Holly had been complaining that we've not been on a holiday in a while and because finances aren't so great, it didn't seem likely we would. As a spur of the moment type of thing we decided to have a look on Ryanair. I've used them in the past and knew they were incredibly cheap and value for money, regardless of their reputation.
The tour bus company that we used was citysightseeing. They were our first tour bus and it was great. Many people had negative comments about them when I was panning the trip but for us it was great. We first got off at the coliseum with the plans to walk down to the Altar of the Fatherland. We'd been told to buy our tickets before entering the coliseum to avoid long queues but we decided to ignore this and I'm glad we did. It was only a 5 minute queue and we found out that we only have to pay 7 euros each for entry because we're in the EU and under 24. Buying the tickets from somewhere else could of cost between 20-30 euros. Inside the coliseum was pretty incredible, even more incredible was the army of street sellers with selfie sticks. I really enjoyed the altar of the fatherland, it was incredibly grand.
Rome was on the list of destinations, so I looked for dates which would match when Holly has annual leave. The flights were a shockingly low £50 each for a return which is incredible. We started trying to price up hotels for period of our stay and found them to be also reasonably priced. It was decided, we will go to Rome!
I've wanted to go for a while, simply for the attractions and historical sights. Holly being a photographer meant she couldn't pass up an opportunity to photograph some remnants of the Roman Empire. We'd decided to stay for 2 nights which we'd later regret. I think that 3 nights is the perfect duration to really take in most of the more well known sites. Other than to take pictures, Holly didn't really have much that she wanted to do. She was more content with just following whatever I'd like to see which was nice.
This made a weird situation where I was in charge of planning the trip. It's only weird because It's always been Holly that's organised everything. This is usually because we visit somewhere she wants to go. I'd done a lot of research to try and maximise the amount that we do when we're there. I found that getting a tour bus at a cost of £20 each as opposed to walking was more advised. This is because of the amount of walking around the sites that you'll be doing. If you have to walk between them as well, it would just be too much.
Another option for transport around the city was the Metro. I'd looked into it and found that It can be difficult to navigate and also very crowded. I didn't like the idea of this because of the crowdedness although it certainly would of been cheaper. Getting from Ciampino airport to the hotel proved difficult when planning. I've always gotten a taxi but I had seen a lot of warnings about the taxi drivers scamming passengers. There's suppose to be a flat rate from the airport to anywhere within the Aurelian walls which is 30 euros. Many people said it's much better to take the shuttle bus from the airport into Rome's Termini Station. I hate taking public transport and I'd deadly bus sick so I wanted to avoid this at all costs. When checking in for our flights, I found that you could book a shuttle on the Ryanair site for only £4 per person. I figured I might as well just do it and I'd just have to deal with it.
My mother was kind enough to give us a lift to the airport. Our flight departed at 6:30 am which I thought would give us plenty of time to explore on our first day there. I'd flown at this time in the past but Holly hadn't. She didn't handle it very well and on the first day she ended up crashing in the hotel. Our shuttle from the airport was actually great and took about an hour to get to the stop. We used GPS on my phone to find the hotel from the bus station. If I could go back I would have certainly chosen a hotel closer to the centre of Rome. The hotel which was called Hotel Delle Province was located about 30 minutes away of brisk walking.
The hotel itself was okay and decent value for money. We arrived too early to check-in and they offered to keep our bags so we could go out and explore. We wondered around the area which was more residential than we expected. There was still plenty of shops and places to eat though. We found a little place to eat about 5 minutes walk from the hotel and awkwardly ordered 2 sandwiches. It was clear that they didn't get many tourists in that area which was surprising. We went back to the hotel and found our room was on the ground floor which was a first for us and a little disappointing. We'd been hoping for a room with a balcony which some seemed to have.
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| "Selfie? Selfie?" |
Holly had a nap for a few hours and then we decided to go out to eat. It was around 5pm when we left and experienced something interesting. All of the shops and restaurants seemed to be closed. They were open just a few hours before, why are they now closed? When will they open again? It's obviously a cultural difference which we hadn't expected. We were both very hungry so we just settled on going into a Takeaway as we couldn't find anywhere open to sit in. The place had the memorable name of Kebab King and Pizza Queen. I jumped at the chance of ordering as much pizza as I could whilst holly got a kebab. We took the food back to our rooms and ate like the introverts that we are.
The food was great, Holly got falafel with her Kebab which she loved. The pizza was kinda strange and sweet which I had heard. We didn't mind ending the first day early, simply because we had so much to do the next day that we needed the rest. I'm not the type to go out drinking and exploring the night life. The next day which was our only proper full day there, we set off to the bus station which was also the pick-up point for the tour buses. A hilarious thing which we certainly didn't expect was that amount of street sellers. There was so many but what made it entertaining was that they all were selling "Selfie Sticks".
We explored the area around here, such as Circo Massimo. We then went onto the Vatican which was a must. It was great, the only problem I had was the entrance fee to a lot of the areas. We decided that just standing in the landmark square in the front of the Vatican was good enough. After this we got back on the tour bus and went around another time without getting off at different stops this time. I really enjoyed just travelling down the streets, it was really great. The day was cut a bit short because of one major problem, the weather. We'd gone in November so bad weather was to be expected but the 2 days that we were there had some terrible weather. When it started raining pretty badly we decided to go back to the hotel, rest for a bit then go out to eat.
Whilst on the way to the hotel we noticed many of the places to eat were closed again and finding somewhere would again be a problem. We found a take out pizza place which was open and along the way to the hotel, we decided to get pizza again. This time we got a lot of variety, the women didn't really understand English and sorta just added different slices into the box which was great because I was starving. We went back to the hotel with the food in hand, exhausted after walking all day.
We woke up early to get the free breakfast provided at the hotel. It was nothing impressive, the usual European sandwich meats and breads. We'd debated if we should get the bus to the airport or the hotel shuttle. We'd have to walk for 30 minutes with the luggage and then get on the bus, when we got off it seemed like those buses were jammed with people trying to get on. I didn't want to take the chance of missing our flight so we settled on getting the hotel shuttle. This was a lot more expensive and came to 50 euros but that wasn't too bad if it meant we had a stress free return. We got to the airport and found out our flight was delayed by a couple of hours which is just great but it meant we could get a lift home from the airport from my mother instead of hiring a taxi which was nice.
Overall the trip was a success and I enjoyed it a lot. There are a few things that we both wish we would have done but I get the feeling we will always feel like that, regardless of how much we do. We missed the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain which sucks but at least we have a reason to return. My impression of Italy was overall nice, although the drivers are crazy and the roads are insane. Also I met some original Romans. Although they conned me for 5 Euros.
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| Told be 5 Euros for a picture, then after said it was 5 Euros for each of them. Slimy Bastards. |