seems that bad after walking around Kathmandu. No cows in the middle of the road, no problem!

Our first view of Piazza San Pietro was stunning, and we had a ton of time to enjoy it and pose for pics as we queued up for quite some time to go through security to enter the church.

It was really hot in the open sun, and we were more than glad to enter the cool church.

We got to see some amazing sculptures, including the Pieta by Michaelangelo...

And the keys to heaven...

And the Baldacchino by Bernini was more than impressive...

But it was the architecture of the church that really blew me away.

We had plenty of time to walk around with our mouths hanging open in awe before we had to walk over to the Vatican Museums for our timed entry. During the walk, I bought a gelato from one of the many food trucks and had a good giggle at the uniforms of the Swiss Guards. I mean, seriously?! No wonder he looks so angry-sad.

J was pretty stoked about the Vatican Museums and probably more than a little relieved to get out of the day's heat.

I really enjoyed the museum, and some of my favourites included the mosaic floor in the animals room.

The ceilings were also amazing in pretty much all of the rooms.

And the most spirally staircase I've come across yet was pretty fun.

But the mother of them all and the main reason lots of people visit the Vatican Museum is the Sistine Chapel. It's still a working chapel and the place where the cardinals get together to vote for a new pope, so no pictures or talking is allowed. J and I gawked silently at the ceiling and the walls, and the frescoes were a wonderful way of seeing the Bible come to life.

I didn't believe it when people told me that Vatican City would take an entire day, but it really did. We walked slowly back to our hotel to enjoy a dinner of meatballs and cassata and cannoli and a breadbasket that needed to be replenished three times before hitting the hay. Viva Roma!

A Roman Holiday

And we're back! Sorry for the silence over the last few months, but we moved to a different flat and it took us 2 months to get internet at our new place. Good ole England.

Anyway, J and I have been meaning to go to Rome since May, and we had to cancel this trip twice now so I was pretty much in disbelief when we actually arrived at the Hotel Majestic on Via Vittorio Veneto with our baggage in tow.

First things first - when in Italy, the first thing you must do is eat! Unfortunately, we arrived at that funny time after lunch but before dinner when most of the restaurants are closed. Our hotel concierge directed us to a trattoria nearby that happened to be opened, and we walked to Antica Trattoria Tritone where J kicked off our holiday with an Italian beer.

We pretty much ate non-stop for two hours, and J could hardly walk after his spaghetti carbonara and dessert. He ordered the dessert after spying some locals eating it, and we still have no idea what it is except that Gorgonzola cheese was involved somehow, and it was heavenly. I put in a good effort as well, and we decided to waddle our way to the Trevi fountain after stuffing ourselves full of delicious Italian fare.

Apparently, we weren't the only ones to have that idea as there was quite the crowd admiring the fountain. The thing that surprised me was the sheer scale of the thing - I knew it was big but it seemed absolutely huge in person.

We decided not to throw a coin in to ensure our return to Rome as the guidebook advised that scammers come at night to scoop them up. I'm not sure how true that is, but between the full belly and the huge crowd, I was happy to continue our walk to the Spanish Steps at Piazza Spagna.

We were still too full but managed to force ourselves to walk up the many stairs to check out the view from above, which was pretty cool. It was possible to see all the way down Via Corso, where all the high end designers and jewelers set up shop.

We made our way back down the steps and checked out some of the stores like Bulgari. Someday, this necklace and I shall meet again.

We were pretty tired by then but we were so close to the Piazza Popolo that I couldn't resist a quick saunter north. It wasn't as impressive as some of the things we had seen earlier today, but the wide open space was free of the crowds we had encountered everywhere else.

The day had started pretty early for us so we were dead on our feet by the time we started heading back to the hotel, but I couldn't help marveling at the fact that something amazing would pop up when I least expected it. You couldn't walk anywhere without stumbling on an archaeological site, a famous statue or an obelisk!

I thought I'd sleep like a log between all the food and walking, but I was so amped up by what I had seen so far and the prospect of Vatican City the next day that I ended up wriggling all night with anticipation of what tomorrow would bring...