NOW WHERE TO BEGIN. Between the dates 3rd - 5th of April I had quite possibly the most fun possible. So much to report on and I'm sure anything I write here won't do that city break justice but I shall try anyway.
Originally the forecast told us to expect torrential rain and cloud for the entire time we were there. This put a downer on things for a start because just like young Ralphie dog, I am a fair weather being.. I dont 'do' rain or wind or anything that gets me a bit ruffled. On arrival at the airport, at 7:30 am we were told our flight was cancelled, I lost my mobile phone and had a minor nervous break down over it all but calm was soon restored when I found my mobile phone exactly where I left it - the zip up compartment of my rucksack, and we were informed our flight hadn't actually been cancelled and that message was a mistake - PHEW. Onto phase two. So we queued in the departure lounge with the most annoying group of christian rock camp kids who kept lumbering around with their big trumbones and horns and wearing their weird t-shirts that made no sense but soon we were onboard and on our way to ROMA: milky BA tea in hand and a rotten old chedder cheese spread and ham roll in the other.
To try and cut down this extremely long story short I'll break some of it up into bullets so you can generally just get the gist :
*Arrived Rome airport and freaked out that I'd lost my family sized luggage - Needless to say I hadn't! They soon arrived
*Arrived Rome airport train station, ate rankest most dirty peice of pizza I've ever eaten, saw Adrian turn a shade of green eating his too but he managed to finish off my slice anyway.
*Climbed aboard, got wedged, lots of Italian people thought this was funny so continued to watch the automatic door thud against me time and time again for comedy value - Ouch- Myself and Adrian used brute force to free me!
*Arrived Rome Termini, dragged cases miles and miles but got to see some beautiful parts of the city by navigating our way by foot through the back streets.
*Arrived Hotel Gabrinus, greeted by a lovely most obliging chappy at the desk. Arrived in a room, most satisfactory but thought we'd try our luck at getting something a little larger... Adrian called reception, spoke to that lovely chappy again, he seemed sad we didnt like his room so we felt bad and left it as it was.
And this brings me to our first excursion out into the beautiful city of Rome. We once again approached the man who owned the hotel (yes that lovely chappy on the front desk who we'd only moments before offended by asking for a larger room) who again was most obliging and showed us on a his map which buses to catch and where the best places were to see by night.
We made our way to the Barberini which was a bit unusual. We took a million pictures of it, not entirely sure why but it was our first landmark and we felt we had too. There was a crazy man hanging about there (see pictures) who shouted at passes by, ran up to people and generally was a bit of a tourment to everyone. He wore orange glasses and a green feather hat and carried a big painting with him. I think he was doing this for handouts. Needless to say he was a bit intimidating so we didnt give him any cash, though it's worth mentioning that Adrian must have seen some hidden talent in the chap as he has since said 'He was my 3rd most favourite street entertainer of all' time . I personally felt the word 'entertainer' here was a little generous.
We went on to navigate our way through the bustling streets as dusk came and got some kind American tourists to take some piccies of the pair of us. This was shortly before we were bombarded by street sellers 'looky-looky' men as they are more commonly referred to, trying to flog roses to just about anyone! We went onto the Trevi fountain which was busy despite the time of the day and took in lots of the atmosphere. By 11 o clock we were shattered, but ambled our way to a local wine bar that the Lonely Planet guide recommended and sampled some of Italy's best wines while having a good old chin wag. By midnight I was wilting so we made our way back to Gabrinus, and as soon as I hit the pillow I was out like a light.
The following day our forward planning before we left for Rome turned out to be time well spent as we had an idea of what we wanted to see most of all and what to prioritise. I couldn't wait to show Adrian the Vatican. It truly is my favourite place on earth. As ridiculous as it sounds, you can enter that church and feel instantly calmed and at peace. I've never experienced that in any other place so its pretty special to me. We grabbed a head set so and made our way round but only got half way before deciding to ditch them and just take it all in. It was absolutely beautiful and as good as it was the first time I went. We had a little trouble finding the Sistine as I got the impression from the book that it was all ajoined but it turns out you have to circumnavigate the Vatican City itself to find it. The Sistine was definately worth a look, though not what I'd expected at all. Its a pretty amazing feat to have achieved all that single handedly, I'll give him that! The museum itself was a little samey with statue after statue - Of course I appreciate this is decades of Roman history but soon one statue just morphs into another and you begin to fail to appreciate the hard work that went into them. The tapestries however were pretty magnificent and the decoration on the ceilings of the museum halls were pretty impressive.
