So after The Netherlands, we went to Rome, Italy. We took a train back to Schiphol Airport and waited for our flight to Rome which was at 8.40pm. We used EasyJet. After waiting, we found out that our flight was delayed an hour (it takes about 2 hours+ to arrive at Fiumicino Airport, Rome). It was a little daunting (and cold!!) cause our flight was never on the display screen after stating that it was delayed.
After waiting for what seemed like ages, we decided to walk to the gates to see if they were going to display where we needed to board. There were no displays but after asking a Dutch couple, we found out they were on the same flight as we were. So that was sorted. The flight was smooth and we arrived around midnight in Rome.
Riccardo, our Airbnb host was gracious enough to pick us up from the airport. Upon arrival, we saw the airport was rather smoky and it took about 15min for my friend to locate her baggage and then we met Riccardo. As we were exiting, an alarm sounded, but everyone (not that many people at the airport at midnight) seemed nonchalant about it. We got out and it was very smoky. My friend thought it was haze! (where I come from, we get bombarded with annual haze due to forest fires from our neighbouring country). hehe on the way to our place to stay, we spotted a fire engine. I suppose there was some sort of fire.
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| Greeted by yummy treats upon arrival |
Riccardo lives with him mum and grandma (who is over 100 years old!) whom is fondly called "Nonna". His mum and grandma speaks near to none of English, but their genuine hospitality and love is shown. They are wonderful hosts. We tried the mozzarella of a real buffalina which was really delicious.
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| Breakfast! |
His mum also prepare breakfast for us (which was not part of the deal at all). I was really grateful and impressed by their hospitality. She even gave us a snack for the day! We had a long day ahead - Riccardo was going to show us around Rome in a day (as we only had 2 days there) and he was going to leave to London the following day.
We took the tram to "Ancient Rome" and we started our walk.
First we passed the "Largo di Torre Argentina" - where the remains of Pompey's theater are. It was also a cat sanctuary (but we were not allowed to feed the cats) - the strays there are so beautiful! Apparently due to health reasons they were going to cease the cat sanctuary (but it's still in operation).
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| Temple B, dedicated to Fortuna Huiusce Diei |
Next we found ourselves at Piazza Navona. This was the first time I saw an "obelisk" in real life; I only read about them in Dan Brown's books ;) it was breathtaking. There were 3 fountains in this Piazza. However, it was teeming with tourists and people selling selfie sticks (yes, the horror!). I did not take many photos and the ones I took, now I realise are really bad angles! We were walking to the Pantheon, so I took what I could.
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| Piazza Navona |
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| Fontona del Moro |
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| The 4 winds fountain by Bernini below the obelisk |
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| Fountain of Neptune by Porta |
The Pantheon in Rome was built during the reign of Augustus. Pantheon literally means "every god" in Greek.
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| The Dome in the Pantheon |
According to Wiki, the Dome is still the the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. Super cool! It is now used as a church dedicated to St.Mary and the Martyrs. The painter Raphael is also buried there.
The Trevi Fountain was under restoration when we visited it! It was such a shame, but I can only imagine how beautiful it would be in its full glory. The fountain is at the junction of three roads (tre vie).
The Spanish steps was quite a surprise to me, I did not expect to see so many tourists there. Also, the fountain by Bernini was very beautiful. The water was cooling and fresh - so nice for the hot weather
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| Fontana della Barcaccia ("Fountain of the ugly Boat") by Pietro Bernini (father of Gian Bernini) at Piazza di Spagna |
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| Too many people!! |
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| Panoramic View from the top |
There are just too many places so I'll split the posts on Rome. Till the next post :)
The Spanish steps was quite a surprise to me, I did not expect to see so many tourists there. Also, the fountain by Bernini was very beautiful. The water was cooling and fresh - so nice for the hot weather
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