It contains vast quantities of priceless art, sculpture and
treasures, which are mainly stored in its many museums and churches.
There are more than 900 churches, Choice of attractions is
so difficult.
is a good map of major attractions.
 |
| Rome Attractions |
Museums in Rome
In alphabetical order as given by Wikipedia are:
MAXXI (National
Museum
Museo Nazionale di Palazzo
Venezia
National Museum of Rome - A set of
four museums in Rome displaying
items discovered in Rome
Must-dos:
Most people allocate a day for Colosseum, Roman forum
and Palatine hill. We decided we’ll skip
that and be content seeing the Colosseum from outside.
People spend a day at the Vatican
museum and it’s terribly crowded. We decided we’ll make use of the Friday
evening special openings available 6 May to 28 October and booked our tickets for 7 pm-11 pm .
This is just a limited number and we were practically the only ones in the rooms. Though we don’t get to see all the rooms available in the general admission during the day, this was a great choice for us.
We included museums like Palazzo Massimo alle Terme and palaces like Doria Pamphilj Gallery, Palazzo Barberini which have terrific art and no crowds.
This is just a limited number and we were practically the only ones in the rooms. Though we don’t get to see all the rooms available in the general admission during the day, this was a great choice for us.
We included museums like Palazzo Massimo alle Terme and palaces like Doria Pamphilj Gallery, Palazzo Barberini which have terrific art and no crowds.
Here we are alone in Doria Pamphilj, with precious art all to ourselves...
We prebooked Borghese gallery which allows only limited number of visitors and again this was awesome..
We included several churches, most of them free and all fabulous!
We climbed the St Peter’s bell tower for a great view over Rome
We enjoyed the several historic plazas like Navona, and the
fountains.
Just walking through Rome
is joyous. Do read up on the history and the stories behind what you are
seeing.
Our Resources:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Italian_phrasebook
came in handy for our travel vocabulary,
The ATAC site bus maps with the stops on our specific routes was a great help!
http://www.atac.roma.it/index.asp?lingua=ENG
ROMA PASS:
We found the 3 day pass very useful. We knew Doria Pamphilj gallery is not included, so visited it on the 1st day and started our pass the next day. First free museum was the Borghese museum
1st 2 museums free; reduced price/discounts as
per chart for rest
Metro, buses & trams free
Valid 3 days: 36 ,00 €
This was the google map I made in the planning stage:
The real holiday played out per convenience, this was just the broad plan!
You can zoom in and see all details:
You can zoom in and see all details:
MAY 20, 2014 , Tuesday:
Trajan forum, Santa Maria di Loreto, Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Chiesa Gesu, St Ignatius Loyola church, Trevi Fountain
video covers Rome day 1: Trajan forum, Santa Maria di Loreto, Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Chiesa Gesu, Trevi
We took Easyjet from Orly, Paris . Reached FCO airport by 11.30 am and collected our checked bag in some 20 minutes. There was no immigration as we were coming in from another EU country.
Next was the Roma pass. We were low on cash as we had withdrawn only 200 euros in Paris , we got some money from the ATM and then went to the tourist info center and got Roma pass for 3 days. We wanted to start it from the next day May 21 and use it through 23rd, so needed single bus tickets for 20th as well as 24th. The airport booth did not sell them, the girl said we should try the newsstand. We decided we’ll buy them when we reach the apartment.
No greeter at the airport:
Our apartment had offered to send a car for picking us for 45 euros and we had agreed. But our greeter/driver was nowhere in sight. Now this was unplanned for… our apt was some 2 km from Termini,
I had read about the Leonardo express and at 14 euros pp had decided it was not worth it. Our earlier apt had local train connection but we would have got down at Trastevere; that train will be too slow to reach Termini and we still would not be home.
Shuttle to city:
We had heard an announcement on the flight that Easyjet was offering a shuttle to the city for 6 euros. We saw shuttle booths in the airport offering a straight drop at Termini for 5 euros pp. This seemed a good idea and we joined a small queue. The guy in front got his ticket, when we asked for 2, the girl said the next shuttle will be in an hour! What bad luck!
The next counter also offering shuttles from another company had no queue, we asked that girl for 2 tickets, she gave us the tickets saying their bus leaves in 2 minutes. (As an aside, we greeted all these counter girls with Buongiorno and tried to convey our request in broken Italian—comprare Roma pass/ biglietto etc.. . They replied in fluent English and completed our requests!)
