ROME, ITALY

Dates: 04.12.2021 – 09.12.2021

RIX – CIA

04.12.2021: The Covid madness continues. Until now, we’d never had a trip where we genuinely didn’t know until the very last moment whether we’d even be able to go. Basically, two days before departure we finally decided – yes, we’re going. We’ve more or less gathered all the information about the documents and vaccination requirements in Italy. Madara got her Covid booster on Tuesday, so she should qualify as a proper citizen in Italy.
The problem is that every country keeps changing vaccination, distancing and gathering rules almost daily, so you really have to keep following everything to know what’s allowed and what isn’t. I also checked the current Covid situation with some of my Italian friends from my athletics days. Yesterday we planned the whole trip in about two hours. Today – we’re off.
A small issue with the Bee in the morning – our CityBee car got stuck in the parking lot because of the snow. We had to look for another one. In the end, everything worked out and now we’re sitting with coffee waiting for the plane. ✈️
Because of the snowstorm, the flight is delayed by almost two hours as well. At one point it really feels like we might just end up going back home because the snow is heavy and nonstop.
Every time a plane takes off or lands, four giant snow-clearing machines immediately race across the runway to keep the airport functioning.

COLOSSEUM

04.12.2021: Straight off the bus and directly towards the Colosseum. Less than a 20-minute walk and we’re there. Different sources give slightly different numbers, but apparently during its glory days, the almost 2,000-year-old Colosseum could hold somewhere between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators. On the way, we run into a local anti-vaccine protest, but quickly overtake them and disappear. Not really our topic. The Colosseum is impressive.
More impressive than I expected, especially considering that only around a third of the original complex has survived until today. The arena in Verona suddenly doesn’t seem quite as powerful compared to this. After all the rushing around today, we’re starting to feel a little tired, so we stop at Oppio Café right next to the Colosseum for a beer and an Aperol cocktail. Honestly, not too bad. €7 for a 0.5L beer. For comparison, in Nice we paid €8 for 0.3L.
It’s also warm enough outside to sit comfortably. After dark, everywhere you look there are huge, impressive buildings that are hundreds or even thousands of years old. We also walk to the Trevi Fountain. We’ll come back here again over the next few days, so we don’t stay too long and slowly start heading home. On the way, I read an interesting fact – tourists apparently throw around €3 million worth of coins into the fountain every year. Our apartment is within walking distance of most of the major sights. Basically the maximum budget option while still keeping one condition – we want our own apartment, not some shared hostel room. We’re not particularly demanding. As long as the bed is comfortable and we have our own toilet, we’re happy. Five nights at Termini Guest House Inn cost us €205.
The apartment is close to Termini railway station, with the main sights within walking distance.

PANTHEON

05.12.2021: We start the day with a metro ride to Aventine Hill, where there’s supposed to be a panoramic view over Rome. We don’t quite reach the exact spot we originally planned because the gates at the top are closed, but the view is still very good. Across the Tiber River we can see the Vatican, the Pantheon and the Altar of the Fatherland. We wander around the Trastevere district. Basically, every third building here would be a major attraction in any other city. But in Rome there are so many of them that we just keep walking past and looking around. We enter a local flea market that stretches all along Clivo Portuense. Plenty of local Gucci and Louis Vuitton representatives. “Official merchandise, just for you my friend.” The market seems endless.
It takes us around 30–40 minutes just to walk through it. When we reach the Pantheon, we decide we’ll need to come back on a weekday. On Sundays, entry requires a reservation and there are ridiculous numbers of people. Next we reach the Roman Forum.
We don’t go inside, but from the platform at Capitoline Hill there’s a great view over the former heart of the Roman Empire. The ruins are seriously impressive. Madara insists that we also go and see the statue of Romulus and Remus. In real life, the two of them are barely 15 cm tall…
We have some wine next to the Colosseum because you simply can’t absorb all that grandeur by walking past it only once. Since we’ve already cleared all today’s marked points on the map, it’s time to improvise. It’s still early and we don’t feel like going home, so we head towards the Spanish Steps.

SPANISH STEPS

05.12.2021: We reach the Spanish Steps just around sunset, although the actual sun isn’t really visible. It’s hidden behind the buildings. The crowds, however, are very visible. Not knowing any better, we sit down on the steps with some wine. Turns out sitting here isn’t allowed.
A police officer comes over and sends us away. Not a single word about drinking wine in public though! 🍷 We planned to walk along Via dei Condotti, where all the fancy shops are – Gucci, Armani, Furla and so on. But there are so many people packed into that street that we give up and head in another direction. At the Trevi Fountain, it’s gelato time. Two big scoops for €4 – cherry and hazelnut. Really good.
There’s a huge crowd around the fountain and everyone is carefully trying to throw a coin backwards over their shoulder into the water because apparently that guarantees you’ll return to Rome. Madara gathers all her courage, strength and everything else required to throw 50 cents.
Misses the fountain completely. So apparently we won’t be coming back to Rome anytime soon…
After Googling a bit about the fountain’s history, we discover that its water still comes through an aqueduct almost 2,000 years old. Around 15 km of the original aqueduct has survived until today. Ancient Romans believed this was the cleanest and freshest water available. There are a crazy number of people on the streets today. Yesterday, even on Saturday evening, it didn’t feel this crowded. Possibly because stricter Covid restrictions start tomorrow.
We find a quiet little spot on Via dell’Archetto and “hydrate” with some house white frizzante wine. Very tasty. Later, in a slightly happier mood, we start heading home. Today’s walking total – an impressive 30 km.

