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Old 15 Jul 15, 12:08 PM  
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Hannikins
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Pizzas, planning, & plenty of birthday fun! - Rome & Florence - June 2015 - Day 1 - Travel Day

Pizzas, planning, & plenty of birthday fun! - Rome & Florence - June 2015 - Day 1 - Travel Day

Things didn’t get off to a great start, my ticket said that checkin/bag drop opened at 3.15 but as it happened the place was empty and things didn’t get moving until 4.30, which meant a very early start for nothing! I could have had another hour in bed!

We did finally get through and into duty free with minimal fuss though and they even let me check in my hard cased carry on for free which was great!

We flew with Jet2 from manchester so the first thing we did was to head for breakfast to wake us up, it was around 5am! I loved the new terminal, after flying to america for the last few years we haven’t been in terminal 1 since the refurb.

We headed first to giraffe. Their online menu said that they did a breakfast selection with a hot drink for £5 but we didn’t see this on the menus outside. We had a quick look at the other places before deciding to go with it anyway.

We had a great table overlooking the gates and planes, including ours. We both went for the breakfast plate special and two coffee’s



It was really good and the 15% voucher I found on eatdrinkfly whilst waiting made it even better! total cost was £20.96

Afterwards we bought a few snacks from booths for the plane before heading to our gate.

The flight was uneventful and a lot better than I was expecting, I think I had budget airline nerves but it was nothing like I expected.

We arrived to a very gloomy rome and headed for immigration. The queue was HUGE for non eu but it went a lot quicker than the eu one, we only had 2 attendants to their 6, now why doesn’t that happen in Orlando!

I had booked a private car to pick us up at the airport. I knew the train was supposed to be quicker but as I would either have to walk or get in a taxi once I got to termini I decided to just get a car. The cost was €45 with romeshuttlelimousine.com and I recommend it! If anything just for the experience of driving on an italian motorway….

The hotel itself was lovely and whilst we checked in an attendant took our baggage to our room and stayed to show us how everything worked.

We were really impressed with the room but as we were eager to explore we changed quickly before heading back out for a little walk.

Our hotel was a 5 minute walked from the colosseum and as I had nothing particular planned for that day we decided to check it out and get our bearings













It certainly didn’t feel as busy as I’d been expecting it to be, apart from some narrow walkways causing people to slow we had no issues. In fact apart from an abundance of “selfie selfie stick” men it was rather pleasant.

It was boiling though. I had packed for heat but the humidity made it a lot worse than I thought it would be/

See, sweaty mess :P









We continued to head away from the colosseum along the edge of the forum area. We didn’t go in as we planned to visit the following day but it was pleasant to look down on everything











At the end we came to a large intersection Piazza Venezia.



Here it’s fun to try and practice your road crossing skills… if stepping out into 4 lanes of moving traffic and daring them not to stop is your idea of fun that is!

We did have a rough plan of action, I was heading in the direction of Piazza Navona. It was almost 1 and we were yet to eat lunch.

We walked past Largo di Torre Argentina next, which on the surface is a small gap in the buildings, a square of ruins…





but on closer inspection you’d see the real attraction



PUDDIES!

lots of them :P The ruins are in fact home to a cat sanctuary. Caring for local strays whilst also operating a rehoming centre.









Next we headed north in the general direction of Piazza Navona, thanks to my little app I knew roughly where we were in relation to most things on my map

On the way I asked Adam to guess what this building was



He hadn’t a clue. I guess it’s easier when you’re not looking at it from the back :P





This area was the busiest so far. I guess the combination of a “major” attraction and “free” means it’s going to be crowded.

Still it was beautiful. I was completely in awe of the size of the place



As you’re heading through the door you really do feel how small an insignificant you are.







You can buy audio tours here but we didn’t bother. Instead deciding to explore on our own, trying to take it all in.













