With Sasha having been there before, when it did come time to plan our visit there her experience and info proved very helpful. Rome is a large city, and often with large cities you don't know where is a good place to stay or not, how easy it is to get around or not, things like that. Sasha already knew these things and we could plan accordingly - so Rome came together quite easily. We had a list of things we wanted to do there, factored in enough time for them, and slotted it easily into the rest of our adventures around Italy.
We were in Sorrento, so travelling to Rome was a little convoluted. We'd gone from our accommodation in Sorrento to the city by public bus, stored our luggage at the station and wandered around Sorrento for a few hours until it was time to catch the Circumvesuviana train to Naples. The train showed up 20mins before departure (most unlike this railway), which meant we were able to score some good seats, but also that the train really filled up with people while we waited to depart. This was one of the modern Circumvesuviana electric railcars but like the old ones, it was scratched up and graffitied and generally grotty looking. At the station which lies underneath the main Naples train station, we hopped off but due to the swarm of people I couldn't put my bag on my back until virtually the whole train had gone past us on the platform!
A bit of dwell time at Naples Station, and then we hopped aboard our Italo high speed train from Naples to Rome. It was a bit late leaving, and then we sat for about 30 minutes at the next station going nowhere fast. Eventually we did get on the move, but we didn't budge above 250km/h - which was much the same as when we travelled from Venice to Naples aboard the Italo train last time. We weren't in first class this time, but 2nd - but we'd chosen our seats close to the luggage rack so that we could conveniently stow our bags and keep an eye on them. We'd bought some supermarket food and ate this on the train for dinner. About 8.30pm we arrived into Rome's main railway station, and then it was a matter of a short walk two blocks to our accommodation.
We'd chosen a private hostel room close to the main train station, which was our entry and exit point for Rome. It was extremely close to the station, and across the road was a Laundromat where we needed to check in. Getting checked in was a bit of a slow process, as the man at the laundromat was very slowly dealing with some customers who were picking up some Laundry. Meanwhile, some girls showed up to collect some laundry - and he told them it wasn't ready yet, come back in 10 minutes. This guy at the laundromat had a rather dreadful bowl cut haircut, and in appearance did not look unsimilar to Dwayne Dibley - a somewhat hapless character who appears in the TV show Red Dwarf on occasion. This guy's resemblance to Dwayne Dibley turned out to be more than just in his looks.
The guy eventually found our names written in the book, asked for our passports, went off with them for a while, and came back pointing to my expired Tier 5 UK Visa asking if that was my entry stamp into Italy. No, that's my UK visa, I've got a couple of German visa's too saying I can be in Schengen but not one for entering Italy. Oh ok he says, and goes off for another long time. Then he comes back, and its time for payment - we'd booked through Hostelworld, who had taken a deposit already from our total amount. His maths skills for calculating the remainder we needed to pay were seemingly not strong, and it took him a long time to produce the figure he wanted - which even then was actually slightly short of the true total. As I'd read payment for the Hostel was Cash Only, I handed him over the money and needed some change back. He then spent what felt like the next 10 minutes taking out change, putting back change, more change out, putting it back, different change, that goes back, doing the sums in his head again, counting the money I gave him yet again, more change out, change put back, until finally I get the change which is just a bit more than it should be. He starts turning off things in the Laundromat, tells us he needs to lock up and show us to the room, and to wait outside for him. While on the footpath, a car pulls up with the window wound down, and its driver looks at me and says "Michael!". "Um, no, I'm not Michael" I reply. "You are from New Zealand though, right?" he replies. "...yes..." I say, wondering how on earth this guy knows that? Is my accent still strong? "I'm the Hostel Owner, Monty - he will sort you out!" he says, pointing to Dwayne Dibley. It must have been a good 20 minutes now since we arrived to check in, and just as Dwayne locks up the door the girls arrive to pick up their laundry. He tells them he will be back shortly - going by everything so far, I doubt it will be shortly! However just then Monty arrives, and tells Dwayne that he'll check us in and takes the keys from Dwayne, so Dwayne opens back up.
