When in Rome

There is so much to do in Rome, that I was only able to see a few of the essentials in my 1 day in Rome. Of these, the sites not to be missed are: Roman ruins—including the Colosseum, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish steps. My recommendations: take a tour at the Colosseum—I found ours to be highly informative and interesting; sit at a café in the Piazza Navona and soak in the atmosphere; enjoy some gelato while sitting on the Spanish steps.

Quick Tips:

If you want to go to Vatican City, either be prepared for an extremely long wait for entry, get there early, or pre-book a tour. We drove by the entrance to the Vatican City museum on our way to the hotel. Our taxi driver informed us that the line was probably about 4 hours long at that point (10am).

Food from the carts around tourist areas is a good, quick way to satisfy hunger while on the go. We chose one by the Colosseum that served paninis. The sandwiches, in addition to being delicious, allowed us to continue our sight-seeing without taking a lot of time for a meal.

Best Way To Get Around:

Taxis can be very expensive; our taxi from the airport to our hotel cost €75 (not including a tip). The meter seemed to rise every 5 seconds. The public transportation within the city is efficient, inexpensive, and fairly easy to navigate.

Having said this, we had a little difficulty in determining how to purchase a bus ticket for, but the bus driver just waved us to sit down when we got on. The bus was fairly crowded mid-afternoon on a Friday when a girl covered in shaving cream entered the bus. Nobody seemed to think this was an odd occurrence. We learned why the next day. It had been the last day of school for many kids and being sprayed with water, shaving cream, and other items is not an unusual ritual for them.

The metro was a smooth and easy system. The only complaint I have is that all of the ticket machines on the entrance level were broken. However, when we took the steps down to the track level, we were able to find working machines. The cost for a 75 minute ticket was €1.

This American style hotel seems to cater to mostly groups and business travelers. It has most of the creature comforts and comfortable beds. It is located in a less touristy, fairly quiet area of Rome.

We arrived at the hotel around 10am exhausted and hoping to check in early. Our bags were promptly removed from the taxi and brought into the hotel by the porter before I even had a chance to pay the taxi driver. The hotel was very accommodating and had a room ready for us. We gratefully checked in and were able to take a nap after the long flight before exploring the city.

We had difficulty trying to figure out how to turn on the lights in the room and embarrassingly had to ask the front desk. They informed us that there was a card slot near the light switch that would turn the lights on. We swiped the card in the slot and the lights turned on for a period of approx. 3 minutes. Unfortunately, my friend was in the shower when the lights kept turning off. Finally, I realized that if I kept the card in the slot, the lights would remain on.

We asked at the lobby about finding an Internet café or an international phone card. They normally stock some international phone cards, but were out of them at the time. The only international phone calls you can make from the hotel need to be charged to a calling card, credit card, or collect through an international operator. The hotel wasn’t able to tell us where there was an Internet café, but instead have a PC available for guests to use with a pre-paid Internet card, which they sell. We bought one for 5 euros for 30 minutes. The PC that is available for guest use is located at a desk in the lobby. While using it, guests seemed to think that we worked there and tried to ask us questions. We just directed them to the front desk.

A continental buffet breakfast is included in the price of the room. The breakfast is served in a dining room in the basement from 6:30am to 11am. The food is basic, but satisfactory.

If you are not looking for a European-style hotel and don’t need to be in the center of the tourist attractions, this hotel is a reasonably pleasing choice.

By the time we made it to the Piazza Navona, we were absolutely ravenous. We decided to find a café to grab a bite before moving on. This was not a difficult feat. We had waiters trying to tempt us to eat at their café at multiple restaurants. We decided on one and sat down at an outdoor table in front. We were given menus and decided to split a couple of sandwiches. Our waiter took our order and then returned to inform us that they no longer had one of the sandwiches we wanted. We decided on a pizza instead. Having ordered our food and drink, the waiter brought over our iced coffee and lemon iced tea, both of which were terrific. The iced coffee came to the table with two miniature flags sticking out of the straws in celebration of the World Cup. He made sure one of the flags was the American flag for us.

The food arrived and either we were just so hungry as to be delirious, or else the food was wonderful. It was not the most authentic Italian food you will find, as the restaurant is located in such a touristy area, but it is definitely worth a try if you want to soak up the atmosphere of the Piazza Navona.

As we sat eating our food, a boy set himself in front of the café and started playing his violin and singing to entertain the patrons and the people in the square. We finished our food and sat gathering our energy for some more sight-seeing. As we were sitting, we witnessed a long argument ensuing at the next table over. Every time we thought the argument had finished, it would start all over again. Finally, with a “Basta; basta.” One of the parties got up and left the table.

With our bit of Italian excitement over, we paid and moved on to our next Rome spot. If you decide to try Tre Scalini, they also offer what looked like wonderful gelato. We saw many patrons walking around eating it, but were too full to try it ourselves.

We took the train to a stop near the Colosseum and walked through some other Roman ruins before arriving at this site. As we walked towards the structure, we were approached by a young man promoting a bar crawl that evening. We accepted his postcard knowing that we would not be joining him and continued on.

As we were waiting on line to purchase tickets to enter the Colosseum, a woman asked us if we would like to join an English language tour that was about to start. The 20 euros cost (including the 11 euros entrance fee) was for a 1 hour tour outside and inside of the building. We decided to join the group.

The tour began on the outside of the Colosseum, where our guide discussed the architecture and destruction of the amphitheater, such as the 3 layer structure and pointed to the part of the Colosseum where this original structure still exists. He pointed out where the original stone meets the brick that was laid after the marble had been removed by the Romans, in part to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in the 18th century.

Our guide also encouraged us to take photos with a couple of gladiators who were standing outside the Colosseum. Normally, they charge a few euros for a photo with them, but apparently, this was included in the tour. There was also a slight commercial break for promoting book and post-card sellers that were set up near the queue of people waiting to enter the site.

The tour then progressed inside where we bypassed the much longer line of individual tourists. Our tour group had seemed to increase from the start to approximately 40 people as we gathered again inside the Colosseum. Inside, our guide discussed the uses of the amphitheater, the cost of maintaining and entertaining at each of the events, and information about the gladiators and animals that fought there.

At the end of the guide’s talk, he opened up the forum for questions. Then let us all know that for taking part in this tour, the company, Tourus Maximus) would offer us two other free tours in the area – of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. We had limited time in Rome and knew we wanted to spend the time elsewhere in the city. Otherwise, I would have been very tempted to take these other tours.

The guide was well-versed in the history and stories of this historic site. For more information on the tour company: http://www.tourusmaximus.info. The site should be visited, whether you decide to explore on your own or with a guide.