Rome - THE Cultural Capital

When you think how old the Pantheon is, built in an era without cranes or electricity, it really makes you appreciate the building even more! Built with a diameter equal to its height and a dome for a ceiling - with a hole in the top for light to radiate in, it is a work of art!
I didn't realise the Pantheon is actually a Catholic Church, with Masses throughout the week and an area set aside for quiet prayer. All around the circular church are smaller chapels and shrines.
Get the guidebook out, because there's plenty to pick up here that's not obvious initially! From statues to the tomb of Raphael, there's lots to look at. I particularly liked the human sized crib. I'm not sure whether it's there all year round, but it was certainly still there in the first week of February, with the crib figures all life size just as you go inside.
We wanted to make sure we'd picked everything up so we paid a euro and used the audio guide at the right of the building as you come up to the altar. It was great!
One word of warning when it's wet: don't stand in the middle! Remember that the Pantheon has a hole in the roof!

Rome wet and rainy? While the Sistine Chapel is the reason most people come here, the museums actually stretch for miles, with valuables from all over the earth congregated in one building: the perfect way to spend a rainy day!
You pay in to the museums - I think it was around 14 euros for us -and once you're through the security you're guaranteed a brilliant day.
From Ancient Egyptian rooms to churches containing priceless works of art, this place has something for everyone to see. We opted for the tour that would take us to the Sistine Chapel, but on the way we were directed through corridors, salons and chapels, covered in embellishment and hours of artistic work.
What astounded me was the way every square centimetre was filled with art in these halls. From long narrow passageways with detailed maps painted on the walls and portraits on the ceilings to wide open 'parlours' with religious art everywhere, it would take a year to take all the sights in!
And that was before we arrived at the Sistine Chapel. This is astounding itself. There are benches arranged all around the walls for tourists to sit and stare in amazement. The sheer scale of the chapel is enough to take your breath away, Michaelangelo's painting jumping out from the wall, three dimensional and vast. Be prepared to be astounded!
This is somewhere you'll return to time and time again. There's no way you could take it all in in one visit!

We found this a pretty poor way to see the city! We'd planned to go on our bus tour pretty late on in the trip: having seen most of the sights by foot and alone we thought it'd be good to get guided round the rest. But Tourbus 110 Open was not the best way to go about this.

There appear to be a number of buses zooming round the city every day and we opted for the one the tourist office recommended. It costs around 20 euros for 24 hours on the bus - it's a hop-on-hop-off, which saves on sore feet!

But once we'd embarked we realised this wasn't really interactive. The people at the front who sold us our tickets didn't really do anything else, and instead we were presented with earphones to plug into sockets on the sides of the bus, giving us our tour via audioguide. Technically this should have worked well, with different channels for different languages, but having sat down in a good seat to enjoy the tour, we realised our headphone sockets didn't work! It took us moving to 4 different seats until we found one that did. Lucky the bus wasn't busy!

And then there was the problem of the traffic: the audioguide started talking about sights before and even way after the bus had got there, fighting through the beeping cars and bustle of Rome.

It would have been nice to have a guide we could talk to through the tour: the one time we asked a question (about an event in Rome) neither the driver or the ticket seller could answer us.

One good thing about the tour though! The 24 hour ticket allowed us to use the bus as much as we liked and having gone round the circuit once in the morning, we decided to see Rome by night. We hopped on again and were brought round the city, once the sky had turned black and the stars started to appear. From our vantage point we saw the Colosseum lit up and the Vatican glowing: gorgeous!

The Colosseum - something that everyone goes to Rome to see! And hence hefty queues to get in to look around! We skipped them by buying our ticket elsewhere: the Colosseum ticket is combined with entrance to the Imperial Forum and Palatine, slightly less popular places to see and therefore a better place to pay the admission. Once you've bought a ticket at any one of these venues, you can swipe yourself in to the Colosseum without needing to queue. We paid the under-25s rate of 14 euros each and it was well worth it: the place is magnificent!
It's amazing to think how the ancient world was able to hoist the stones in place to make such an imposing edifice. We were lucky enough to join a tour that had just started - it may be worth while asking for times when you're about to get a ticket - and it gave us more of an insight into what we were going to see. It also made us stop and think a bit: the guide pointed out that we were standing somewhere where thousands of people had died for 'entertainment.' A sobering thought. It's funny how a building that appears on all the postcards is one which such an unsavoury past.
We walked to the Colosseum, but many of the bus tours stop alongside it and there's a metro line at one end that connects to the B line. If you're unwilling to walk, it's cheapest to go this way!
And it's worth coming back to see it once more at night! While you might not want to look inside it at this time, the building's illuminated beautifully as darkness falls. Perfect for taking postcard-worthy pics!

Having never been to the city before, we were unsure where was the best place to stay, and ended up in Hotel Isa because it was recommended by a friend. I'll definitely be going back here next time I'm in Rome!
Isa is a boutique hotel - small and stylish. The stairs surrounded a rickety lift, and with artwork based around ancient Roman statues, as soon as we were arrived we felt immersed in culture!
The staff were very helpful from the start of our visit to the end - giving us a map to help navigate around, and offering to mind our bags while we waited for the airport.
Our rooms were labelled as 'standard' but I thought they were anything but! On the bed when we arrived were little 'Baci' sweets - traditional Italian confectionery with a romantic note inside the wrapper - and an invitation to a free dinner as a welcome to Rome. And there were lots of other little touches - free slippers, elegant bath products, satellite TV...
The dinner buffet in the roof top restaurant, overlooking the Vatican lit up at night, was the perfect way to start our trip! And it was great having a brilliant breakfast included in the price!
The hotel is situated in the 'Prati' district of Rome - not far from the Vatican and walking distance from everywhere else. It's surrounded by tiny little Italian restaurants - we didn't have to stray far for authentic Roman food and it felt really safe walking back at night.
The rate for a standard twin room was 99 euros a night - and that included the breakfast and one dinner buffet.
I'll definitely be back here next time I'm in Rome - it's an elegant and accessible base from which to explore.