Monty shows us how the sticky entrance door works, and then how the other keys work and once shown to our room, he produces a map of Rome and marks where we are, and then proceeds to circle the must-see locations in Rome. By the time he's finished, I don't think there's a single thing left on the map to circle! but it proves to be a most useful map for us, and the accommodation did us quite well for our few days in Rome. It wasn't the biggest room, but it was comfortable and quiet. The front door did prove problematic once, but we got the hang of it by the end.
We ended up seeing the Colosseum, the former Arena of Ancient Rome 3 times during our stay. The first time was our first night in Rome - we had gotten to the accommodation, started to settle in but then decided to get amongst it like we did in Venice. Handily for us, the nearby main train station also is a subway/metro stop and so we got ourselves 48hr unlimited ride metro ticket and set off the 2 stops to the Colosseum. Its after hours so you can't go in, but its all lit up so we try and get some night photos of it - not the easiest thing in the world, especially with lots of people around but a few pics come out good.
The second time was a proper visit on our 2nd morning in Rome. We joined the queue early to buy tickets from ticket booths by the entrance to the Roman Forum across the court from the Colosseum, and not long after they opened we had our tickets, and went straight to the entrance gate for the Colosseum bypassing the already long line to buy tickets at the Colosseum. With little fuss, we were in - and could start exploring with few other people around! by the time we'd done a lap around the Colosseum (taking about an hour), there were quite a lot of people here and we did a 2nd lap - however even though the sun was in a slightly better position, it was now impossible to even attempt the same shots we'd already taken due to the crowds. After about 90 minutes total, we left the Colosseum having gotten our fill - an impressive ruin, but a ruin nonetheless. Still a bit hard to imagine what it must have looked like completely when it was intact in its heyday. I also got Sasha to pose on a tree stump nearby with the Colosseum in the background, which soon became impossible because a large crowd of Asian tourists saw what I was doing and wanted to do exactly the same before we were even finished!
The third, and last time was our last evening in Rome - we weren't quite sure what we might do for dinner or how to spend our evening, when I suggested we could go have a picnic on the hill mound next to the Colosseum. Which we did - having one of our Wine and Cheese picnics as we watched the sun set and the Colosseum light up in the night. There weren't too many bugs flying around to bother us, though there was a few. It was very pleasant, and when we had our fill we went back to the metro station - only to find our 48hr pass had expired about an hour prior! Not wanting to brave the long line for the ticket machines, we decided to walk the 30 minutes back to our accommodation through the streets of Rome at night. Was a fairly alright walk all things considered in the end!
Next door to the Colosseum is the Roman Forum - some ruins of various old city buildings, and entrance to it was included in our Coloseeum ticket. Sasha had not been here the last time she came to Rome, nor had it been on our lists of things that we really wanted to do - but I figured since we had already paid for it, and it basically separated us from the Collosseum to where we went next, why not walk through the Forum on our way to where we wanted to go? So we did.
The Forum was rather large, and contained far more than I expected. It also became clear that what we were looking at and standing in was in actual fact, the former heart of the Roman Empire. All the old administration buildings, the palaces where the Emperor's lived, former Law Courts and of course where the Parliament was. This was what was left of the key part of Ancient Rome, and although most of the buildings are ruins, there are a lot of ruins. A lot of this seemed lost on some people though - we overheard an Asian lady asking one of the staff "Is this an ancient Roman city?". "Yes" was the reply. "What is the name of this city?" the lady said, pointing to the ruins. "Rome" was the reply. "No I mean this, these ruins, what is this city called". This lady had come to Rome, a place full of remnants from the time of the Romans, and was standing in ruins in the centre of Rome but had no concept that she was looking at the original, ancient city of Rome. That, to me, was a bit mindblowing. We spent longer in the Forum than we anticipated - a mix of wanting to see a bunch of it, and having trouble finding the right path to get out the other side of it. Definitely though, it should be something on people's must-see lists for Rome - for me it connected Ancient Rome to Modern Day Rome like nothing else I'd yet seen, it seemed to me that we were able to reach out and touch the very heart of the Roman Empire across history. Julius Caesar probably got stabbed and died in one of the buildings there.
