Dana's Travel blog Rome Oct 11th-14th '15

Dana's Travel blog Rome Oct 11th-14th '15

After inspecting the weather reports, we composed a plan of action for our 3days in Rome. To maximize our sightseeing and enjoyment of this amazing city we decided to book professional and vip access tours of both the Colusseum and the Vatican museum/Cistine Chapel.

Day 1 was a walking tour that I devised from what I recalled seeing on my last trip to Rome years ago with my mom and Wendy. We stumbled on a ruin right away,  (not hard to do as they are everywhere in Rome) with many cats... Turns out it was where Julius Cesar was murdered. Then we walked up to the Pantheon and on to lunch while seeing countless churches, fountains, sculptures, ancient buildings etc along the way. I sent Kim, Lisa, Steve and Barry off to see the Trevi fountain and the Spanish Steps while I zipped back to our AirB&B and moved our luggage to our new AirB&B that we'd be in for the rest of our time in Rome. I hopped the metro and met them at the steps. We continued on down a little (we could only handle about 2 blocks before we had enough of the crowds and chaos) of the famous shopping street. We cut over to Piazza Navonna and then to one of my favorite exhibits... Leonardo Da Vinci's machines. He was one amazing dyslexic, time travelling genius! Hadn't known before seeing this exhibit that he wrote backwards and reversed (like in a mirror).
Roman thin crust pizzas for everyone!

Day2 While the weather was still good we took our VIP tour of the Palantine and Colosseum with 'Walks of Italy'.
The Palantine is the most famous and ancient part of Rome filled with the ruins of the forum, governing houses, many palaces, temples, bathhouses, stadiums and burial places (not gravestones.... think enormous cathedral sized ornate buildings in tribute to the dead nobles who were elevated posthumously into gods)
When we saw the line to get into the colosseum we were very glad to have spent the extra money to skip straight in. The tour also covered three areas that are not on the normal entrance allowance. We got to be out in the middle in the stage,  toured the  underground passages and went up to the topmost tier for photo opportunities and a great view of the Palantine that we'd just toured. Oh and by the way evidently no Christians were actually martyred there..everyone thinks so but that was actually in a stadium in Gallia.

Day 3 A super early wake-up and taxi to make our tour of the Vatican museum/Cistine Chapel. Again we splurged to get to skip the line and also to spend some time in the Cistine Chapel before normal open hours. Much more pleasant than the later stop in at the end of our time in the Vatican museum. Very crowded and the guards constantly over the loudspeaker telling everyone to be quiet and stop taking pictures!
After a nice quiet twenty-five minutes in the Cistine Chapel we backtracked to the beginning and had a tour of the highlights of the Vatican museum. After having been there once before I can say this merely scratched the surface, seriously impressive. Even with our early start there were times when the crowds were oppressive, luckily for me our guide seemed to dislike the heavy crowds as much as I and would move us or stall in a room accordingly. The tour of the Vatican finished up with a walk through the private corridor directly from the Cistine Chapel into St Peter's Basilica. After a circuit of the cathedral (and explanation of the various tombs within) we exited to the main square for a look at the roof of the Cistine Chapel and the window where the Pope speaks from.
After this second tour I was sold on Walks of Italy. Great way to maximize what you can see in a short time with guides that were native, history majors and excellent English speakers. (I sound like an advert)
By this time, without much breakfast, lunch was severely overdue. So, we hopped a taxi to the only square without a church, Campo del Fiore for lunch at La Carbonara and a walk through the market stalls.
Sufficiently refueled we walked back to our apartment for a rest and pack session until it was time to go out in search of dinner.  Kim had pizza and I lucked onto a more northern dish we had accidentally discovered years ago,  Tagliata balsamico. Which is a tender steak seared, sliced and served with shaved parmigiano,  rocket (arugala) and a balsamic reduction. It was a decidedly fitting and rich final Roman meal for our trip.

14th Oct
We shared a taxi to the airport in the morning and Steve,  Lisa and Barry all flew home. Kim and I took easyjet to Nice and a bus to our favorite spot, Antibes.