The flight to Rome was uneventful, if a bit crushed. Flying Eurowings is no-frills and no room, but for two hours, bearable. On arrival at Rome airport, we walked a long way to claim our bags, both arriving in one piece. Unfortunately, the handle mechanism on my bag had broken during the process, so wheeling it was a bit of a challenge.
We opted to catch the express train into the city as our hotel was walking distance from the train station. Another lengthy walk and we boarded the Leonardo express for Termini station. Our hotel in Rome, Regina Giovanna, has an interesting check-in procedure whereby we had to go to one hotel to complete formalities (and pay 36 euros city tax!) and collect our key. It was then another six minute’s walk to our hotel – an easy feat IF my bag wasn’t broken.
Our ‘hotel’ was a few rooms on one floor of a building that hosted a couple of hotels and was rather nice. There is a public space of a sitting area and a communal kitchen, so if we wanted to, we could cook meals. Our room was more spacious than the typical European hotel room, with a good shower and amazing bed. Siena and Andrew’s hotel is just a five-minute walk away – I did check prices to stay there, but one night equated to almost one week’s accommodation on our budget – and we planned to meet their bus in the morning and help them get to their accommodation.
It was almost 10pm by the time we were in our room, but we hadn’t eaten, and our walk had taken us past many great looking restaurants. We set off to find sustenance and eventually made our way into a quaint little Italian style restaurant. Beers and pizza along with excellent service at a great price (21 euros) made for an enjoyable end to a long day.
I woke up feeling a bit fluey so a big hit of barley grass and it was time to find the bus terminal to meet the kids. They had woken us up early asking questions about where to find the shuttle to get to their bus transfer from the ship into Rome – a couple of calls and some calming words and they had it worked out. Colin and I set off to find breakfast as we had a few hours before they would be in the city. The café we found near the Termini station was nice and offer a great range of pastries and toasties, along with great service, so that killed a bit of time. Coffee is more expensive than beer in Europe, so breakfast was a bit of a shock at 31 euros and when the Eftpos machine wouldn’t work, cleaned up most of our euros. That led us on a hunt for an ATM, which we found easily…and then it also wasn’t working. Hmmm…
As we hunted for the bus stop for the kids’ bus company, following the evil blue dot to the location the booking gave us, our frustration and confusion increased as we could not see where a bus would stop. Giving up, we stumbled on a bus stop with the bus company’s sign and figured we were in the right spot. Thankfully, we were able to communicate with the kids and they kept us updated with what was going on – which was a good thing as they were an hour later than we anticipated.
Finally, we caught up, after the bus driver dropped them somewhere else and they made their way towards us, until we spotted them across the street. Man, did those hugs feel good! We set off to drop bags at their hotel, with a plan to grab lunch before we joined our Vatican tour. When in Italy eat Italian, which is exactly what we did – pizza and pasta all ‘round.
With tummies full, we found our tour starting point and set off with a dozen or so others to learn about art, history and Catholicism…when in Rome…
Other than too much standing around being told about Michelangelo’s paintings without being able to see them, the tour was quite good. We explored key parts of the Vatican Museum along with thousands of other goggle-eyed tourists, and then set off for the Sistine Chapel which is in the pope’s official residence in the Apostolic Palace. It was as beautiful as I remembered, but bigger than my memories recalled. We also had more time to admire the art as once we were inside, we could move around and were not hustled out quickly.
From the Sistine Chapel, we made our way to St Peter’s Square and the Basilica. Sadly, there were stages and seating set up, so the square didn’t look as big, but the façade of St Peter’s defied my memories again, looking much more imposing and magnificent than I remembered. Then, as we went inside, the basilica seemed smaller than what my 15-year-old memory recalled. Perhaps it is because we have been exploring other impressive cathedrals recently? Either way, the basilica is still an extraordinarily beautiful architectural masterpiece, and it was delightful to share the experience with Siena and Andrew.
It was getting dark by the time we finished checking out the Vatican shop after the tour, even though it wasn’t yet 5pm, so we set off back to the Hotel Diana to let the kids check in. We chilled in their room for an hour or so before setting off to find somewhere to eat. The area is full of restaurants, so it was not a difficult ask. Siena wanted something with fairy lights, but we also wanted a good range of food. We settled eventually and enjoyed more Italian fare, frequently bothered by street hawkers, but they were pretty good at moving on when we said we weren’t interested.
