Rome, Italy

Hi there! We've all heard that Rome wasn’t built in a day but it was thoroughly walked in two days and 88,972 steps.

I feel as though the word "whirlwind" is one that I use to describe a lot of my weekend trips but that would not even begin to describe how quickly and efficiently I saw Rome. If you couldn't already tell from the impressive amount of steps in a weekend, I was constantly in motion. There was no loss in momentum, ever. Physics played no role in my life this weekend. The only times I was seated was to eat or to enjoy an Aperol spritz on a patio, but sometimes I would be moving for that too!! So, in honour of me breaking the speed barrier, I suggested you read this post as fast as you can to get a sense of how it actually was, or perhaps get Siri to read it aloud to you at 2x speed.

Starting before the beginning, this week was not a good one. I was attacked by the plague that's been spreading through the company and I spent more than half the week between my bed and couch nearing death. Thankfully, I was feeling better by Thursday night and fully back to myself by Friday afternoon, just in time to head to Rome. By Saturday, I was rested, my gastrointestinal system was purified and I was ready to Eat, Pray, Love my way through the city!

This trip was a bit of a whim because I knew I wanted to come to Italy while I was here but there are too many cool cities to choose from so I figured Rome was a good place to start. I did essentially no research of what I wanted to do while there. I knew I had to do the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, etc., the big things but beyond that, I downloaded Gladiator and When in Rome to watch on the plane and then I was off.

However, my flight was at 7:00 AM and therefore I did not watch the movies but instead slept.

But by the time I made it to the city, I had a rough plan. On Saturday, I’d do the “outskirts” and then save the big monuments for Sunday and anything that slipped through the cracks I could do on Monday morning.

So off I went wandering around the neighbourhoods of Rome. I found myself in some markets selling fresh flowers, limoncello, fruits & veggies then in random squares with fountains and cafes. And between the modern buildings and shops, there would be a sporadic ancient ruin, how cool.

I made my way to Villa Borghese, a beautiful park with more fountains and a gallery. I sat here for a brief moment to eat a squished sandwich and people-watch. I found it very entertaining to see the different levels of lazy tourists. There were the tourists that were walking the park on foot, then the ones that rented bikes, then the groups on 4-person electric bike carts then the epitome of tourists that rented a golf cart, and then I guess a special level for the less independent tourists, that just get on a little electric train ride with a guide.

Then my walk continued. One of my missions for this trip was to buy a new lid for my Yeti water bottle. Yes, I know, I'm in Rome and should be doing as the Romans do but here's the thing, Romans were big on drinking their water from their fancy aqueduct system and my fancy aqueduct is my water bottle and the lid broke last week so I've had to drink my water OUT OF A GLASS for a whole week and I couldn't do it anymore. I looked all over the island (Malta that is) and came up empty handed but the Yeti website showed 4 stores in Rome that carried their products. The first store struck out and the second was an hour-and-a-half walk away. So off I went.

I took the long way there and got a taste of the Rome that people go to Rome for. I saw a bit of the Forum, like the Trajan's Column & Market, and the Vittoriano and I quickly turned away when I saw a glimpse of the Colosseum as I wanted to save the view for a more formal reveal. Then I walked across the River Tiber to the neighbourhood of Trastevere.

While walking across the bridge, you cross an island called Isola Tiberina, with a big hospital on it. It started as a hospital a long time ago when it was first a Temple for Asclepius, the god of medicine (you might recognize this from the symbol of the snake on the pole). But I had heard about this hospital from WWII. At the time, Rome had instituted very strict antisemitic laws and was occupied by the Nazis but a few doctors at this hospital came up with a disease that saved a lot of Jewish lives. During a raid, some doctors admitted Jews with “Syndrome K”, a fake disease but supposedly very contagious, so Nazis were dissuaded from investigating and over 100 Jews were spared in Rome! So there's your WWII lesson for the post.

Once across the river, in Trastevere, I went to the absolute best biscuit shop. It was an old bakery called Biscottificio Artigiano Innocenti. I walked in, got overwhelmed by all the choices and just asked the man working there for his recommendation and he just started chucking cookies in a bag. We had some hazelnut, some almond, some hazelnut AND almond, some chocolate, some almond paste, a strawberry, an apricot, a little bit of everything, then he weighed them, I gave him €5 then went on my way. Not even 500m away from the store I bit into the first cookie and immediately turned around and bought about 10 more. The one that really sold me was a strawberry one in the shape of a sun, it was actually the best cookie I've ever had in my life.

Fuelled by sugar, I continued on my walk and saw some of the lesser-known monuments. I went by the Temple of Hercules Victor, Circus Maximus, and the Baths of Caracalla and finished at the Basilica di San Giovanni Laterno (Basilica of St. John Lateran) & the Pontificio Santuario Della Scala Santa. I know I just name-dropped a bunch of Roman attractions that probably don't mean anything to you but that's kinda what it was like there too. Everywhere I looked it was another stunning building built hundreds of years ago and I had to keep looking up what they were!! At some points, I was taking photos just so I could look them up later. So let me explain of couple of these.

Circus Maximus is an ancient marble arena with seating for a meek 250,000 people to watch chariot races.

The Basilica, or better, the archbascilica (and the only archbasilica in the world) was stunning. It was built in 324 (note there's no “1” at the start of that) and is the oldest basilica in the Western world and is the Pope’s official seat!