VATICAN CITY

06.12.2021: The only available option we could get for a Vatican tour was at 09:00 – Vatican Gardens plus the Sistine Chapel. It takes around 30 minutes to get there, so there isn’t much sleeping in today. We arrive on time, get our audio guides and join the group heading into the Vatican Gardens. Madara is impressed by how green everything still is considering it’s December.
Palm trees, roses, everything.
The gardens are divided into three main parts – the English Garden, Italian Garden and French Rose Garden. Tours only happen in the morning because apparently the Pope walks through the gardens in the afternoon. The garden tour is quite long – almost two hours.
It’s nice, and of course the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in the background looks impressive, but listening for 15 minutes about every single bench in the garden and who once sat on it isn’t exactly thrilling. Next we head into the museum galleries. We’re admittedly pretty “uncultured” when it comes to this level of art and don’t really understand much of it, but even so, the scale alone is incredible. Entire ceilings painted like giant artworks. Tapestries measuring 4 × 6 metres that look like paintings. Marble mosaic floors smoother than glass. Everything is ridiculously grand and extravagant. Photography and even talking are forbidden inside the Sistine Chapel, so the guide explains everything beforehand and shows us pictures. There are a lot of people inside.
Unusually many for Covid times.
Still, it’s probably nothing compared to what happens here during a normal summer season. We even manage to get seats where we can rest and look around. We spend some time studying the enormous detailed paintings and just sitting there trying to absorb the place before moving on.
One interesting fact – the Vatican doesn’t have its own official language. And to become a Vatican citizen, you basically need to work there. Your citizenship lasts only as long as your employment in the Vatican. From St. Peter’s Square, we send Grandma a postcard to Talsi, take some photos and move on.

PIAZZA NAVONA

06.12.2021: After the Vatican, we make another loop through the Prati district. This is also where Castel Sant’Angelo stands – another seriously impressive building that somehow gets overshadowed simply because Rome has too many major attractions. In another city, this would easily be the main sight. It was originally built around 135 AD as a mausoleum for Emperor Hadrian and his family. Later, the Popes used it as their last defensive fortress before the Vatican.
Today it’s a museum. We cross the Tiber via Ponte Umberto I and then walk slightly back towards the Vatican because from this side of the river you get a nice combined view of both the Vatican and Castel Sant’Angelo. Then we head back towards the centre and look for somewhere to sit down and rest. First, we settle at Fattoincasa on the quiet Via del Governo Vecchio for some house wine and Margherita pizza. Very cosy place, with good outdoor heaters.
Rested and refuelled, we continue to Piazza Navona, where yet another enormous government building and church – Chiesa di Sant’Agnese – appears in front of us. At some point the tourist brain simply can’t process all of this anymore. After another walk, we settle into another restaurant – this time with one of Rome’s more exclusive views. Wine in front of the Pantheon at Hostaria Pantheon. We decide we’re not willing to stand in line for an hour, so instead we sip white wine while looking at the Temple of the Gods. Turns out the Pantheon is the world’s largest unreinforced concrete structure. On top of that, its main façade has huge single-piece stone columns, each supposedly weighing around 60 tonnes. I doubt they had giant tower cranes when they were building the Pantheon…
Those ancient Romans must have been pretty strong.

FLORENCE – MORNING

07.12.2021: Today is a full programme, so we start early. At 07:50 we need to be on the high-speed train to Florence. The 275 km journey takes less than an hour and a half. The train reaches around 250 km/h. A return ticket costs €60 per person if you buy both directions together.
Slightly more if you buy each journey separately. At 09:27 we arrive in Florence and start looking for breakfast. We already have sandwiches with us, so basically all we need is coffee. We settle into Elle Caffè not far from the station. When we leave the café and turn the corner, Florence’s main symbol suddenly appears in front of us – the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore with its gigantic 44-metre-wide dome reaching 115 metres into the air. Even at around 10 in the morning, the queue to get inside is already endless. We make a strategic decision not to even try.
Instead, we’ll enjoy the main Florence panorama later from the city hall tower. For now, we head towards the equally impressive Basilica of Santa Croce. The main entrance doors look about four metres tall. Who exactly is supposed to open those?
Next comes the main attraction of the day – Palazzo Vecchio, home of Florence’s city hall and a tower offering views over all the city’s enormous churches. After 223 steps, we earn our panorama and selfies. After the photoshoot, we take a short break in the cathedral square.
Time to recover before continuing today’s programme – next stop, Pisa.