After 30 minutes and a good explore we headed back out and explored the square. Adam mentioned that his second hotel choice had been here which I think would have been fun, although like with time square I think the crowds would have annoyed me every day :P



Next we headed through a cut through to Piazza Navona, using the app to guide us.

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Old 15 Jul 15, 12:08 PM  
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Hannikins
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We came out and wow it was impressive. One thing I loved already about Rome was that you can walk down an ally barely big enough for two people to walk down hand in hand and pop out into a vast expanse of space. This is pretty much what happened here



Just then gloomy cloud that we’d had all day broke out into rain, nothing major, just a light drizzle and it was so hot I was grateful for it.





We were both a little hungry by now so we headed for the nearest lunch icon on my map



Here we picked up two slices of pizza, a coke and a bottle of water for €9.80



It was a white pizza with tomato, cheese and lettuce drizzled in olive oil, very yum!



We took our slices back to Piazza Navona and grabbed a bench. Who needs expensive restaurant seating with this kinda view for free!





Lunch had been a welcome rest but we were keen to keep moving.

Next we headed towards Campo de' Fiori to check it out but most of the stalls had shut apart from the touristy ones and there was mess everywhere, not great :/

We heading slowly back on ourselves now and we passed the cat sanctuary again on the way to see how many other puddies we could spot.

Soon we joined up where we started at Piazza Venezia. The crowds had moved on so Adam took a few pictures





I still had my water bottle from lunch so I also made a welcome stop at a fountain. These “Nasoni” are everywhere in Rome. Often they looked like this



and sometimes they were a little more elaborate



They are in fact difficult to spot, but they are EVERYWHERE. There’s even an app for show where they are I’ve since learned.

Anyway, they are brilliant, they are free, and unlike most public drinking fountains the water is amazing! A local told us that water from these was 12 hours ago still on the mountains, so it’s very fresh, and very clean.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a bottle. Putting your finger on the spout sends the water up a tiny hole instead, making a great drinking fountains



Anyway, enough about water!

We walked back on the opposite side of Via dei Fori Imperiali so we could see the ruins opposite.



There was also a tourism office on this side and I still needed to buy our Romapasses (€36 each)



We carried on back and stopped again at the colosseum for yet more pictures.



This was the view at the end of our street



Instead of heading back to the hotel we headed instead for Basilica di San Clemente. I had heard that the excavations here were not to be missed and with limited opening times I thought today might be our only chance.

I had been warned that a scam was often run on the doors here. Basically a guy stands at the entrance looking official shaking a bowl, you assume he’s collecting entry fee’s you pay up… but entrance to the church is free.

Sure enough he was there



There he is, and there’s the sign for free entry

Anyway he made such a fuss when we didn’t pay up I started to doubt myself, although no, I’m pretty sure it’s a scam.

Although we were there to see the excavations the church itself is stunning









Next we headed towards the ticket office and paid the €5 entrance fee to access the excavations (this is increasing from July 2015 to €10)

There’s 3 layers of religious history here, from pagan temple to “modern” christen church









A very interesting excavation and very much worth a visit. The scary scam guy was still on the door when we left so we made a dash for it :P

At this point my app failed me. I wasn’t really looking at it, so confident was I that the hotel was around the corner, that we ended up a good 20 mintues walk away, at a maternity hospital and the irish embassy of all places!

Finally we made it back. We weren’t 100% used to the heat yet, well I wasn’t. Adam’s Mediterranean skin seemed to be coping just fine, grrrrrrr.

We showered and relaxed a little, getting ready for our 8pm reservation around the corner at Li Rioni.

This was a small pizza place recommended on trip advisor (and later on by our food tour! guide)



All the tables were full outside and as it was warm I was happy inside with the air conditioning!

I was planning on trying out my italian, but in the end I chickened out :P

we ordered the meat stuffed, battered olives and some supplì to start



Along with a large beer for Adam and half a carafe of red wine for me.

Next we ordered two pizzas



both were yummy, the blue cheese on mine was amazing :P

We then proceeded to wait 40 minutes to get dessert. We weren’t in a rush, it just took ages to get anyones attention!

