This summer has been loaded with vacations already! And it’s only mid-July! In a 6-month span in 2014 Tony and I, along with friends and family, will be traveling all around Sicily, venturing to Germany twice, taking a weeklong trip to Ireland, and making multiple trips to Rome. Our planned Roman adventures have come to an end for the summer with this last week’s 3-day trip to the eternal city. This blog will be a bit different than my usual travel pieces, more selfies and behind-the-scenes type photos and information about some of our favorite spots in Rome!
Our first trip to kick of the summer was a four-day Memorial Day weekend/Birthday trip for our friend Cody who was turning 30. We all flew up to Rome on Friday morning spent the next three days exploring the city before it got too hot or crowded for the tourist season. This really was the perfect time of year to visit! The crowds were starting to come out, but nothing compared to how they are in July! We were able to wear shorts and flip-flops during the day, but still get dressed up at night without feeling like we were going to sweat all over our nicer clothes. Perfect!
Our second trip to Rome this summer landed on the first week of July and boy oh boy was it hot! And wall-to-wall people! We spent two and a half days in Rome with Tony’s dad eating pizza and gelato, taking guided tours of the Coliseum and Vatican City, and seeing our first Metallica concert! It was a whirlwind 60 hours fueled by sugary gelato and plenty of Red Bull.
Our trips just about everywhere begin with the obligatory out the airplane window shot! Trips to Rome are a bit different though since we get to see the port of Civitavecchia while coming into Rome and the Aeolian Islands while leaving Sicily! This last trip our plane flew right along the coast of Italy and we were low enough to be able to spot a lot of our favorite towns along the Amalfi coast!
Lets start with one of everyones favorite attractions: Vatican City!
We’ve done the Vatican Museum tour every way imaginable: Arriving early and entering for free on the last Sunday of the month, we’ve paid full price and waited in the line, and now with a paid tour guide. I definitely recommend the skip the line + guide option to anyone on a time crunch or not interested in waiting more than an hour in line/the sun. We were fairly well versed in the art and history that you find inside of the museum, but still managed to pick up a few new facts from our guide so overall it was worth it in our opinions. If you’re on a tight budget (like us on most trips) then definitely look into the option of free Sundays! On our most recent trip to Rome we only had 60 hours total in the city so we knew our time was precious! We didn’t want to spend 4 hours per monument waiting in line just to get our toes in the door. So before our trip we went onto Viator.com and booked this tour which provided us the ability to skip the line at the Vatican Museum AND St. Peters Basilica, an English speaking guide for both, and a sweet lime green head set so that we didn’t miss a word of the four hour tour! The price varies depending on the time of year and which website you buy from, but I think we did fairly well with our purchase from Viator.com. This tour was our first time visiting St. Peters Basilica. We’ve always walked into St. Peter’s Square, taken a look at the long winding line of people standing in the sun and decided against it. This skip the line tour is the perfect way around that! We were able to take a side “tour group only” door from the Sistine Chapel into St. Peters, which saved us from having to exit the Vatican Museum, walk along the outside wall of Vatican City back into St. Peters Square, and go through security again. Major time saver! We absolutely loved seeing inside of St. Peters and after our tour we paid an additional 7 Euro to go on TOP of the St. Peter’s Cupola for an amazing view of Rome. We saved 200 stairs by using the elevator to the top of the building, but still had over 300 ahead of us once we reached the roof! It was a very narrow spiral staircase with slanted walls forcing you to walk hunched over and it all added into the crazy experience of walking up the 400 ft+ dome that was built in the 1500s!
If Vatican City isn’t your favorite big monument in Rome, then chances are the Coliseum is! The nearly 2000 year old structure built under Emperor Titus draws the crowds like nowhere I have ever seen before! I’ve always enjoyed photographing the exterior of the Coliseum, grabbing a café from one of the many nearby bars and watching the sun come up behind it, or taking cheesy tourist photos with fake gladiators… but for the first time ever this summer I was able to go inside! I’ve simply never made it a priority to go inside for a tour, saying that the exterior is really what’s famous about it! True, true… but it was pretty great being able to see inside the very grounds where gladiator’s fought to the death, Christian’s prayed their final prayers and men hunted lions all for the spectacle of 50,000 Romans! We climbed the stairs that they once did and walked the herringbone floors that they once did, all while our awesome guide filled us with more facts than I could ever remember! It was a seriously cool experience and once again, I recommend that if you do opt to go INSIDE the Coliseum during the busy summer months that you get a guide or other service that gives you the ability to cut the line! Good news is the nearly three year restoration project of the Coliseum is soon coming to an end so we can all get back to enjoying this beauty without scaffolding blocking your view!
While you’re in the neighborhood of the Coliseum, don’t forget to take the set of stairs up above the metro stop for another view of this beauty! From the higher vantage point you’ll be able to see much more of the coliseum and wont have a dozen or so tourists walk in front of you while you’re trying to take a photograph. Grab a seat on the ledge, snag a bench at the park or walk over to the café overlooking the Coliseum and sit for a while and take in this stellar view! On Tony’s very first trip to Rome in 2008, he came to the Coliseum in the early hours of the morning and sat at a modern café watching the sun come up and enjoying his cappuccino. We try to make it a habit of always stopping here for a cafe and snack at some point during our trip. In May we were all SO exhausted one morning that when the waiter offered us a large cappuccino, we didn’t even think twice about how large it might be… we ordered four of them and could barely finish! This thing was the size of my head! I’m not sure how many ounces it was, but it was plenty of caffeine to fuel the jam-packed 16 hours of exploring that followed.