While in Rome, I wanted to take a trip to another country - Vatican City, the smallest country in the world. The Vatican sits right in the heart of Rome, but since 1929 has constituted its own distinct, and fully recognised, country. Prior to that it was a bit in limbo - The Vatican controlled "The Papal States" until the Kingdom of Italy either invaded and took them over, or they chose to join the Kingdom much like almost all the rest of Italy. Because Rome was clearly the capital of Italy, and run as such, The Vatican was a little bit of a problem with no official legal status and relations between Italy and The Vatican were not great until the Treaties were signed in 1929. The Vatican is also home to the Pope and the headquarters of the Catholic Church, which also provided another level of interest for going to visit.
We weren't sure whether to go Wednesday morning or Thursday morning, but knew we wanted to go in the morning to try and beat the crowds. The weather would be less great on Wednesday, lending itself to a Vatican visit since most of it is indoors - but the complication we found out on Tuesday night was Pope Francis himself would be conducting a big open air mass outside St Peter's Basilica Wednesday morning. Although Sasha was not fussed on seeing the Pope, I did look and see if it was possible to go see this mass - but you are supposed to get tickets in advance. The Pope's mass would probably mean less people going to The Vatican, making it the ideal time to visit - but making it difficult to visit St Peter's afterwards. We wanted to do a tour through the Vatican as that meant you could go straight through a side door into St Peter's instead of lining up outside, but that advantage would be lost if St Peter's was closed because of the Pope.
We did go Wednesday morning, and many tour sellers tried to intercept us along the way. We did talk to one, who told us St Peter's would be open after 11-12pm following the Pope's Mass so we could still do both. His tour had a price, to which Sasha said that last time she'd paid a lower figure of a certain amount for the same thing. This tour seller caved and offered to sell us the tour at the child's price, quite a lot lower than the full adult price and about the same as what Sasha paid last time on the condition that we didn't tell anyone else on the tour about it. Sold. So we went with him to the ticket office, paid for the tickets, and waited for our guide to show up at the allotted time. Which she did, and she took us into the Vatican - having to pass through a security check in the process.
The tour around the Vatican was quite fascinating. Our tour guide made good use of various touchscreen information screens which allowed you to zoom in and see various details of the paintings in the Sistine Chapel. so we would have an appreciation of what we were looking at when we went in there. The tour apparently went to different parts of the Vatican than Sasha had been to the last time, and she learned different things. One thing was apparent though - there is a lot of wealth and cultural treasures in the Vatican, a kind of ostentatious symbol that once it was the most powerful institution on the planet and it kind of abused that power; and also various things which show that the Vatican, and the Church, was once at the forefront of known science and scientific experimentation. Be that the hall of maps, painted to show all of the known world and they are very accurate, painted at a time when there was no method of air travel; Vatican Radio, helped set up by Guglielmo Marconi, which still exists; an observatory, and experiments and observations associated with time were also done here amongst many other things. We often see a conflict these days between Science and the various Churches - but for a very long time, the Church spearheaded scientific discovery. Science and the Church do not have to be separate, though they've chosen to be that way now it seems.
Our tour concluded in the Sistine Chapel, often regarded as the highlight of the Vatican because of its wall and roof paintings done by Michaelangelo. They are quite impressive, and have been restored - you can even see where they have deliberately left patches of the old grime in place. But the Sistine Chapel is meant to be a holy and serene place - it feels like neither of these things, for two main reasons. The first is that few people seem to pay attention to the signs saying to be quiet and not take photos, but the second and most major aspect is all the security guards yelling at people as they herd them into the chapel, and then yell "SILENCIO! NO PHOTO NO CAMERA NO VIDEO" about once every 5 seconds, often over a microphone. I don't particularly understand why you are not allowed to take photos or videos, maybe its because they are scared the flash might damage the paintings on the walls. But the constant yelling by the security staff totally ruins any sense of sombre atmosphere that the place is supposed to contain! We spent about 20 minutes in the chapel, where we happened to be during a midday blessing conducted by a priest - the only time that there was actual silence in the chapel as everyone paid attention to him! We mainly were waiting until the side door to St Peters Basilica opened up for the tour group parties, which it did about 12.15pm. We went through with the crowds, and entered into a fairly empty St Peters Basilica - it seemed it had just opened up and the main crowds from the separate St Peters queue had not yet been allowed in.