We sprinted to the place she pointed, showed the driver our tickets, put our bags in the luggage boot at the side and got into the bus occupying its very last seats! A couple more people got in …In a minute, the bus started …
We passed through wide roads lined with trees, the umbrella tree (pignoli or stone pine) so typical of the region was a lovely sight. Wanted our camera to click some pics as fellow travelers were doing and realized our backpack with the camera was in our bag I had put in the boot. Now this was a soft bag I had sewn especially for easyjet, just a thick cloth bag with a zip and handles in 50/40/20 cm dimensions! We originally had just a carryon bag each but since Easyjet carryon limit is stringent, I had packed one of them quite tight and checked it in, and we carried the other as an acceptable carryon along with the new soft bag. In the hurry to catch the shuttle I had not thought to pick up the soft bag in hand but put everything in the boot. It had son’s ipod touch too and I was wondering if the late comers had dumped a heavy bag on ours or what will happen when the bus stopped and every one was in a hurry to claim their bags. Did not want our bag pummeled and contents damaged!
The ride was quite fast though and we were passing through our apartment locality—the Porta Maggiore. Son was in the window seat and sitting in the aisle seat, I braced for a quick sprint as our destination, the Termini was approaching. The minute the bus stopped, I was at the door in the middle and was the first to be out! Stood strategically in front of the luggage boot and when it opened, heaved a huge sigh of relief to see our bags sitting safely!
Over charged by cab driver:
Now we had to reach our apt. bus no 105 goes right in front of the apt but we did not have tickets and wanted to be out of the crowded locality as soon as possible with our bags. All our fellow passengers were dragging their bags and walking to their destinations! We looked for taxis, saw just 3 standing! (if we had just gone round the bend from where our bus had stopped, we would have seen the huge taxi stand with several taxis but this was the other side of the Termini block, we did not know that).
We showed the driver our address, Lux Appartamenti, via casilina 3U, Piazza de Porta Maggiore. We told him 10-12 euros as it’s just 2 km but the driver said the distance is more as he has to go around and the traffic will be heavy... it’ll be 20 euros.
We moved on to the car at the back but it seemed all the drivers are friends, and we had to get into the first car. He drove the car forward and then swung on to the next street going in our apt direction… we noticed the meter was already 13 euros… within less than a minute. We had not seen at what amount it started! He was still going when we reached our landmark of Bingo Palace
I had printed out the taxi tariff page but we had been caught unawares when our driver did not turn up at the airport and the paper was with our research material deep inside our bag! It said the meter starts at 3 euros but we were in no position to argue; no excuses for getting fleeced! We paid up, crossed the road in a quiet residential locality, wheeled our bags up the nice path to the apts.
Check in at apartment:
There are 13 of them with an electronic glass door. We buzzed the reception, and the lady talked over the phone, asking us to come up to the 1st floor on their lift.
A spanking new tiled hallway led us to the reception. We told them about our ride never turning up at the airport… we did not want to be asked to pay a cab that may be waiting for us late at the airport… she spoke to her contact… it seems he had got the timing confused!
Anyways, we were right away led to our apt… huge, living room with 2 big sofas (which pulled out to double beds at night), dining table, full size fridge, TV cabinet, side tables, Potpourrie, flowers, tasteful knickknacks, paintings, split AC… a kitchen with high tech induction stove with 4 burners, microwave, a full set of special cooking utensils for the induction burners, above all a sealed bottle of extra virgin olive oil, pepper, salt and a sealed bottle of special salad spice!
The washroom could accommodate our recent Paris apt twice over and have space to spare! The bedroom had a full bed, huge wardrobes! There were big windows in all the rooms with classy sheer curtains letting in bright sunlight. The briefing lady Maria was a hoot and kept us in splits with her humor! We were in 7th heaven. After confirming that bus 571 taking us to the heart of the city is available in the Porta Maggiore piazza, we had a meal of our last batch of home made tortillas smeared with generous dollops of the new olive oil and heated up in the microwave, made some sandwiches with the same olive oil, cream cheese, and the lovely salad spice for our day-- we got our daypacks and walked out to the bus stop.
Porta Maggiore:
Porta Maggiore is nearly 2000 years old, it was part of the aqueduct which later became Aurelian walls… this is one of the gates (porta) of the Aureian wall and is major (maggiore) probably alluding to Santa Maria Maggiore church! It’s a lovely structure, our first glimpse of the ancient historic Rome and we excitedly clicked pics.