While we’re on the subject of food, I just really need to mention this place that my friends and I stumbled upon and kind of fell in love with. It’s called Hosteria Dino e Toni. You walk into this cozy establishment; tables stacked wall to seafoam green painted wall and find a spot that you think will do for the two-hour meal you’re about to endure. But you see, my friends and I had no clue that we were getting into THAT! No clue! We were simply walking by while looking for a quick lunch, saw some great looking pizza on someone’s plate outside and thought we should give it a try! Literally, two hours later we had been stuffed beyond our hearts content with pizza, pasta and focaccia, and when you think you’re done Dino comes on by and says “no bene” meaning no good that you left 1 single piece of pasta on your plate and didn’t finish… but still he keeps on brining it! Another pasta comes your way and this time when you leave half of the plate untouched he comes by and says “no bene. Finish!” and walks away to harass another table. So you eat. Out of fear that this sweet old Italian man will be mad with you and turn you into meat sauce for tomorrows customers. You’re stuffed beyond capacity, so when he comes back around and see’s that you’ve still left pasta untouched he says “no bene, no bene” and clears your dishes while saying that he’ll be right back with the fish. You plead with him not to, thinking how the heck could I possibly fit anything else into my stomach right now, I hate myself! And then Dino says “dessert” and you say “dessert? Okay!”
Another highlight in Rome is Piazza Spagna or The Spanish Steps. This 135 step monument dates back to 1717 and has been drawing the crowds ever since its completion. During the day you’ll find each step filled to the brim with tourists basking in the sun while they give their tired feet a break. In the evening hours, young couples head to this romantic spot to sip on a bottle of wine under the stars. And if you’re a crazy person like me, you’ll get up at 4AM when the stairs are empty to capture them in the moonlight just before the sun comes up for the day… the only time you will find these stairs empty
Trevi Fountain: Truly beautiful to see in person, mesmerizing at night, but recently a major source of heartache in my life! The Fontana di Trevi has just begun a restoration project that is scheduled to last one and a half years. So by autumn of 2015 the water will be turned back on and the fountain will be up and running once again for you to toss your good luck coin in! In the meantime, the city has set up a small pool of water for you to fake it and toss your coin in… perhaps it will still bring those people luck. For now, my heart is sad because one of my favorite spots in Rome is covered in scaffolding and drained bone dry.
The Pantheon! A truly remarkable building that’s next to impossible to get into! The Pantheon in Rome is free to enter, but for some reason we have the most awful luck in finding it actually open! I’m sure we could look online somewhere for posted hours/days that it’s available, but we’re more of the wandering tourist type and always just try to check it out while we’re in the neighborhood. That’s great and fine for most attractions, but not the Pantheon! We’ve walked by at 9pm, 1am, noon, early morning, and late afternoon to find it closed. I’ve been to Rome nearly a dozen times now, but have only gone into the Pantheon twice! Once during a December trip in 2009, we managed to find it open at about 8pm and SNOW was coming through the central opening… amazing! And this last time, about 1pm on a Wednesday afternoon we walked by after having lunch in the area and noticed it was open. Being a hot day in July, we had some spectacular sunlight pouring in and filling the building. While you’re in the area, check out Tazza D’Oro right around the corner for a delicious granita di caffe or tangy lemon granita! A tip I picked up from my friend Ashley over at L’esperta!
Evening Itenirary: One of my favorite evenings in Rome goes a little something like this… (Oh, by the way, you guys are about to see my extreme love for food! Don’t judge!) From Vatican City to Piazza Navona you will find some of the cutest restaurants, beautiful statues and amazing views of the city! From Saint Peters Square walk directly to Castel Sant’Angelo and then take the bridge “Ponte Sant’Angelo” across the Tiber River. Stop along the way and view the beautiful angel statues, couples taking a stroll along the river, and dome of Saint Peters Basilica stretching out above it all! You’ll continue along the way and following signs for Piazza Navona. In this funky little neighborhood leading up to Piazza Navona, you will pass by some of our favorite restaurants! Duck into Mimi e Coco for the best lasagna of your life or stop at one of the many other wine bars for a fun casual evening. If it’s pizza you’re after, head to La Montecarlo for their cracker thin crust pizza and a beer. This simple restaurant has been serving up delicious pizza for almost 30 years and don’t show any signs of slowing down! After dinner, continue on to Piazza Navona and see the many street performers, artists and tarot card readers performing for the many tourists around the fountain and obelisk. After you’ve had your fill, exit the piazza in the direction of the Pantheon in hopes of seeing it open after dark. A very cool experience if you happen to see stars or planes above head. After the Pantheon you aren’t too far off from Trevi Fountain and some of the best gelato of your life! Head to Melograno located just to the left of the fountain and once inside this bright orange store you’ll see a wide selection of pizza to go, a full service café and best of all dozens of gelato flavors! My favorite is banana, but don’t be afraid to ask for a sample if you aren’t sure what you want. Take your treat to go and find a seat on one of the steps of Trevi Fountain, spend the evening with your love or friends and just enjoy the amazing sight that you are taking in!
One of my favorite things to photograph in Italy are the brightly colored Vespas that you see just about everywhere! I’ll leave you all with a recent Vespa image and a little Italian street too!
//Lyndsay.
