Buongiorno signorina and signore

It is Monday morning; the smell and heat from the past weekend are still lingering over me. Slightly sunburned on the forearms and overall happy I will tell you a little bit more about a weekend in Rome, Italy 

After work I headed to the airport to catch a late afternoon flight to Rome Fiumicino Airport. The flight time was just over 2 hours and it felt like I was the only blonde person on board (which I wasn’t, but I certainly represented a minority). Upon arrival at the airport I was slightly disappointed that the airport hasn’t been developed at all in the last decade, it felt like I arrived straight into the 80’s. The restrooms were poorly and the stone walls along the corridors were not decorated very much, overall the place was cold and old. I was glad to see that refurbishment of the airport seem to have started, at least based on the outside construction set-up.

In the arrival hall I met my friend Marina from Germany as we had decided to spend the weekend here together. Since we both traveled together in Asia, I knew what was coming my way and was prepared.



We both had read up the options of transportation from the airport to the city centre, main train station Termini. You could take the bus (4€, 35-50 minutes)), train (15€, 20-25 minutes) or taxi (35€, 30-40 minutes). We naturally and in mutual agreement followed the signs to the bus stop and bought the tickets from the bus driver before boarding; it is always good to have the correct change handy to save time and not to block other customers while waiting for the change.

Surprisingly the bus trip took us only 35 minutes to Termini and from there it was only a 10 minute walk to our Hotel http://www.hotelvirginiaroma.com/, which I personally thought for 40€ p.p. per night it wasn’t the cheapest option, however it was clean and served its purpose.

Everything was in easy reach from the Hotel. After we dropped our bags and freshend up, we headed out for some vino and late dinner and catching up since we haven’t seen each other in quite a while. We had made some plans for the next day and knew we would be walking a lot, so we called it a fairly early night and headed back to the hotel.

Next morning we started our tour with a cloudy sky and hoped it wouldn't be raining all day long. We knew that Rome is a very popular city, but the amount of tourists still took us by surprise and at some attractions the mass of people was plainly unbelievable.

Entrance for the Museo Nazionale Romano, entrance fee is 10€

Take away coffee is not very common in Rome hence they don't do normal Take-Away cups

Book market along side the street, plenty of treasure to be found here if you speak Italian

Piazza della Repubblica

Fontana delle Naiadi

Church Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri

Rome Street Shop

Palazzo dell'Esposizioni

Square of Quirinale

The Vittorio Emanuele monument, considered a symbol of modern post-Risorgimento Rome

Roman Forum

 Obligatory Postcards with a great cappuccino

Pasta with Bacon

Dubious people standing around, pickpocketing is pretty popular in Rome

Tiber Island Isola Tiberina

Tiny pots of Nutella, so cute. Available as well at the airport

The Colosseum

The sweet afternoon

In the evening we venture to an area called San Lorenzo, where a good amount of bars are located. We wandered around and looked for a place welcoming enough and some are really nice. There are a lot of locals, so conversing in English wasn’t always easy but we managed and had a couple of drinks before we walked back to our accommodation.

The next day the sunlight woke us up bright and early and we were eager to spend the last day in Rome.

Oranges on a tree by the street

Fountain of Four Rivers

Scalinata della Trinità dei Monti

Fountain di trevi

Street artist, far better than common street sellers that try to sell you all kind of junk

The Pantheon

Piazza Navona

The toilet wall in one of the restaurants. I imagine there are better things to kiss

Castel 'Sant’Angelo

Vatican City

St Peter Square

Nun screaming into her cell phone in Italian

Fontanone del Gianicolo

Vespa

Metro

Overall it was a pleasant trip with sunshine and holiday feeling (ok, scratch that IT WAS FANTASTIC!). I ended up taking around 800 pictures which is a bit crazy, but there is so much you want to take pictures from and I just couldn't stop myself. You could easily spend 4 days in this city to explore everything in detail.

As a final word for Rome: Pasta, Pizza, Ice Cream, Coffee, Wine, Vespa, Ruins and Sunshine. That pretty much sums it up.

Happy travels and read you soon again.