Blog

I have recently returned from a trip to Rome with friends, this was very different and a slight eye opener from my normal holidays trekking around different parts of America and Canada. The reason we went was to celebrate a great friends 25th birthday. We had kept it a secret from him since we booked it in October last year (2010)! His fiancee had got him to the train station with the thoughts he was going to Cornwall and monkey world just the two of them. When actually there was 6 of us heading to Gatwick. He finally found out he was off to Rome when we headed to the Gate.

A little bit about the holiday. We flew in on the Tuesday and jumped into a taxi to take us to our hotel, it worked out just a €1 per person more expensive then grabbing a busy train with all the rude Italians. When we arrived at the hotel they didn’t have our rooms as they had a problem with a boiler so we got moved to a better hotel which was 10 minute work from the Colosseum so it work out well for us, already I was finding the language barrier uncomfortable, felt quite rude going into their country and not knowing any Italian.

On our first night I was really looking forward to real Italian food, you know how Jamie Oliver cooks it… :/ not quite! Our waiter was an Egyptian called Memo who was quite a funny chap he muttered f*ck off to a customer while taking our order, I’m sure he would have stolen one of the girlfriends if he had the chance. Food was okay, bit shocked by the lack of pizza toppings. We received the bill and found out that a 330ml can of coke was €4.50 which I wasn’t to happy about seeing as you could buy a can in the supermarket round the corner for 57 cents! So the next night we looked around a bit more and found some really nice places to eat about 15 minutes walk from the hotel, pizza and coke for €8.50 really good deal and very good stone baked pizza. Most nights I was eating pizza mainly due to the lack of options on the menu and it kept the costs down but they were very good. When you order a pizza you expect to see the toppings loaded on like you would get from Dominos, but you really don’t get that in Rome, you get a sprinkle of topping, you might get 10 pieces of sausage on top if you lucky. Just make sure you look around for the best deals. For Lunch we just got what we could from shops or takeaway vans, just be careful on finding out prices before as they can be very steep depending on where you are in the city.

Rome really is not as big as the maps make it out, its all walkable, we were located around the Colosseum and walked everywhere, in my opinion its the best way to see Rome. We managed to walk to the Vatican City from our hotel in around 45 minutes, we found out that at zebra crossings the cars wont stop for you like they do here, you have to just walk out they will stop for you honestly just be brave! I’m used to seeing signs or being able to see the huge landmark in the distance ie Times Square, but in Rome certain attractions just appear on you. So have a good look around you never know what you will come across.

I was impressed by the tourist spots but not in the same way everyone else was. Everyone was saying how beautiful all the paintings and sculptures were, to me a women painted based on a guys body is not beautiful, a big church with a few men standing on top hmm… I found it more interesting trying to work out how they made these buildings a long time ago, the size of them and the attention to detail is incredible . I was reading about one building and just the steps alone took around 19 years to complete. This is the building… its massive!

Everyone knows Rome for the Colosseum and it is pretty amazing, built in 72 AD and taking 8 years to complete and with a capacity of 50,000 across 6 tiers. If you go mention you are a from the EU and show a passport or driver license get it much cheaper we got to adults in for 12€. Defiantly a must see but make sure you get there early as the queue is huge.

Looks great at night.

While walking around Rome you do notice a few strange things, like double parallel parking. Normally you would get cars parked against the curb along a road, but… if you put your hazards on then you can park in the road along side these parked cars which blocks the road along with the people parked against the curb, we noticed a very irate lady who had been blocked in while another driver had left his car and gone for a beer, she thought the best idea was to sound her horn until the driver eventually came out 10 minutes later! Slightly annoying while you are trying to have a meal. Also they love their electric cars, many of the younger drivers have them and stick a few plastic extras onto the sides and top to make it look a little sportier. Here’s 3 examples of those electric cars also notice the parking.

Few things to be aware of when out and about, Roman Solders standing around the tourist sports, they will get you in for a few photos and be all friendly then they will expect something in return what ever you give them they wont seem happy about it, so best to just ignore them and walk away you really done want to anger a large guy with a wooden sword. Police they will tear around the streets in Alfas with little red lollipop sticking out the window they defiantly wont stop on zebra crossings for you so be aware of them. Guards don’t like you sitting down around tourist spots, they will either click their fingers at you or blow a whistle, gets very frustrating as you just want to chill and take it all in but you are not aloud you must stand. Oh and look out for the lancia’s they are every where and are just nasty cars

Like every city you will find graffiti and if you explore Rome as much as we did you will find a lot of it, this was just across from the Colosseum. Really not surprising to see though, plenty of it in London.

As you can tell by my photos we were very lucky with the weather, sun each day but the wind was freezing so we were wrapped up warm, really needed gloves and a scarf. Below are a few more photos taken with my Lumix LX3.

Vatican City as the sun was going down.

My girlfriend Jinnie and I inside the Colosseum.