A long weekend in Rome – Fall in love with ancient architecture

No plans yet for Easter or Ascension? How about spending a long weekend in Rome, enjoying delicious Italian food, visiting the famous sights and listening to the Pope?

All roads lead to Rome

It’s so easy to get to Rome. You can either take an international flight, the train (often .Italo has great offers) and even the ship. We were so surprised how nice the Italian trains were and how fast they could drive. We took less time to get to Milan from Rome and way longer from Zurich to Milan although that is the shorter distance. Plus, the Italian fast train had good a/c and free wifi. I went to Rome last year during Ascension and we were really lucky to get a train ticket from Milan to Rome for only 24 Euros!

When we arrived, contrary to Switzerland it wasn’t raining and over 20° C. Summer had arrived :). But apparently, the most agreeable weather and fewest tourist are there in April, so this might work out well with Easter then (I don’t think it applies to the amount of the tourists though).

Our connection by metro and bus to the airbnb worked without any problems, too. I didn’t really know what to expect of an airbnb since we did this for the first time. It’s an accommodation you book over a website (Click here to get to the airbnb website). It can be anything from a private apartment or house to a dormitory room. This time we had a small room with bunk beds in the basement of a house. Good enough if you only need the room for sleeping and the shower was great!

A perfect day in Rome

Start the day with a chocolate croissant and an Italian coffee in one of the many cafés. The Italian way of eating breakfast is having a coffee and something sweet at the bar, without sitting down at the table. If you sit down you will receive an almost 100% price surcharge.

Next stop: Colosseo. As soon as we stepped out of the metro, we landed in that Rome as we had imagined it. Don’t listen to the tourist guides who will tell you that the waiting line is about 2 hours. Our waiting lines looked incredibly long but in the end, we only waited 30min until we had our tickets (much cheaper than from the guides.) We bought a two-day pass for the Colosseo and the Forum Romanum for 12 Euros or 8 Euros if you are under 25 and from the European Union.

There were hundreds of tourists but it was worth seeing the ruin of this huge stadium from the insides anyways. Plus, it’s also like a museum with old statues and artefacts. It took us about 1,5 hours to look at everything.

Afterwards, just keep on walking. Rome is like an open-air museum, there is sooooooo much to see and at every corner, you find another beautiful church, obelisk, arch, stairway, market or garden. Since there are only two metro lines and we didn’t really figure out the bus plan, we ended up walking to everything. It was fun to see all these sights you always see on pictures or on TV in nature but you definitely should bring comfortable shoes.

Forum Romanum: we needed at least two hours to look at everything. But since the ruins are not marked that clearly, you could just have a look from the fences along the outside and would see pretty much the same things you see on the inside.

If you prefer shopping to sightseeing, go to the clothes market in Sannio Street outside of San Giovanni. If you haggle a little that’s probably the cheapest market in Rome (it was also the biggest one, at least of the ones we have been to).

Time to eat

I recommend to eat pizza at least once a day 😉 Gosh, they are delicious. The best dinner we had was near the Vatican. There are many cute restaurants. I also had the best panini there. The best ice cream we had was on the side of Basilica di Santa Maria. It was also cheaper than at other places.

Visit Peter’s Dome

It’s impressive to see the Peter’s Dome and the huge square in reality. Also, the line to get inside the church was impressive but luckily, we didn’t have to wait since one of my friends knew someone that worked as a Swiss Guard (I hope that’s the correct translation) and he was so kind to bring us inside without having to wait in line. He was also the one who introduced us to the delicious restaurant the night before. It was funny to pass all these guards who speak Swiss German and enter the smallest country in the world, in the middle of Rome. The church is richly decorated and the height of the dome very impressive. Near the front left of the church, there is a stairway down to the tombs of the former popes and then you come back up near the entrance to the big cupola. There are 521 stairs to get to the top and it costs 5 Euros to walk or 7 Euros to take the lift for the first 200 stairs. Although our feet were screaming something else, we decided to walk all the way, that we wouldn’t have to wait in line for the elevator. The first 200 stairs were no problem anyways, since the corridor is quite broad with small steps. It’s probably only the last 150 steps that get really interesting.

First, you arrive just below the dome from where you can look down on the church floor and all the tourists. I didn’t even notice the people up here before! It’s so high! Good that we were in something like a cave with a fence all the way around us. After that, the corridor gets really narrow. You should visit the cupola before you eat too many gelatis. Plus, the walls are on a slant. The last few meters are steep corkscrew stairs. So, getting to the top is actually an adventure on its own and in the end you get rewarded with a beautiful view over St. Peter’s Square and the city of Rome.

Taking the stairs is an adventure on its own. If you are on a normal fitnes level, don’t miss this fun!

Of course, we then had to walk back down again and my calves still reproached me for the next three days. Click here to read more about your visit to the Vatican and perhaps attending a service with the Pope. All the services are free but especially at Easter you need to pre-book tickets early.

What’s your favorite picture in this post? Do you have more recommendations for a visit to Rome?