A Couple of Days in Rome and Vatican City

I arrived into Rome in the mid-afternoon, which meant that I still had a few hours to explore the city before the sun went down.  We had plans to see the Vatican City the next day and then the Colosseum the day after, so Friday night was just going to be a chance to walk around the downtown core and take in as much as I could.

I was staying close to the main train station, so it would be about a 30 minute walk into the downtown core.  I arrived at the top of the Spanish Steps and was immediately met with a huge crowd of people. 

I had been pre-warned about the many scam artists in the area and one of the most common scams was for a man to present you with a rose and then demand that you pay a ridiculous price for the rose.  I ended up seeing this happening all over the Spanish Steps area, but thankfully didn’t see anyone take the bait.

From the Spanish Steps, I made my way to the Trevi Fountain, but unfortunately the entire area was being renovated and you really couldn’t get a good view of the place.

Next, I ended up at the Pantheon, which I had first learned about while watching the first season of The Amazing Race.  There seemed to be even more people here than there were at the Spanish Steps or the Trevi Fountain.

After the Pantheon, I started walking around aimlessly and ended back up on a large street with a beautiful building in the distance.  I later found out that this was called the Altare della Oatria, or the National Monument to Victor Emmanuel II.  The monument honours the first king of a unified Italy. 

From there it was itching close to 8:30pm and I had been walking around for 4 hours.  I was hungry and came across this one restaurant that had a huge electronic menu board outside.  I decided to go in and had my one and only meal of risotto in Italy.  This was probably one of my favourite meals even though it was also one of the simplest. 

The next morning, I met up with my friend whom I was going to be spending the next couple of days with.  We had plans to tour Vatican City but on the way there, she received a phone call from a friend of hers who knew that she was coming into Rome for the weekend.  Her friend lives in Rome and in ended up joining us to spend the entire day exploring Rome together.  It worked out well because her friend had a car and drove us to all sorts of places that we otherwise wouldn’t have known about.  He had lived in Rome for many many years and knew many of the local hangouts and sights that visitors rarely get to see.

I had pre-purchased tickets from the Vatican’s official site.  The website sells a variety of tickets, but we were only interested in the ticket for the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel.  When you purchase your tickets, it will ask you to select an entry time and people always recommend that you either visit first thing in the morning or later in the afternoon to avoid the peak times of when the tour buses arrive.  We chose to visit at 2pm, and figured that this would give us 4 hours before the museums closed.

The website sells a variety of tickets, but we were only interested in the ticket for the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel.  When you purchase your tickets, it will ask you to select an entry time and people always recommend that you either visit first thing in the morning or later in the afternoon to avoid the peak times of when the tour buses arrive.  We chose to visit at 2pm, and figured that this would give us 4 hours before the museums closed.

The only place that we were not permitted to take photographs was inside the Sistine Chapel.  Not only were you not permitted to take photographs, but you were also not permitted to speak at all.

After spending a couple of hours inside the museums, we made our way outside to the square where the Pope addresses the crowds.  The square was actually much smaller than I had imagined.  Whenever I’d seen it on TV, thousands and thousands of people are packed into the square to listen to the Pope, so I thought it would be much larger. 

By this time, it was already late aftenoon and my friend’s friend took us back to the downtown area to Piazza del Popolo.  The Plaza was filled with people, although the strange thing was, there really wasn’t much going on at the plaza.  It was just a big open square and there were a few artists wandering around, but for the most part, people were just walking around the square and spending time with each other.  It was quite nice to see.

We were then taken to one of the most popular dessert places in Rome.  This was one of those things that we never would have found without her friend taking us there.  It was located all the way in the San Giovanni area and took us a good 30 minutes to get there, as traffic was a bit backed up.  

We were told that tiramisu is very famous here and we purchased 3 different kinds to try.  Normally, I’m not a huge fan of tiramisu, but I loved it.  It really does taste different when you’re in Italy!

After our brief stop for dessert, we made our way towards Basilica Santi Pietro E Paolo.  From what I was told, it is one of the most famous churches in Rome.  It was located on top of a small hill and we arrived just in time to catch the middle of a sunset.

 

With the day coming to an end, we made our way back downtown towards the Pantheon and the Piazza Navona.  Piazza Navona was full of people and vendors selling all sorts of merchandise from selfie sticks to flashlights to toys.  The atmosphere was amazing.

The next morning, after touring the Roman Colosseum we made our way across the street to the Roman Forum.  The admission ticket we purchased included the Roman Colosseum, the Forum and the Palatino, but unfortunately we ran out of time and could only visit two out of the three.  The Roman Forum is basically a large plaza that is surrounded by the ruins of former government buildings.  The area was once a marketplace and the centre of Rome.  It is quite amazing to see so many of the former buildings excavated and now preserved as a historic site.

After the Roman Forum, my friend’s friend from the day before showed up to take us out for a late lunch and then it was time to move on to the next destination.

My two days in Rome were packed and we got to see so much more than we had anticipated, thanks to us having a local friend take us around. 

For more photos, please see my Photo Gallery of Rome and my Photo Gallery of the Roman Colosseum.