There is no place like Rome!

We have heard proverbs epitomizing Rome, ever since childhood. “Rome was not built in a day“, “All roads lead to Rome“, “When in Rome, do what the Romans do!“, so on and so forth. Although a history enthusiast, Rome was never in my list of places to visit. This year though, as we planned our summer vacation in Greece, we decided to include couple of places in Italy, Pompeii & Rome. I wasn’t sure about Rome, but finally thought of giving it a shot. I didn’t plan much, didn’t anticipate much, just booked the Vatican Museums and Colosseum visits via GetYourGuide app. When we finally arrived at Rome, the city just blew my mind. It would have been a colossal mistake to skip this capital of Imperial Roman Empire. Majestic historic sites galore, a delightful feast for the eyes of history & architecture lovers alike. After the visit, I would definitely say “There is no place like Rome!” – A truly unique city drenched in history and the rich vibes of an historic empire.

Day 1: Roma Termini was crowded. The Trenitalia train from Naples to Rome arrived on time at 4pm. We took the exit from the train station and the nice lengthy street along the station was so inviting. Across the street though, there were some shady looking apartment buildings and shops. It was a good 10 mins walk along a nice straight street, bakeries omnipresent everywhere, to reach the Roma Termini metro station (“M” sign was quite obvious). Although crowded, the station area was easy to get around. We went to the ticket booth, found the kiosk, I opted for 7€ pp for 24 hours unlimited pass (bus + train). Bought 3 passes, but later figured out we don’t need to buy for Aishani (for around 10-year-old kid).

Line A easily took us to Cornelia station, a good 10 stops from Roma Termini. Final 10-15 steps had to carry the suitcase, no escalator, but it was ok. The Cornelia Aurelia Street looked very nice, good vibe to it. After a lot of searching, I had booked this very interesting looking stay (https://maps.app.goo.gl/S5moU1fdeZfyYa167) called Aurelius Art Gallery Hotel. I did the booking directly from their website as I found it was the best deal. It’s just a few mins walk from the metro station, very convenient. There was another group going to the same hotel as us. Arriving inside the hotel, it felt so nice. All the initial jitters disappeared. Nice sculptures of Roman emperors in the lobby made it quite an experience to stay in Rome.

The room itself was very good, clean and having 2 double beds, so 4 folks can sleep. It was decently priced at 234€ for two nights in summer, pretty normal for imperial Rome!

We were eager to enjoy some great food in Rome. We enquired about dining options with the person at reception, he wholeheartedly suggested a nearby restaurant called Joseph’s Ristorante (https://maps.app.goo.gl/zzVSqja9TgqhuhFS9). After freshening up quickly, a short walk brought us to this restaurant by 6:55pm, it opens up at 7pm. They told us we can have the table until 8:20pm or so, as they had bookings after that. It was good enough time for us, and we enjoyed the two pastas, pizza and starters that we ordered.

Pizza was so good. Both the Pastas were very good, but portions were too big for us. The pork barbeque was very nice, and the house wine was good too.

After dinner, we took metro to Spagna to visit the Spanish steps. We need to just exit the metro to get awed by the sheer grandeur of the erstwhile Roman empire. Historic buildings all around. There was a lot of crowd, but the legacy of these buildings was so stunning and overpowering that sea of people around did not matter. The plaza piazza was so nice. We walked to the Trevi fountain, and when we arrived, I was dumbfounded.

I imagined it to be just another fountain that we find anywhere in Europe. This was majestic and huge, no wonder it was super crowded. We walked around for a while and then took metro to go back to our hotel. Metro operates until 2am, and it was well populated to make us feel safe. Great start to our Roman adventure.

Day 2: We had to wake up early for the Vatican Museum. Took the metro to Ottaviano station, reached the meeting point to collect our tickets by 8:10. The person finally came after 10-15 mins, handed our tickets, explained how to cross the “border” to another country – Vatican. It was crowded, but it was a moving line. Once inside the museum, we were awed by the scale of these monuments, majestic art works, incredible paintings and sculptures, royalty at its best.

Lots of walking inside, and finally we get to see the amazing Sistine Chapel, apparently the best work of art by Michaelangelo. We clicked pictures of the Vatican dome, and then took the exit back to Rome.

We walked to bus station to take bus to Piazza Venezia. Bus was late by 40 mins or so, finally arriving at 12:20pm. We met an Aussie family in the bus, a young man doing engineering, he had curious questions on how AI impacted our regular work. Along the way, the city continued to mesmerize us with historic buildings.

