Rome

Getting There

I arrived in Rome around 9 am with very little sleep – the flight attendants woke us up for breakfast around the time I would normally have been going to bed due to the 8 hour time difference.

There is a regular train from the Rome Fiumicino airport to the Termini station in the city centre where my hotel is located. There you can connect to the metro, then you would walk about 15 minutes to the hotel – that might have been too much for me on no sleep! But knowing now what I didn’t know then, it would have been fairly easy and cheaper of course.

My research told me that taxis are notoriously expensive in Rome, and as in most major cities the drivers can be unscrupulous.  But Uber is more expensive apparently!  Well how about Scooterino, where the driver shows up on a scooter?  That won’t work from the airport since I have luggage. The night before my flight, I decided to treat myself and book a private driver through my hotel, at a slightly cheaper cost than a taxi. There is something pretty cool about seeing a sign with your name on it when you exit the airport!

My last email with the hotel (in English) said the driver would be waiting for me by the Douane. I thought this might be a street outside the airport, and was looking for a sign to tell me where I should look. It suddenly struck me to check my translation app, and sure enough the driver was waiting by Customs.

I told the driver I had been to Rome once before, a long time ago, and he said don’t worry, nothing has changed, it’s still a couple of thousand years old!

My hotel was on the edges of the city centre, just inside the ancient Aurelian walls built to defend the city in the 3rd century. These walls are also used by taxi drivers to define where to really overcharge fares. At the hotel I was way too early for the 4 p.m. check in, so I dropped my bags, changed in the washroom, and set off to find a cappuccino. There was only one option, since the hotel seems to be in a residential area. After I returned to bother the guy at the desk a few times, he finally gave me a room around noon. I found a supermarket with bottles of wine for just a few euros, and the one I bought wasn’t all that bad! But I have had better ….

Since covid reopenings in Italy, tickets for most tourist attractions must be purchased in advance, online, with an entry time. The upside of this is no more standing in lines for hours! I had given myself a couple of days to see some sights before I met up with my tour group.

Galleria Borghese

I was in Italy a loooong time ago, on a Contiki bus tour. 13 countries in 28 days. It was a whirlwind – I remember only small bits of Rome, Florence, Pisa, and Venice. So I can do with seeing everything again! I searched for top sights to see in Rome. All lists included the usual suspects like the Colosseum and the Vatican, and also the Galleria Borghese https://galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/. I had never heard of this museum and it looked spectacular, so I booked a ticket for it on my first afternoon in Rome. (Tip – there are dozens of ticket sellers for all these venues. For the best prices, go to the website for the venue itself).

The Galleria Borghese was a private art collection housed in a 17th century villa. It’s surrounded by gardens and the largest park in Rome that are also attractions. Cardinal Borghese was the pope’s personal secretary who was apparently very wealthy. Interesting. The Italian government now owns the entire complex. Sculptures by Bernini were the centerpieces of many of the rooms. Entire spaces including floors and ceilings were covered in stunning artwork and gilded decoration.

Vatican Museums

The next morning I was booked for the Vatican Museums. I had hoped for a ticket without a guided tour, but the website for the Vatican https://www.thevaticantickets.com/ showed those tickets as sold out on the day and time I wanted. Other website sellers offered tickets, but the Vatican website had tickets with a guided tour at that time. The cost was only a little more than the unguided one at another website, so that’s what I went with (see Tip above!). I made my way there on the metro, with a helping hand from a woman who noticed my struggle with the ticket machine.

The Vatican is the smallest country in the world, situated within the boundaries of the city of Rome. It is home of the government of the catholic church and its head, the pope. Its several hundred residents are mainly cardinals, nuns, clergy, and Swiss guards.

The tour was listed as 3 hours long. I thought I would be bored and probably wander off, but I was wrong – I almost had to sprint to keep up to the guide and group. These museums are massive! And spectacular. Crowds here were impressive. The guide told us (through the earphones we were given so we could hear her) that this was the busiest she had seen the galleries since before covid. And before covid, the largest recorded number of people here in one day was 37,000.

I paid 30 euros, or $45, for this tour. That equals $1.7 million for the catholic church from tours of the museums alone, in one day. Never mind the souvenirs and guidebooks and whatever else is collected there! Let’s just say I have a whole new appreciation for the pope and the catholic church after seeing the riches in Rome and the Vatican.

I came across a post somewhere full of pictures of Italian sculptures in a garden. The caption read something like “I didn’t realize until I looked at the pictures, but every one of them is of someone or something beating the shit out of someone else.” So true!

At the end of the museums tour was the Sistine Chapel. You are not allowed to speak or take pictures while you stare awestruck at the ceiling.

I had hoped to see St. Peter’s Basilica, the largest church in the world, but I had no more time that day. I could have even gone back the next day, Sunday, to see the pope address the public in St. Peter’s Square as he does every Sunday.

But, there is just so much else to do in Rome!