Following this we trecked out way to the colleseum via the Palatine (unintentionally we strolled upon it) which as expected is pretty impressive though the weather was changing and the last tours of the day were about to begin and we felt we couldnt justify 15 euros to see the inside. Instead, we went onto a small coffee/chocolate shop to top up our energy levels and then onto the Pantheon which was definately one of my favourite locations. I didn't expect much from the Pantheon, and the lonely planet guide didnt particularly give much away to give evidence to the contrary so we went there a bit blind really. But arriving just at the end of Mass meant the Pantheon was full of the fresh scent of insense and it had fantastic atmosphere. The hole in the centre of the domed ceiling was also really odd and from what I gather its pretty amazing to see when there is heavy rain and it just falls into the chapel. Even better than any of this though was pitching up a seat in a prime location at a restaurant directly infront of it as sun set. The Pantheon is fantastic by night, a perfect romantic, truly italian atmosphere with tasteful street entertainers to compliment the mood. We were unfortunate enough to be sat next to a couple of pretty rowdy American tourists but they soon went and it was quite a giggle to listen to the couple talk about how the one thing they had really missed since being on holiday was a Big Mac from McDonalds - AHHH, Some people have no culture! :P
We finished off this great day by once again taking the advice of the Lonely planet and going to a World Famous Gelataria. It was a bit of a treck to say the least but my goodness, I have never in all my life tasted ice cream like it. I had pear sorbet and chocolate meringue flavour... I thought I'd died and gone to heaven and despite being exhausted I forgot my achey legs and tired eyes just long enough to enjoy my double scoop!
Day three starting rather badly after we couldnt find a Tabacchi that was open to be able to by a bus ticket. We asked a bus driver who told us the only place we could get one would be the Termini. This was a bit of a treck away and we figured, that no one had checked the buses when we'd bought tickets the last two days and we were only going two stops so we'd take the risk and once at the Termini, we'd get our tickets. Well, unlucky for us, but deservedly so I guess, we got caught and find 50 euro each. I was angry beyond belief and had to find my way to a cash point to pay the inspector before he'd return my passport. Nevertheless after half an hour or so of moaning I got over it and we made our way to that Villla Bouguiese. It was absolutely beautiful. It appeared to be a place lesser known to tourists which was really nice. With it being Palm Sunday the whole park was full of huge Italian families enjoying picnics on the lawns in perfect sunshine. We went rowing on a pretty lake surrounded by Roman statues, saw turtles swimming amongst the boats, took a ridiculous amount of photos and drank Cola and Peroni on the lawn. A perfect way to end our excursion to Rome.
I fell asleep for the majority of the journey back to the airport by train and it turns out we'd been held up for one reason or another to arrived at the airport just an hour before our flight was due to leave. We did see the guy from Grand Designs queueing at the xray scanner though which is always fun. I naturally pressured Adrian to take a cheeky snap shot of him.. but I think he noticed :S We were soon onboard our plane back to Gatwick and very miserable to have it all come to an end.
Originally the forecast told us to expect torrential rain and cloud for the entire time we were there. This put a downer on things for a start because just like young Ralphie dog, I am a fair weather being.. I dont 'do' rain or wind or anything that gets me a bit ruffled. On arrival at the airport, at 7:30 am we were told our flight was cancelled, I lost my mobile phone and had a minor nervous break down over it all but calm was soon restored when I found my mobile phone exactly where I left it - the zip up compartment of my rucksack, and we were informed our flight hadn't actually been cancelled and that message was a mistake - PHEW. Onto phase two. So we queued in the departure lounge with the most annoying group of christian rock camp kids who kept lumbering around with their big trumbones and horns and wearing their weird t-shirts that made no sense but soon we were onboard and on our way to ROMA: milky BA tea in hand and a rotten old chedder cheese spread and ham roll in the other.
To try and cut down this extremely long story short I'll break some of it up into bullets so you can generally just get the gist :
*Arrived Rome airport and freaked out that I'd lost my family sized luggage - Needless to say I hadn't! They soon arrived
*Arrived Rome airport train station, ate rankest most dirty peice of pizza I've ever eaten, saw Adrian turn a shade of green eating his too but he managed to finish off my slice anyway.
*Climbed aboard, got wedged, lots of Italian people thought this was funny so continued to watch the automatic door thud against me time and time again for comedy value - Ouch- Myself and Adrian used brute force to free me!
*Arrived Rome Termini, dragged cases miles and miles but got to see some beautiful parts of the city by navigating our way by foot through the back streets.
*Arrived Hotel Gabrinus, greeted by a lovely most obliging chappy at the desk. Arrived in a room, most satisfactory but thought we'd try our luck at getting something a little larger... Adrian called reception, spoke to that lovely chappy again, he seemed sad we didnt like his room so we felt bad and left it as it was.
And this brings me to our first excursion out into the beautiful city of Rome. We once again approached the man who owned the hotel (yes that lovely chappy on the front desk who we'd only moments before offended by asking for a larger room) who again was most obliging and showed us on a his map which buses to catch and where the best places were to see by night.