We met up the next morning at Hotel Diana and set off to find the Trevi Fountain. Our Colosseum tour didn’t start until 10.45, so we gave ourselves a couple of hours to fit in a few significant sights. Unfortunately, the weather forecast and cloudy skies promised a rainy morning, but we hoped it would only be intermittent drizzle, and not real rain. We got to the Trevi Fountain dry and took a million photos as well as doing the traditional coin toss. It’s a bit harder to get the coins in the fountain these days as the barricades are quite a long way from the edge of the fountain, but we managed to get a few dirhams into the water.
With time still to kill, we made the short walk to the Spanish Steps to tick off another sight and tossed up our options to get coffee here or get to the tour departure point first and find a café there. We took the safer option of getting coffee near the tour office and followed the evil blue dot again. Our route took us into a tunnel after running into a couple of very excited Aussie tourists and by the time we reached the other side, the clouds were dumping their contents in depressingly heavy rain. None of us were prepared for real rain, so we waited in the shelter of the tunnel for about 10 minutes, hoping for a reprieve. Once the rain lightened to a sprinkle, we risked the ominous clouds and set off again as we were still about 10 minutes from the tour office.
We were all damper than we would have liked by the time we found a café near the tour office, and with the rain coming down again, we found the driest part of the outside of the café that we could and ordered coffee. After getting ripped off for 5 euros each for ponchos and eventually getting our coffees, we were better prepared for our tour. And yes, the rain kept coming and going making an outdoor tour more challenging.
When Colin and I did our coach tour, we didn’t get to go into the Forum or explore Palatine Hill, so I was excited to be able to do them this time. We met our tour guide Giulio who turned out to be fabulous. He claimed to be an archaeologist and whether true or not, his passion and knowledge made the tour incredibly interesting and fun as he told stories of the events that took place in these historical sites.
Roman Forum
Palatine Hill
Colosseum
Giulio went over time which wasn’t a problem as it was all so interesting and we got to spend more time at the Colosseum once the tour was finished. It was well past lunch time and we found a café that served up delicious sandwiches for the boys and Siena and I had a scrumptious pork jowl square spaghetti dish. Then it was tattoo time – yes, I let Siena con me into getting a souvenir tattoo with her; what better mummy/daughter time could there be?
We had both researched tattoo studios and agreed on Avia tattoo – they had great reviews and were open for walk-ins. True to their word, they assigned us tattoo artists who drew up our designs and we were set. The boys went off to explore the Parthenon while Siena and I let people ‘draw’ on us. Siena went for an olive branch as a holiday memento, and I opted for a minimalist turtle (Travelturtles) with a rose as a tribute to our mummy/daughter session. The staff were simply lovely, making us both feel important, and they took incredible care to make sure we were happy with our tattoos. Siena even got a photo shoot as her artist wanted to post his work. We both walked out very happy with our new ink.
It was back to Hotel Diana to catch up with the boys and decide what we were going to do for, you guessed it, dinner. Hey it’s Italy – it’s got to be about the food! We were all rather foot sore after clocking up a lot of steps, so the restaurant just outside the Hotel Diana won our commerce. The staff were fun and it was nice to enjoy a meal with wonderful company. It has just been Colin and I for four months now and we have both loved spending some time with Siena and Andrew, sharing Rome and making wonderful memories together.
After a bit of shopping to get their fridge magnets and a fun chat with the shop owner, the tears began to flow as we said our farewells. The 9am flight for the kids meant a 5.20 train to the airport, so Colin and I opted to get some sleep as our flight wasn’t until 12.30pm. Goodbyes over, Colin and I went back to our hotel and started to settle in for the night until I remembered I had forgotten to get the things Siena had brought over for me. I set off back to their hotel and got more precious hugs – they will have to last for a while as we probably won’t be back in Australia until August next year.
My suitcase was a lost cause. Colin managed to get the handle mechanism working, but it was still a bit dicky, so rather than risk the repair job failing on arrival in Egypt, I headed out to buy a new suitcase. It’s much poorer quality than my purple one, but options were limited at 9pm. This cheap, crappy suitcase will probably last forever!
Typically, we slept poorly as we had a travel day coming up, and I couldn’t help checking that everything was going ok for Siena and Andrew (which of course it was!). We made our own way back to the train station and, after they brought in a new train to replace the one that had broken down, we had a smooth and quick check in at Rome airport. For a short stop, it was loads of fun and our memories of Rome are those of lovely people, great food and a clean, vibrant city.
Here we come Egypt!