Italia 2010, Part 1

I spent 23 days in Italy, going to Rome, Venice, Northern Italy, Florence and Siena. I can't be sure how many parts this particular series of blogs will have right now, but I thought I'd at least begin with my first few days in Rome.

I left on August 27, 2010 from Vancouver, and arrived in Rome the next day. I had enough time in my schedule that day to get to the centre of the city, nap for a couple hours and then take the bus to Piazza Navona where my evening walking tour with EnjoyRome would begin at 6:30 pm.

However, I'm getting ahead of myself. A couple notes I should add about the arrival and departure from Fiumucino Airport. There are multiple ways of getting to the historic centre of the city. I should also add that no one really stays in close to the airport except if you're leaving the next day or something, but even then, given my experience (another story), you'd still want to stay in the historic centre. The cheapest and fastest way of getting to the historic centre is by taking the Leonardo Express, a train that links the airport with the train station in the centre of the city. Easy peasy and it costs 14 euros.

Anyways, when I got into Rome the first thing I noticed was the heat. It was around 35-37 degrees celsius. I learned later on that it was actually pretty cool for a day in August. Most of the time it gets up to the 40s! Either way, I still managed to get some nap-time in when I arrived at Hotel Italia. It was a moderately sized single room with a bathroom that included a shower, sink and toilet. It also included breakfast, which is something you always want included when you stay in Italy, trust me.

I thought I might be able to walk to Piazza Navona from where I was in Rome, but it turned out, after asking the hotel staff, that it would have taken me 40 minutes. Time wasn't something I had on my side at that time, so I had to take a bus down Via Nazionale to the large plaza. I met our guide, Valentina, and the two other tourists that would consist of our group by the Fountain of Four Rivers. From Piazza Navona, we went to the Pantheon with its wide open dome, down some side streets to find the Trevi Fountain.

While in Trevi Fountain, we had a fantastic 15 minute pit-stop that included a bathroom break and a gelato stop. Take note - there's a gelateria on the left hand side of the Trevi Fountain that does not charge you to use their bathroom. You don't even have to buy something there. Anyways, as one might expect, the Trevi Fountain was absolutely crowded. At this point, I was feeling pretty darn jet-lagged and just generally tired. So I wasn't really enthused about the crowds. Soon enough, we went down more side streets and found ourselves across from a Roman eye-sore known as the Vittorio Emmanuel II monument. Or, as the Roman's call it: The Dentures, The Wedding Cake or other derogatory terms. They really hate it.

From the eye sore, we went up the steps to Capitol Hil (one of the seven hills of Rome, the Eternal City. From Capitol Hill, we walked around the exterior outskirts of the Forum lit up at night, talked about the fact that while Rome has a subway system, it only has two lines because every time they try digging for another line, they end up amidst an enormous archaeological find. Alas, this is always the issue with Rome since it has so many layers of history.

Finally, from the outskirts of the Forum, we ended up sitting down by the Colosseum, all lit up at night. It was an incredible end to the three hour tour (a three hour tour). Since the two Brazilian women and I had hotels off Via Nazionale we thought we'd be able to just walk up Via Cavour and we'd be able to find a side street that connected to Nazionale. We ended up getting lost for a bit of time, but it was fine. Rome at night is great and most people largely feel safe. It wasn't like the middle of the night, it was around 10 pm. We finally made it to Nazionale and we parted ways.

Then I promptly slept for about 12-13 hours. After getting that amount of sleep, my body felt adjusted enough to exist in Rome on Italian time rather than Pacific Standard.

Keep reading for the next parts in my great Italian vacation. The next part will be about my Vatican Tour that I took on August 31, 2010.!