We share the dessert trio, Although I did polish off most of the brûlée, it was just too good to share :P



We finished off with a liqueur each.

The cost in total was €44.10 which we both though was excellent value and well worth it, apart from the blip in service we loved it.

Surprisingly neither of us were as tired as we thought we would be, so we decided to walk off dinner with a trip to the colosseum.

If we’d thought it was impressive in the day it was nothing compared to at night!









we even tried a few drunk selfies before heading back to the hotel





we didn’t get lost this time!

FIT BIT STATS

23,485 steps
20 floors
16.28km
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Edited at 12:15 PM.
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Old 15 Jul 15, 09:01 PM  
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Gunna
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Good to see you've started you're trippie!

Great photos brings back some brilliant memories of our trip. How good are the cats? They were right outside our hotel, the owner said we could have one and could fly if back to the UK. Such a great city, we loved it, never bought a selfie stick although nearly gave in and you beat us on Fit Bit steps - we only did 16100 on Day 1, bit of a poor effort really.
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Old 16 Jul 15, 12:28 PM  
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I was looking forward to this! Going to Rome soon so looking for some tips What was the app you used?

Katie
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Old 16 Jul 15, 07:33 PM  
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Love this! Food looks amaze! We're planning a Rome & Venice & ? Trip in 2017 so reading with interest!
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Old 17 Jul 15, 12:16 PM  
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Hannikins
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Originally Posted by Gunna View Post
Good to see you've started you're trippie!

Great photos brings back some brilliant memories of our trip. How good are the cats? They were right outside our hotel, the owner said we could have one and could fly if back to the UK. Such a great city, we loved it, never bought a selfie stick although nearly gave in and you beat us on Fit Bit steps - we only did 16100 on Day 1, bit of a poor effort really.
I would have taken them all! they had loads of fluffy kittens with big blue eyes. I don't think my two would have been keen on a little sister though :P 16,000 is good! It's funny how I struggle to do 6k in a day t home but I managed 10,000 by 11am most days whilst away!

Originally Posted by k4ti3-x View Post
I was looking forward to this! Going to Rome soon so looking for some tips What was the app you used?

Katie
thanks! you can find out about it here: http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/show...3&postcount=15

Originally Posted by NatsyNoo View Post
Love this! Food looks amaze! We're planning a Rome & Venice & ? Trip in 2017 so reading with interest!
loved the food! ooo exciting! you have to do florence, we loved it so much... more than rome in fact!
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Old 20 Jul 15, 04:04 PM  
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Great start, you seemed to get some serious bargains on your food there! We got completely and utterly ripped off when we went 23 euros for a scoop of ice cream and a water!

Lovely photos!
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Old 21 Jul 15, 09:10 AM  
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Hannikins
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Originally Posted by abiknox View Post
Great start, you seemed to get some serious bargains on your food there! We got completely and utterly ripped off when we went 23 euros for a scoop of ice cream and a water!

Lovely photos!
YIKES! that's a lot! If I'm honest I was so paranoid about being ripped off that I researched the hell out of where to eat and where not to in the hope that I wouldn't get caught out. Although around the tourist areas I can see how it's very easy to do!
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Old 27 Jul 15, 04:46 PM  
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Ooh didnt realise this was up already, great start, have done quite a few European cities but would love to visit Rome one day. Food seems cheaper than I was expecting too...
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Old 28 Jul 15, 12:15 PM  
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I'm SO glad I found your trip report! Some really good tips. I'm hoping to go to Rome in October for my birthday for a long weekend, just waiting on my new passport to arrive

Did you walk from the Colosseum to the Pantheon? I've been googling distances on google maps and it looks like a really long walk, how long did it take?

Did you find many pickpockets too? I've been seeing a lot of posts on trip advisor and elsewhere about those but I guess it happens wherever you go.

I'm really hoping the Trevi fountain will be open by October
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