The Cathedral is quite ornate inside and well decorated, with vaulted high ceilings. But it is not the most amazing looking church I have ever seen. There were a lot of side chapels, including one for Pope John Paul II which seemed heavily attended; and at the front, there was a series of barriers which you weren't allowed past. Note that despite being the most famous church in the Vatican, and the main church which the Pope holds masses in, St Peters is a Basilica - it is not a Cathedral. What's the difference? A Cathedral is the building which holds the Bishop's Chair, marking the church as the head church of the Diocese. The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, but his Bishop's Chair is in the Cathedral of St John Lateran and not St Peter's. Off to the side St Peter's even has a gift shop, which brings us to the next aspect of the story.
In the gift shop, I was looking to see if there was something that I could get Grandma as a souvenir but a lot of the things were a bit kitsch. I did stumble across some bottles, and saw above that it said to go to a nearby entrance to ask for them to be filled with Holy Water between 9am-1pm and 4pm-6pm. I'd seen a young guy gathering bottles from some people as we went into the shop, and wandered what it had been about - they were getting them filled with the water. It was just about 1pm now - getting actual Holy Water from the Vatican seemed like the best gift, but was it possible to get them filled?
I raced out the shop, and encountered the young guy who had just left his post. I asked if it was still possible to get bottles filled - he said he would go ask and check. He came back shortly after, and said yes but it had to be done now. He came with me to get the bottle, told the staff members at the counter what the story was and then was about to run off with the bottles when he noticed the lady in front of me in line for the payments desk had 4 bottles. He struggled to explain to her that if she wanted them filled, she needed to hand them over now, but eventually she handed them over. He raced off, we paid for our bottles, and then we went to the roped off barrier to await their return. The young guy came back and said sorry, he'd gotten there too late - but to try again after 4pm. I now had a bottle, with no holy water in it and coming back wasn't really something I was keen on. About done with St Peters anyway, we left.
We had lunch, and over lunch Sasha mentioned that she was ok with trying to go back there for 4pm if I wanted. We also discussed other options, which I had already gone through in my head. If I filled the bottle up from the tap at our accommodation, I could always pass it off as Holy Water and no one but me or Sasha would know. If I filled it up in the Vatican bathrooms, it would still be Vatican Water although not Holy Water. Grandma would never know any different, but I would know - and it didn't sit well with me. It would have to be Holy Water or nothing, and even I know that's ridiculous because the only difference is that the water has been blessed. And yet, about 3.00pm we queued up in the queue to enter St Peter's Basilica for the 2nd time that day. The line for the Basilica has a reputation for being notoriously long, with 2hr waits not unheard of and there are lots of people trying to sell jump-the-queue tickets. But it took us 45mins before we were in, and entry is free - you just have to pass through a security checkpoint. Once in, we were a bit early to get the water so we had a wander around, found that the barriers had moved further away from the front so we weren't able to wander as close as we did earlier in the day but we found a doorway which took us down into the crypt. Lots of Pope's buried down here, some with fancier graves than others, but the exit for this threw us out the side of the Basilica but still within the security zone. There was nothing for it - back into the Basilica again! Back towards the entrance to the shop, but the barriers had moved again and were right up against the shop door. We handed over our single bottle to the same young guy, and it came back with the water in it. Mission accomplished! as we walked out of the shop corridor back into the Basilica, we noticed the barriers had moved again and we were now on the wrong side of them - they were letting people out of the corridor back into the Church, but not into the corridor. We found out they were preparing to set up for Mass at 6pm. Just as we were about to walk out of the Basilica, I noticed a font near the entrance - filled with Holy Water of course. Had I spotted it the first time, I could have just filled up the bottle from the font!
The last thing we did was take a few photos where Sasha was still in the Vatican, and I was back in Italy with the waist-high fence that serves as the international border between us. A selfie across countries, how many people can say they've done that?
One thing we wanted to do that was a bit different, was visit a Cat Sanctuary that was located in central Rome. In a nutshell - there is a block in the city with the remains of some Roman Ruins, which people are not allowed into. Street cats have made their home there, and right next to it is now a vet clinic run by a charity which cares for and feeds the cats. Sick cats are treated, those suitable for re-homing are available for adoption, and others who seem to be doing well continue to live in the sanctuary of the ruins. We were able to go into the "hospital" ward of the vet clinic - the area for the cats who are recovering from injuries, surgery or otherwise have illnesses which prevent their rehoming or return into the sanctuary. Cats missing eyes, cats with Feline diabetes, one with Feline Aids, or other things wrong with them. There was one or two cats in there missing legs, but this is not an impediment - the "tripod" cats in this hospital area had other things wrong with them. Some cats didn't want to be patted, others did for sure and one little guy was so keen on attention that as I was bending down on one knee to pat another cat, he jumped on my bent leg as if he were sitting on my lap! Definitely they do a very good amount of work here for cats, and I thoroughly recommend a visit there if you get the chance!