We made our way to the Barberini which was a bit unusual. We took a million pictures of it, not entirely sure why but it was our first landmark and we felt we had too. There was a crazy man hanging about there (see pictures) who shouted at passes by, ran up to people and generally was a bit of a tourment to everyone. He wore orange glasses and a green feather hat and carried a big painting with him. I think he was doing this for handouts. Needless to say he was a bit intimidating so we didnt give him any cash, though it's worth mentioning that Adrian must have seen some hidden talent in the chap as he has since said 'He was my 3rd most favourite street entertainer of all' time . I personally felt the word 'entertainer' here was a little generous.
We went on to navigate our way through the bustling streets as dusk came and got some kind American tourists to take some piccies of the pair of us. This was shortly before we were bombarded by street sellers 'looky-looky' men as they are more commonly referred to, trying to flog roses to just about anyone! We went onto the Trevi fountain which was busy despite the time of the day and took in lots of the atmosphere. By 11 o clock we were shattered, but ambled our way to a local wine bar that the Lonely Planet guide recommended and sampled some of Italy's best wines while having a good old chin wag. By midnight I was wilting so we made our way back to Gabrinus, and as soon as I hit the pillow I was out like a light.
The following day our forward planning before we left for Rome turned out to be time well spent as we had an idea of what we wanted to see most of all and what to prioritise. I couldn't wait to show Adrian the Vatican. It truly is my favourite place on earth. As ridiculous as it sounds, you can enter that church and feel instantly calmed and at peace. I've never experienced that in any other place so its pretty special to me. We grabbed a head set so and made our way round but only got half way before deciding to ditch them and just take it all in. It was absolutely beautiful and as good as it was the first time I went. We had a little trouble finding the Sistine as I got the impression from the book that it was all ajoined but it turns out you have to circumnavigate the Vatican City itself to find it. The Sistine was definately worth a look, though not what I'd expected at all. Its a pretty amazing feat to have achieved all that single handedly, I'll give him that! The museum itself was a little samey with statue after statue - Of course I appreciate this is decades of Roman history but soon one statue just morphs into another and you begin to fail to appreciate the hard work that went into them. The tapestries however were pretty magnificent and the decoration on the ceilings of the museum halls were pretty impressive.
Following this we trecked out way to the colleseum via the Palatine (unintentionally we strolled upon it) which as expected is pretty impressive though the weather was changing and the last tours of the day were about to begin and we felt we couldnt justify 15 euros to see the inside. Instead, we went onto a small coffee/chocolate shop to top up our energy levels and then onto the Pantheon which was definately one of my favourite locations. I didn't expect much from the Pantheon, and the lonely planet guide didnt particularly give much away to give evidence to the contrary so we went there a bit blind really. But arriving just at the end of Mass meant the Pantheon was full of the fresh scent of insense and it had fantastic atmosphere. The hole in the centre of the domed ceiling was also really odd and from what I gather its pretty amazing to see when there is heavy rain and it just falls into the chapel. Even better than any of this though was pitching up a seat in a prime location at a restaurant directly infront of it as sun set. The Pantheon is fantastic by night, a perfect romantic, truly italian atmosphere with tasteful street entertainers to compliment the mood. We were unfortunate enough to be sat next to a couple of pretty rowdy American tourists but they soon went and it was quite a giggle to listen to the couple talk about how the one thing they had really missed since being on holiday was a Big Mac from McDonalds - AHHH, Some people have no culture! :P
We finished off this great day by once again taking the advice of the Lonely planet and going to a World Famous Gelataria. It was a bit of a treck to say the least but my goodness, I have never in all my life tasted ice cream like it. I had pear sorbet and chocolate meringue flavour... I thought I'd died and gone to heaven and despite being exhausted I forgot my achey legs and tired eyes just long enough to enjoy my double scoop!
Day three starting rather badly after we couldnt find a Tabacchi that was open to be able to by a bus ticket. We asked a bus driver who told us the only place we could get one would be the Termini. This was a bit of a treck away and we figured, that no one had checked the buses when we'd bought tickets the last two days and we were only going two stops so we'd take the risk and once at the Termini, we'd get our tickets. Well, unlucky for us, but deservedly so I guess, we got caught and find 50 euro each. I was angry beyond belief and had to find my way to a cash point to pay the inspector before he'd return my passport. Nevertheless after half an hour or so of moaning I got over it and we made our way to that Villla Bouguiese. It was absolutely beautiful. It appeared to be a place lesser known to tourists which was really nice. With it being Palm Sunday the whole park was full of huge Italian families enjoying picnics on the lawns in perfect sunshine. We went rowing on a pretty lake surrounded by Roman statues, saw turtles swimming amongst the boats, took a ridiculous amount of photos and drank Cola and Peroni on the lawn. A perfect way to end our excursion to Rome.
I fell asleep for the majority of the journey back to the airport by train and it turns out we'd been held up for one reason or another to arrived at the airport just an hour before our flight was due to leave. We did see the guy from Grand Designs queueing at the xray scanner though which is always fun. I naturally pressured Adrian to take a cheeky snap shot of him.. but I think he noticed :S We were soon onboard our plane back to Gatwick and very miserable to have it all come to an end.
