Do as the Romans do! Well, to a certain extent…Easter holidays 2024, the next destination was Rome, Italy with my friend. Before we went we knew this would be a busy holiday with lots to see, so we planned from every landmark to lunch in advance to ensure no time wasting. Some places we had to book, others were just show up on the day. Luckily for us, the first Sunday of the month most museums/sites in Rome are free to visit, and that is the day we arrived, so our first stop was the Museo Nazionale Romano, which held hundreds of archaeological pieces from across Rome.
Day one (or two, officially) we woke up early and headed to the Trevi Fountain, and already at 8am crowds were beginning to gather, but it wasn’t as busy as the afternoon would have been. The front was closed as this was a Monday, where they clean out the fountain, so no lucky coin tossing for us unfortunately. We had booked breakfast at a hotel which overlooked the fountain, and luckily sat at the table where we had the most perfect view. Next we headed to Il Tempio di Adriano, or Hadrian’s temple, where they play a film about the life of the emperor and how the temple was used over the centuries. After the Pantheon we stopped at the famous sandwich shop All’Antico Vinaio for lunch, then headed to Villa Borghese for canoeing- this was by far my favourite activity of the trip!
The next day was mainly spent at Vatican City, which was ten times busier than the city of Rome. Even with our skip the line tickets, we still had to queue 20 minutes for the Vatican Museums. The place was just so large and busy, it took us a good 30 minutes to reach the Sistine Chapel after fighting our way through numerous tourist groups (who just love to stop and gather in the middle of a path). As fascinating as it was to see the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums, I couldn’t help but feel a little grumpy at how busy it was, made worse by the fact I was coming down with the cold…
Wednesday we dedicated to the true historical landmarks- from the circus maximus to the colosseum. Here is where my first mistake came in…we had arrived at the colosseum about an hour before our tour was to begin, with it being our last day and having already visited across many other ancient sites (and again, now fully battling a cold), we were very tired to say the least, but pushed through for the opportunity to see inside the colosseum. Finally, 3pm arrived and we queued up to get a peak inside, only to be told I had accidentally booked for the previous day. These tickets I had booked a few weeks before back home, and we hadn’t changed our itinerary, so unfortunately it was just a stupid mistake on my part. Annoyingly this is something extremely unlikely for me to do, so I will be changing my usual method of double checking to now triple checking. With the heat, exhaustion and general unwellness, we decided not to wait in the two hour queue to buy another ticket and just accepted defeat.
As a Classicist, this was neither my first nor last time in Rome, but definitely helped as a learning experience to what I would do differently on my next visit. Not to say I didn’t enjoy the experience as I absolutely did, but some things I would maybe do differently next time…
- Sites: Book the correct date, of course. The main touristy places we got out the way this time, but there are still many underrated Classical sites we didn’t have time to explore
- Food: Possibly my most controversial opinion, but I didn’t really rate the food. I had left dining to my friend, and she had really compiled a list of non-tourist trap, well regarded must visits for Rome. Which made all of these places extremely busy. But it wasn’t just these places that were overcrowded, but most restaurants we walked passed had 40 minute queues anywhere after 4pm, same with lunch spots. Not only is queuing for food relatively annoying, but the end result wasn’t worth it. But it is no wonder when restaurants have such high volumes of customers, it basically becomes a fast food restaurant, trying to get food out and customer turnaround as quickly as possible. Next time I would A) lower my expectations B) if I want true Italian food, venture outside the city to the quieter parts and find a quiet cafe where someone’s nonna is cooking a 100 year old family recipe in the back.
- Time: we visited early April, where temperatures were low to mid 20s. This was bearable for the most part, however it was more the busyness that was off putting. Yes, I understand it is Rome, a week after Easter, and it is typically always busy, but even planning ahead like we did didn’t prevent the long lines and crowds. So next time I might visit in the winter months, or do some of the night tours which are meant to be quieter.
- Transport: It took us two days to work out the buses, wasting money on taxis and trying to find these so-called shops that sold tickets (couldn’t find any anywhere). Quick tip: you can pay for the bus on the bus with your card
- Don’t be ill: I tried very hard to dodge the cold my mum had before going to Rome, only to find the friend I was going with had the cold, so inevitably fell unwell. Understandably this is pretty much unavoidable, however Rome is not a city you can really push through illness for the full experience, as tons of energy is pretty much required.
- Plan: This we did do well, as previously stated there is too much to do in such little time you need to know where to go and when. I personally use the website Wanderlog for all my trips as you can plan out everywhere from food to sites, and add other details such as hotel and flights, as well as budgeting.
- Total Rome step count: 59,166
Olivia's Odyssey 