Roma|Rome|The Vatican|The most historic city in Italy

When in Rome, do the Romance!

Soak yourself with the beauty of the city. It is hot and crowded, but the art, architecture, theater and music will leave you spell bound. They say Rome wasn’t built in a day – it shouldn’t be seen in one either. I highly recommend a minimum of 3 days including The Vatican. Amid the big city madness, I highly recommend buying a 24 or 28 hr Romapass for all your public transport needs in the city.

The Vatican –

At The Vatican

We did the half day Vatican tour which I highly recommend. Being non-Christians, we had a very faint idea of the significance of the Vatican. Our guide explained details – by timeline, which helped us understand the history of the smallest country in the world. The whole tour lasted 4 hours and we were taken through The Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peters Basilica. We marvelled at the history of Italian artistes that worked hard to preserve Roman culture as we see it today. Every door, every corner is thoughtfully engaging.

Villa Borghese – Not sure if I should even list it here as the closest we got the Villa Borghese was it painfully large gardens. We walked for at least an hour from the closest Metro station and Villa Borghese was still a long way ahead of us so we decided to just ditch seeing the ‘museum’. Though I recommend advance booking for all those who would like to visit. The gardens around the Villa itself is very peaceful and this is a great way to spend a sunny afternoon (not in peak summer though).

Colosseum, Roman Forum – Since we had a Romapass, we could choose to enter 1 location for free and I’m so glad we chose The Colosseum. The line for those with a Romapass was 75 % faster than those without it so I highly recommend this to all. We opted for the audio tour of the Colosseum that helped us understand what a magnificent piece of architecture this is.

At The Colosseum

The Pantheon – The Pantheon is a very interesting structure in a very crowded part of the city. What takes your breath away is the sheer expanse of the single structure. I had read in many forums that one needs to be modestly dressed here as it is an active church, but I saw no one checking or imposing any rule.

Spanish steps – Spanish steps is a fantastic place to visit. A tiring but fun climb to the top, hundreds of tourists and one is obviously reminded of Audery Hepburn & Gregory Peck. Oh I did have my Audery Hepburn moment here.

Piazza Navona – The funnest part of Rome. The husband now dreams of buying a property right in the heart of Piazza Navona as he is equally smitten by this place. The whole festive atmosphere starting early evening makes for a lovely setting to spend a few hours just hanging out. The international travellers, the local youngsters, the old-timers and the entertainers – everyone has a part to play in Piazza Navona!

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Trevi Fountain – I can’t really include this on our list as Trevi Fountain was shut for restoration. But we did do the customary coin throwing over your shoulder. Hopefully, we go back to Rome real soon 🙂

Grazia Italia! Ciao !!

Like every other place, I wish I could have stayed just another day in Roma. But hey, hugsband says we can always go back! ❤