We also visited the Pantheon, the world's first large-domed building that was an architectural marvel of its day (even if it does let in the weather!), which was over-run with people. We also visited the newly restored Trevi Fountain - also over-run with people, complete with its own policeman blowing his whistle to stop people from leaning on it or sitting on it (no signs or barriers are present to warn people not to do this!). Also the Spanish Steps - over-run with people! Rome is certainly a popular city with tourists.
We had some really good food while in Rome. For lunch on our first day, we happened upon a place called La Salumeria, which did panini's with gourmet cuts of meat. There were a lot to choose from, Sasha and I went with different options (Sasha's was prosciutto, sheep cheese, honey, mustard and pear, while I had gourmet ham, zucchini, brie, mushrooms and truffle), both were amazingly delicious, and so much so that we couldn't but help to order another one (this time fancy ham with sheep cheese, lemon caparccio and vodka) to share! Definitely ate too much there but it was worth it. Our lunch on the second day was also equally as unresearched, in an area around the Pantheon but although we had a good meal at a restaurant with its tables and chairs outside in a courtyard and had some good pasta, it wasn't great pasta - nor was it the best of service, but the price was certainly good for our wallet!
Dinner's came from the supermarket - the first one after our first full day in Rome was mostly just a big thing of cut up fruits which was just the thing we felt like in the hot weather and craving some kind of goodness nutrients (and as someone who typically doesn't eat fruit, its saying something when I say it was good!). Our second night's dinner was some pizza foccacia breads and some cannelloni desserts (all picked up from the "chuckouts" section so heavily discounted) which formed a picnic, that we ate on a small hillock right next to the Colosseum as we watched the sun set over it and the Roman Forum. And at appropriate parts of the day as was needed and we saw fit, there might have been some gelato had - but not at any price!
As for drink - we had a bottle of wine to share at the Panini place, and we had a tetrapak 1L carton of "Chateau de Cardboard" for our Colosseum picnic. Even in Rome, non-sparkling wine was hard to find - almost impossible - in a bottle with a screwcap. The Panini place had craft beers that I could have tried, but opted not to - so I have no idea what Italian craft beer is like.
Summing Up
Mentioned should be made of The Vatican too - after all it is a separate country, and the smallest one in physical size in the world (the Principality of Sealand is not recognised by any state or body as an actual country). If this is my only visit to this tiny city-state, then I'm happy but I'd also be happy to go back. If I were to go back, I would not join a tour this time - instead I'd probably explore the place at my leisure and I wouldn't need to have the option to go straight into St Peter's Basilica from the Sistine Chapel. Michaelangelo's paintings in the Sistine Chapel are indeed quite something, and probably were an absolute revelation for the era in which they were painted in. But I don't know that I'd bust my gut to go see them again, and I'd say the same for the Mona Lisa. Maybe I don't quite have the artistic eye, and maybe that's fine. The obvious wealth of the Vatican however is somewhat jarring with the Catholic Church's image that it should be helping people - as much as Pope Francis is a Franciscan who believes that the church and its clergy should not possess wealth and live as frugally as possible in order to help others, I think he would have an uphill battle from the wider senior clergy of the church if he tried to sell off some of the valuable statues in order to pour money into helping people. And for the record, no I don't care that I missed out on seeing the Pope despite him being there and doing a Mass while I was in town - if I had wanted to see him, I would have gone and seen him (or at least tried).
I would happily go back to Rome if I ever had the chance, but I'm not going to make a point of it anytime soon and certainly I don't feel like there's anything much left for me to see that I want to, that I didn't get to see. But I did enjoy it, and while it is clearly over-run with tourists it is more interesting than a bunch of other capital cities and so far on my impressions, I would say I like Rome over the likes of Paris for instance. I do feel like perhaps I need to give Paris another shot at some point, but so far that's where it stands!