PISA

07.12.2021: The tight schedule continues. After around an hour on the train from Florence, we arrive in Pisa. Time to see if we can straighten that famous leaning tower. A 20-minute walk from the station and we’re there. Interestingly, Pisa actually has several towers with a similar look and shape. The others are just smaller and noticeably straighter. Naturally, we take the classic tourist photos pretending to hold up the tower. We walk around the square, where the actual main building is technically Pisa Cathedral. I’ve seen photos of this place during pre-Covid tourist seasons. Jesus, the crowds.
It’s so nice that right now there are maybe 20–30 people across the entire huge square. We have lunch here as well. I go for an Italian classic – pasta with Bolognese sauce and Parmesan.
Madara chooses seafood risotto. With a massive crab sitting on top!

FLORENCE – EVENING

07.12.2021: Back from Pisa, we have exactly two hours until the last train to Rome. We head to the market stretching along Via dell’Ariento, which Madara spotted in the morning. No purchases are made. From there, we go back towards the city hall square, walking past Florence Cathedral once more. By now, the huge tourist crowds have disappeared because they’re no longer letting people inside. That means we can finally look at the main façade and surrounding square in a much calmer atmosphere.
After sitting down at Ristorante Cavallino, where an Aperol Spritz and a 0.4L beer cost us €17.50, we make one more loop through streets we didn’t visit in the morning. Today’s ambitious schedule has actually worked out surprisingly well. Almost 800 km by train and several world-famous landmarks added to our traveller CV.

VICTOR EMMANUEL II NATIONAL MONUMENT

08.12.2021: Today is basically a free day. All the food at home has either been eaten or thrown away, so breakfast has to be found somewhere in the city. Not far from our apartment, we get pancakes with Nutella and cappuccino. Only two of our original points remain on the map – Villa Medici near the Spanish Steps and Piazza del Popolo, where there’s also a Leonardo da Vinci museum. That one isn’t really in our plans.
There’s a tourist map of Rome in our apartment with all the major sights marked. Today we decide to walk through a few that I hadn’t originally added to my own map. As planned, we head towards the Altar of the Fatherland hoping we might get inside. No pressure though. If it works, it works. We’re definitely not standing in a huge queue.
Maybe the rain helps, or maybe something else, but there’s almost no queue at all. We successfully get up onto the terraces, where there’s an excellent panoramic view over Rome. You can see basilica domes from plenty of viewpoints in the city, but there aren’t many places where you get a really good view of the Colosseum. From here, it’s excellent. Taking photos of Rome’s mighty skyline makes us seriously hungry. Rather than paying €15–20 for hard pasta, we decide to return to a place we discovered two days ago in the Rione VI Parione district.
The house wine is good and the pizza is excellent. Rain keeps appearing and disappearing throughout the day. And just like mushrooms after rain, the “one euro” umbrella guys appear after the first drop faster than Chuck Norris beats up the bad guys in a movie. Luckily, we came prepared with proper raincoats and don’t need their services. After wandering around the streets all day, we accidentally end up at the Altar of the Fatherland at 18:00 just in time for the lighting of Rome’s main Christmas tree. I try to film the exact moment, but of course the lights switch on at 18:02, so I miss it. The weather is absolutely horrible. It’s pouring. As soon as the tree is lit, we rush to the nearest restaurant to dry off.

CIA – RIX

09.12.2021: Today’s flight is early – 07:30 from Rome Ciampino Airport. It isn’t particularly far away, but we still need to get there. Our bus leaves at 04:30 from the now very familiar Termini station. Ciampino looks almost like Ryanair’s private airport. There are barely any other airlines here. The Duty Free area is pretty depressing too.
We wait for our flight on not particularly comfortable metal benches. Very little sleep means we’re feeling properly crushed, but at least we’ll be home early. The preparation for this trip was unlike anything we’d experienced before. With Covid rules changing so quickly, nothing was clear until the very last moment. Still, I’m really glad everything worked out the way it did. We saw a lot. In fact, we managed to do pretty much everything we originally planned.
Even though we walked around 100 km over these few days, there are still things left to do and places left to visit. Florence was a very nice change from the streets of Rome. I’d definitely like to return there. The Colosseum and the Leaning Tower of Pisa were both more impressive and somehow more exciting than I had imagined beforehand. We like Italy.
Everything becomes more interesting when every third building has a history stretching back several hundred – or even several thousand – years. This was my seventh visit to Italy.
I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last.

Trip costs:
Transportation expenses (airfare, public transport, etc.): ~250 EUR
Living expenses (accommodation, meals, etc.): ~650 EUR
Entertainment (entrance fees, souvenirs, etc.): ~600 EUR
Total costs: 1,450 EUR
Cost per person per day: 122 EUR