If you were there and had turned to the right, you would see the Scala Santa, the holy stairs that are believed to be the ones that Jesus walked up for his trial in Jerusalem. They were brought to Rome by Saint Helena in the 4th century, what a souvenir. Now they are a very holy monument that brings religious people from around the world to climb up on their knees.

I finally did make it to the hiking store that sells Yeti I products and I'm happy to report that while they didn't have the lid I actually wanted, they did have one that works so I can now return to drinking from my water bottle again. Peace & order has been restored.

I took a more laid-back route back towards my hostel and stopped for a spritz on a patio and some focaccia, then had some more spritzes and some pasta at my hostel with the typically entertaining hostel crowd.

The next morning I woke up bright and early and started walking again (how surprising), in fact, this morning was all about walking. To fuel my body, I got gelato for breakfast, but then immediately dropped it on the ground :( but Roman germs never killed anyone!

I took Rick Steves' Heart of Rome audio tour through his app and got to see all the sites while learning what they are in real-time AND I didn't have to navigate myself!!

The walk started in Campo de’ Fiori, a big square that has a bumping market and some cool history! There's a building on the corner where Julius Caesar was stabbed to death and there's a statue of Giordano Bruno, marking where he was burned at the stake. Now there's a nice market with stalls for pasta, limoncello, flowers, souvenirs, etc. This square has it all.

Continuing on the walking tour, the next stop was Piazza Navona. This square is famous for the Four Rivers Fountain (see below) and a big church. There are sculptures of men depicting the four quarters of creation and an Egyptian obelisk on top (one of 13 ancient obelisks in Rome)! Behind the fountain is the Church of Saint Agnes. A side note! I'm not sure if I've written it in my other blog posts but Malta is known for having a lot of churches, there's a saying that there are more churches in Malta than there are days in the year, and that's a lot of churches! BUT Rome has more than 350 churches in just the city itself! That's a crazy amount of churches! Ok back to this church, it was designed by Francesco Borromini, a man obsessed with concave lines, the church from the outside is massive & gorgeous but the inside is actually super small. That's the power of concave lines.

For the sake of you reading this at two times speed, I'll jump to the end of the walking tour, the Trevi Fountain. This is really the proof that Rome is obsessed with their water. There are 24 spouts of water (and about 24,000 coins in there and probably 2400 tourists all trying to simultaneously get their photo taken here).

I finished up my walk then walked some more to go to get a sandwich from a spot that James recommended from when he was here in September! This sandwich was almost as life-changing as the cookies from yesterday, it was so freaking good.

While I was waiting to get my sandwich, I noticed the time and realized that my time to enter the Colosseum was only an hour from now and it was an hour's walk to get there! So I ate my sandwich while walking and motored back across the Tiber.

And long-awaited, I got my formal view, just look how gorgeous!

The Colosseum was very beautiful to see but I have to say it was a little underwhelming... It's smaller than I was imagining it and the one-way path packed with tourists was a little overstimulating for me. But I enjoyed learning some fun facts like that it's named the Colosseum because there was a colossal statue of Emperor Nero on the grounds, or that the stone from the amphitheatre was reused to build a bunch of the churches in Rome, and that the battles held here were pretty epic productions with trap doors and elevators, and crazy animals. I did end up watching Gladiator for the first time after my trip to Rome and getting to see Hollywood's recreation of events that happened where I was standing is pretty freaking cool.

The next stop was the Roman Forum, this part was SO COOL, probably my favourite part of Rome. The Forum is the preserved ruins of the Roman centre. There is still the main street that was there thousands of years ago, the Via Sacra, temples, arches, and a basilica, and you could really picture what it looked like back in the day.

This is the Temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina. Antoninus was an Emperor and after his wife Faustina died, he decided that she was actually a goddess so this temple was built in her honour. I had no idea that it was that easy to just become a goddess but apparently, back then Romans prayed to over 30,000 gods so I guess one more doesn't sound that bad.

This is the Temple of Vesta and it is very sacred. There used to be a fire burning in this temple that they never let go out. There were six priestesses or Vesta Virgins that tended to the flame and devoted their lives to it. They were chosen before they were ten years old and would serve a 30-year term as stay-at-home-presiestesses in the temple. If they failed to do their duty as virgins, they would be publically shamed through the streets and locked in a crypt with only a loaf of bread and a lamp until they died. What a life, especially considering they were chosen for it and had to commit to it before they even could tie their shoes, or whatever the equivalent would have been for a ten-year-old in Roman times.

After a long day, I finally did sit down for dinner. I enjoyed some amazing Cacio e Pepe and of course more gelato for dessert.

The next morning, I didn't have a ton of time but I made the most of it and briefly saw the Pantheon and the Ara Pacis Museum.

The final stop in my Roman rapid-fire was the Altar of Peace. This was a monument for Emperor Augustus who was known for bringing Roman Peace after they were satisfied with all they had conquered. The Altar was a beautiful propaganda piece with amazing reliefs carved from marble. The Tiber River actually flooded and completely buried the Altar so it wasn't found for hundreds and hundreds of years. When it was resurfacing, pieces were found and spread to different museums not realizing that they are all part of one big thing! In 1903, they started excavating and by 1937 they uncovered the whole Altar and Mussolini decided to create a museum and honour Augustus on the 2000th anniversary of his birth.

Then my feet were finally tired and I hopped back on my plane to Malta! It's only taken me a week and a half to write this blog post but to be fair, I had to fit in as many Rome cliches as I could and recover from all that walking. Until next time Italy!