Willing to celebrate our wedding out of time and reality, we have set a small first honeymoon to the eternal city: Roma.
Writer comment: we are on board, flying back to Belgium, it’s the perfect time to tell you about our odyssey.
Kindly dropped at the airport on Monday 7th March 2011 early morning, the week raised together with our landing at Campino airport, a bus and a metro later, we were exiting Termini station, main city hub, and facing our first door to history with the Terme di Diocleziano. Just around the corner, landing to another historical spot: Piazza della Reppublica; there it is, Roma is not counting with history; Roma is history. There is no blanks, no empty spaces, each quarter, each street reveals its surprises. Roma is the city of excess, the things are not big, they are huge, the quantity is not high, it’s unlimited, the non-respect of the rules is not an exception, it’s a fact 🙂
It’s interesting to note the difficulty to make the difference between the different periods the mix being permanent.
After a stop at the hotel to drop our bags, the time came to discover one of the new 7 world wonders: the Coliseum and next to it, the Palatine Hill and the Forum, center of the roman life for centuries. The words to describe those spots, as the following might miss in reality such those places are amazing and their density is high, we invite you to discover them in our photo gallery… or in live 🙂 (in which case, we recommend the Roma Pass… the best way to shortcut the long queues).
Happy of this meeting with history but tired of the short night, we jumped to our hotel to set our room and discover the in-room Jacuzzi as the honeymoon is also a time to relax and spend time together ;-).
Nevertheless, the evening was well loaded, fetching the metro back to Coliseum, to enjoy the building by night (but why where there ads and not those beautiful normal lights!???), walking along the vio dei Fori Imperali to the Piazza de Venizia and the impressive …., chilling to the master piece which is the Fontana di Trevi (from Tre vie, the 3 roads), sliding along Quirinale, the President palace, crossing the Piazza della Repubblica and the termes to arrive to a little restaurant close to our hotel.
Writer comment: I take a minute to enjoy the Alps, always beautiful from the sky.
Believe it or not, we were back to the Jacuzzi in the evening 🙂
After some rest and a large breakfast, the 2nd day started as it finished, walking 🙂
From the hotel to the Borghese gardens, passing by the Porta Pia, were we relaxing time enjoying to place. A stop at the Piazzale Flamino, in way of the Pizza Spagna and its famous steps, a quick look by day at the Fontata de Trevie on our way to the Pantheon and its world unique dome, the Piazza de Venizia (by day), the Piazza de Argentina to finish at the Piazza Navona where was held the Roman Carnival set around the Commedia del’Arte. I would be incomplete if not mentioning the tasty ice-creams enjoyed together.
Willing to assist to the main part of the Carnival on Piazza del Popolo, we walked back to it crossing twice the Tiber river the time to visit the Palazzo di Giustizia, the Plazza Cavour (under reconstruction) and the August Memorial.
Despite our idea to stay to the end of the animation to enjoy the firework, we took the metro back to the hotel, the Jacuzzi and a restaurant in the neighborhood (btw, do you know that putting shampoo in a Jacuzzi generate an interesting soap invasion!??? 🙂 🙂 🙂
The third day is the only one, targeting to visit the Vatican and Saint Peter’s basilica, we’ve accepted, after some haggling, a beater to convince us to join a group. This was a good idea which, despite a series of information about everything allowed us to shortcut twice 2 hours line.
Entering Vatican is, first of all crossing the border of the world smallest and possibly richest country (0,44km²), going around the museums is facing the finest pieces of art of all times, moving from palaces to palaces to arrive to the Chapel Sistine (which even Word dictionary knows) and the work of Michel-Angelo.
An interesting comment from the guide, among others, the romans respected so much the Greek culture and history that they never took them, but copied them… which is not the case with the others (such as Egyptian).
From the chapel, a back door is allowing the group (and only them) to enter directly the Saint Pieter’s basilica, the world largest church, and the square facing it; both being from another reality. When looking at them, the perspective is making them having human size… but when looking at human within the picture, they might not be the good reference 🙂
A 5 hours visit later, we exit this holy country and transit to the Castel Angelo (unexpected association) to catch a bus back to Piazza de Venizia and one of the oldest museums in the world: the Capitol and its antique collections. On the journey back to the hotel, we made a stop at the Circo Maximo, a bit disappointing to see the largest roman monument nearly not existing anymore.
Understanding my wife comments about too long walks (oups 🙂 ), the time came to take the metro back to the hotel and our usual evening programme.
Thursday, the last day is already showing is head. Time to pack and to transit to the airport but not without enjoying a few last spots: the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, the Piazza Vittorio and the Basilica Santo Giovanni in Laterano, former seat of the Pope.
We are now flying back home where we’ll continue preparing our wedding and our next excursions around the world.
Ci vediamo tutti
Antoine