Ancient Rome tour, Trevi Fountains, Spanish Steps, Castle of Angels & Bridge, and Piazza Navona
Staying at the Yellow hostel, about ten minutes walk from the Roma termini – the walk felt very long with all our stuff and not being sure where exactly it was. Staff required payment before check in, but their phone lines were down so couldn’t use credit card and made us go get cash to pay for the rooms before they let us drop our stuff in the room. Their policy makes sense, but when an inability to pay in credit card is their fault they definitely could have bent the rules in this case. Staff spoke good English but was only moderately helpful, not really giving any of the recommendations on places to eat and what to do that we had in Barcelona and Florence.
Rome seems much larger, busier and dirtier than Florence in general. Something that was immediately apparent was the need to take the metro to get around. Our hostel was within walking distance of the train station but relatively far from most of the sites, but at least there was a metro within a short walk. For as big of a city as Rome is, their metro is very underdeveloped, with only two lines – none of the underground stations every few blocks as is the case in London. While the service itself seemed in pretty good order, the trains were covered with graffiti, and how I imagined trains might have been in New York in the 80s. The metro was pretty convenient for getting to most of the sights though.
Went on a tour of most of the ancient ruins the afternoon we got in – was much more expensive than the other tours we had been on, at 18 Euro for a walking tour. Our tour guide was a Canadian who had been living in Rome and running tours with his partner for a few years now (side note: this could be a great backup plan – if school/work doesn’t work out after graduation, just move somewhere to Europe and learn the language [German, Spanish, French, Italian] while providing some sort of service to tourists or teaching English for a couple-three years).
For the cost, I wasn’t thrilled with the experience that we got from the tour, since much of the information and stories that he told we had covered already in Latin or was available on Wikipedia. It was really cool seeing places that we had learned about though, including the Circo Massimo (Circus Maximus), the Forums, the Pantheon, Colosseum, and Palatine hill.There was also Marcellus’s theater (which apparently actually has apartments inside today that are used by the rich/famous), which was by Rome’s Jewish quarter, which has a beautiful and relatively large synagogue. Apparently, the synagogue was funded at least in part by parties who weren’t thrilled with the Vatican, and wanted to build a synagogue that dominated that area of town so that the Pope would have to see this synagogue everytime he looked over from the top of St. Peter’s.
The Pantheon was extremely cool as well, being almost completely intact as opposed to almost all of the other major ruins in Rome and across Europe. It has since been consecrated as a Catholic church, and the interior is very beautiful, but the oculus (which has let in light, rain or shine, everyday for over 2000 years...too cool) and the sheer scope of the temple itself are absolutely incredible.
We also saw the Venetian Plaza, the modern day city center, which all the major roads lead to (apparently making traffic a nightmare) and the huge and glorious monument to Vittorio Emanuel II, the first king and unifier of Italy. Apparently, Italians have historically HATED this monument, since it cost a ton of tax money to build and doesn’t serve a purpose (it’s not Parliament or the executive residence or anything; there’s just a museum inside). I thought it was pretty cool
though.
I rationalized the cost of the tour by telling myself that the mythology/ancient Roman history refresher was nice (even if it could’ve been done via Wikipedia), and also that we stopped by a very tasty/cheap pizzeria as well as a gelato shop that we ended up coming back to a couple days later.
After the tour we went to the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, both of which were absolutely packed with tourists (but still very impressive nonetheless, so maybe rightfully so?). Check the pictures for more
Pictures of Rome (ancient Rome tour, Trevi Fountains, Spanish Steps, Castle of Angels & Bridge, and Piazza Navona)
On Saturday we had seen most of the major sights so we went to the Castle of Angels, where there was a market that was open along the Tiber river in the shadow of the Castle. The bridge right in front of the Castle is also gorgeous, with a number of beautifully carved statues adorning its span. The weather was positively lovely that day (75 and sunny with a warm breeze), and so we meandered from the Castle to the Piazza Navona, back through the Pantheon and to the Trevi Fountains. Again, check the pictures for more.
Pictures if you missed them – Rome part 1
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