The plaza area was even more stunning, work of excellence. We met our friend Fabio and his son at the Plaza, it was so awesome to catch up with our old friend whom we befriended during our stay in Shanghai. He is still the same funny guy, with lots of stories and thoughts. He helped us to pick our colosseum tickets that we booked online.

We walked along the beautiful streets leading to Colosseum. Amazing architecture all around – it’s truly a paradise for history and architecture lovers. We pass by the Roman forum, this is where the ancient Rome existed, well preserved and so beautiful.

Fabio pointed to a metro under construction and told they had to stop the metro work here – because when they dug more and more, they found old cities beneath, had to call archaeologists to come and study; the metro work got paused. Quite fascinating! So many cities might have thrived in this very geography that we were walking.

We approached the colosseum, and it was so wow. We walked around it and went to a popular restaurant that Fabio used to frequent when he was young – Trattoria Luzzi (https://maps.app.goo.gl/VnE5mx1pHEheWCdm6). We got some nice VIP treatment due to our Italian friend. Beer, pasta, beef rolls were all great. Kids ate pizza.

Carbonara Pasta is the local favorite, and it was good.

We also loved their Tiramisu; this was truly the best we had in Italy.

We thoroughly enjoyed the conversations with Fabio. After lunch, we walked back to the Roman Forum, and then we had to part ways with Fabio and his son.

Roman Forum is really grand, but we couldn’t explore much as we were already so tired, and it was very hot. There is so much to see, maybe next time in a non-peak season.

Entry to Colosseum was quick but had to stroll around the place as our time slot was not yet up. We watched some street performance, some nice music playing around, generally tourists soaking in the wonderful Roman vibes. We did click lots of pictures.

Colosseum visit was very good. If you factor in that this monument was built way back in the BC era to host whatever public entertainment at the time was, its truly incredible. Historic architecture and lots of tourists, but everything was well streamlined.

After Colosseum, we went to another restaurant around the area, Divinostillia (https://maps.app.goo.gl/LW6hriPLATTjoDnD6) for dinner. Good Pasta, salad and Bruschetta.

Campari Spritz and Aperol Spritz were good too. Great experience and a lovely evening near the Colosseum area, perfectly safe and really cool vibes, loved this area.

After the lovely dinner, we walked back to metro station and returned back to hotel. Another wonderful day at Rome!

Day 3: Our last day in this beautiful city <sigh>. We woke up leisurely and checked out by 10:30am. Had breakfast at nearby McDonalds, there was a bus stop nearby to take us to airport. I went there to enquire on the tickets, the guy mentioned we can come around the time we require to go and buy ticket that time itself. Good, we took metro to Flaminio metro and visited Piazza del Popolo.

This is probably the grandest of all plazas in Rome – It hosts an Egyptian Obelix and was an unbelievable square, huge and grand. Lot of avenues to click some cool pictures.

Then, we walked around to visit couple of churches, there was a long queue for Pantheon, so we just saw the majestic building from outside. We did manage to visit multiple plazas, all with an obelix that the Roman army would bring back from their victories, rich spoils of the war, from Persia, Egypt, everywhere. Just think about the logistics to transport these huge stone columns from one part of the world all the way to Rome at that time, insane!

Google recommended one nice place nearby to eat Gelato – Quinto Gelataria (https://maps.app.goo.gl/2WShF5whJv8FqHe77), it was great experience indeed.

Colorful ambience, nice background music, a place to sit and enjoy your Gelato, great service and amazing Gelato, we tried different flavors, and everything was super tasty.

There is a world map where people pin the city they come from; the map was crowded already. The person who served us the Gelato was a SriLankan living in Italy for 12 years or so, we talked about some cricket, he told this was one of the oldest Gelato shops in Rome.

After strolling around for a while, we had to take metro back to our hotel. Picked up our bags and went to the bus station to take the bus to Fiumicino airport. There was chaos at Wizz airlines counter, long queue, with some folks trying to barge in, heated arguments. The Wizz airlines staff was quite limited in number (maybe due to cost reasons), who in all due respect did decent job, handling passengers as best as they could. The security and immigration were a breeze, we enjoyed some Ajisen Ramen noodles and boarded our flight to Abu Dhabi.

Rome was a fantastic place to visit, and we loved every bit of it. History, architecture, food, warm people, everything. I truly believe I didn’t do enough justice to this city. As my friend Fabio mentioned, this is a city where you should just “get lost” – not stick to a plan, and you will make “discoveries”, for there is plenty of things to see that are not listed in a regular tourist map. For every popular Michaelangelo, there is an unknown Caravaggio – the creator of shadow painting. I have promised myself that I will surely come back for more!