The whole vibe was what we may experience if we got into a time machine and manage to get to an ancient romantic era with forts, palaces… it was like traveling back in time … in a very nice way… the modern trappings seemed the anamoly here…all reinforced by the fact that vehicles.. cars, bikes, scooters were coming at us from all directions and we had to strategically time our sprints in a brief lull in traffic to cross the road…! J
We had to get our bus tickets… after some heart stopping sprints crossing the road and a brief search for a tobacco shop mentioned by our apt lady, we located a newsstand and got our tickets from the lady there. Our bus 571 arrived, it is the terminal, the driver got down for a break. We were familiar with the routine in Paris , we got in, validated our tickets and were off when the driver got in for the reverse direction route!
We were driving by San Giovanni in Laterano catching a great view of the church and the obelisk in the piazza, then by the side of the towering colosseum, where we got down at the Fori Imperiali stop.
Saw Santa Maria di Loreto church across the road. It is a 16th-century church, located just across the street from the Trajan's Column, near the giant Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II.
This is the
Trajan's Column (Colonna Traiana):
It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near the Quirinal Hill, north of the Roman Forum.
Completed in AD 113, the freestanding column is famous for its spiral bas relief, which artistically describes the epic wars between the Romans and Dacians (101–102 and 105–106).
Its design has inspired numerous victory columns, both ancient and modern.
A statue of Trajan was at the top; this statue disappeared in the Middle Ages.
On
The shaft is made from a series of 20 colossal
The 190-metre (625 ft) frieze winds around the shaft 23 times.
Inside the shaft, a spiral staircase of 185 steps provides access to a viewing platform at the top.
The capital block of Trajan's Column weighs 53.3 tons, which had to be lifted to a height of 34 m
VITTORIO EMMANUEL MONUMENT:
The Vittoriano features stairways, Corinthian columns, fountains, an equestrian sculpture of Victor Emmanuel and two statues of the goddess Victoria riding on quadrigas.
The structure is 135 m (443 ft) wide and 70 m (230 ft) high. If the quadrigae and winged victories are included, the height is to 81 m (266 ft). It has a total area of 17,000 square meters.
The base of the structure houses themuseum of Italian Unification Rome .
The structure is 135 m (443 ft) wide and 70 m (230 ft) high. If the quadrigae and winged victories are included, the height is to 81 m (266 ft). It has a total area of 17,000 square meters.
The base of the structure houses the
Bought the tickets and entered a lovely palace with huge statues, paintings all displayed tastefully.
Galleria Doria Pamphilj:
This is Caravaggio's famous painting...
The current prince was with us giving lovely introduction to the various rooms (through the audio guide of course!) and we reached the ballroom which the prince said had been built for his great grand aunt! We desperately wanted to click pics, noticed the boards saying only those with photopass can photograph the lovely interiors. The entry had been through an electronic stile where we swiped our ticket… so we were wondering how we can go back and pay for a camera pass and get an entry back. Nearby was a gift shop… we asked the girl if we can get a camera pass there and yes, she gave us one… great! We went back to the halls we had already covered and took pics happily! There was a ribbon you have to wear around the neck saying you have the photo pass… there were very few visitors and a man seeing us take pics took some too though he did not have a pass! There is electronic surveillance/ no docents; so I don’t know if they strictly enforce the no photo without pass rule. The surveillance is probably for preventing vandalism!
After 3 hours in the gallery, we came out and started our church visits! With the aid of our google map, we walked to the near by churches Chiesa de Gesu, and St Ignatius Loyola, and were floored by the baroque beauty inside. Our Roman holiday had started on the right note with each experience topping the next!
Trevi Fountain:
Our walk brought us to Trevi… usually when something is hyped, the reality becomes a damp squib… here the experience was the reverse… we were amazed by the sheer size of the fountain and the beauty of the individual components. We could clearly see the virgin finding water for the soldiers, paving the way for the aqueduct bringing drinking water to the parched city and the majesty of Oceanus riding his shell chariot with the horses champing at the mouth, was awesome. The crowd was not too intrusive and we got some decent pics.
This was our first day in Rome and we had to stock up on food for the apt, it was already around 8 pm , we reluctantly left the scene and took a bus back to our apt. Our reception lady had told us a nearby alimentary was open late into the night, we walked over, bought some necessities and walked back home. I was determined to finish the bottle of olive oil as I could not bear to leave the tasty stuff behind… and I did! Needless to say, we had delicious meals! Not so difficult when the produce is so fresh!
http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2016/05/rome-trip-report-day-2-borghese-gallery.html
covers our day 2: Borghese gallery, Piazza del Popolo, Santa Maria del Miracoli, Palazzo Barberini, Quattro fountains, Moses Fountain
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