All Roads Lead to Rome
During the heatwave sweeping Europe in July, we spent five days visiting the incredible Italian capital: Rome. Despite the intense heat, we certainly made the most of our trip, visiting Vatican City, the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, Trastevere, the many spectacular Catholic churches, a few art galleries and eating lots of great pasta.
The holiday was a girls trip for Julie. Julie’s sister was attending a two-day conference in the Rome so Julie and her mum jumped at the chance to visit a city so utterly captivating, especially for art and history lovers. (Arran has already been twice so it was only fair that Julie had the chance to catch up).
We arrived early on a Thursday and were able to check-in to our AirBnB, which was in the old neighbourhood of Esquilino. We spent our first day getting our bearings. We walked to the Trevi Fountain, passing pretty streets festooned with pink bougainvillea, sunset coloured lantana and climbing ivy.
The Trevi Fountain is undeniably magnificent. The contrast of cream travertine stone against turquoise waters is very beautiful. At all times of day, the Trevi Fountain is inundated with visitors which we found detracted from the overall splendour of the monument. Of course, we were contributing to this busyness so cannot complain but I am sure in the shoulder seasons the Trevi Fountain’s magnificence is easier to absorb.
After a pasta lunch, we headed to the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj. This is a unique private collection of some very large names in the art world, including Titian, Raphael, Caravaggio, Jan and Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Claude Lorrain and Velázquez. The ornate halls provide a fitting setting for such a grand collection of art.
After the gallery we wandered back past the Trevi Fountain to have our first gelato of many. We enjoyed salted pistachio, strawberry, mango and lemon gelato from Mancuso, a fantastic gelateria right by the fountain. They do not have an extensive menu (which in our opinion makes them even better) but they have all the classics.
We ended our first day here as we were all exhausted after a very early start. We headed back to our apartment, enjoyed a film on Netflix and got a good rest before the next day.
On our first full day we headed to Vatican City. We had an 08:30am booking for the Vatican Museum. We were escorted in, skipping the line that was forming, and were able to then take the museum at our own pace. We followed the map, ensuring we saw each one of the twenty two galleries, including the Sistine Chapel and Michaelangelo’s famous ceiling.
There is so much to take in, it really is an incredible place. The Hall of Animals is a fun room. It is a carved stone menagerie and we were particularly taken with a sweet carving of a hedgehog. One of the most interesting rooms in the museum was the gallery of Anima Mundi, a collection of objects and artworks from African, Native American, South American, Oceanic and Australasian civilisations. These galleries are at basement level but are really worth a look. We also really liked the gallery of contemporary art. It was interesting to see the work of Vincent van Gogh, Piet Mondrian and Henri Matisse in a new context. It is impossible to take in every nook and cranny during your visit, there is simply too much to see. Whilst we saw every room, we cherry picked the details we spent time absorbing.
After spending a number of hours exploring the Vatican Museum, we headed to St. Peter’s Basilica. We went up to the first level of the cupola, admiring the mosaic scenes of the dome. There was so much to absorb in both the Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s Basilica. Mosaics, hand-painted motifs, elaborate ceilings, cupolas, stained glass windows and sculptures are at every turn. It is a feast for the senses and was a huge highlight of the whole trip.
We concluded our day with a delicious meal at Trattoria Vecchia. This restaurant, with its bare-brick arches and hand-painted frescoes, is a charming place for dinner. We did not have a reservation, so decided to go when they opened at 7pm. We arrived to a queue of people, clearly with the same idea as us. However, we needn’t have worried, they sat us nearly straight away. We ordered fried courgette flowers with mozzarella to start, followed by gnocchi in a fresh tomato sauce and wild boar fettuccine. A ¼ litre of vino bianco was the perfect accompaniment (and at €3.50, it tasted even better)! A pistachio tiramisu and two caffès concluded a wonderful meal.
Our second day was dedicated to another of Rome’s must-see monuments: the Colosseum. We began with an explore of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. The history and stories of the ancient city is overwhelming. The Roman Forum was right at the centre of commerce, power, religious, social and political activities of ancient Rome. Palatine Hill is the most famous of Rome’s seven hill. It was considered the most desirable neighbourhood in ancient Rome, home to the city’s emperors, aristocrats and lawmakers. At the Colosseum we enjoyed exploring the museum space, learning about ancient graffiti, gladiator fighting, the winch system that would elevate fighters and animals into the arena and the labyrinth of rooms under the main stage. Gladiator fighting has quite a shocking history. It is glamourised by contemporary tales of heroic, strapping, celebrity-status men but the reality of gladiator fighting in ancient Rome was one of bloodshed. The history of these three sites is fascinating, you could spend hours learning, reading and listening. It was a little too hot to spend this amount of time at each location but we were very content with what we learned.
After the Colosseum we headed across the River Tiber to Trastevere. We loved this neighbourhood. It is full of life. It has a real bohemian atmosphere and is full of restaurants, wine bars, gelaterias and shops. Washing lines traverse the windows of the soft-hued coloured homes, adding to the charm of the neighbourhood.
We visited Palazzo Corsini, which has a fantastic collection of art. When you visit the Palazzo Corsini, the ticket includes entry (within thirty days) to Palazzo Barberini. We visited the latter on the following day. Palazzo Corsini has a great collection of Italian art from the early-Renaissance to the late-eighteenth century. Caravaggio and Anthony van Dyck are two of the big names housed in the galleries.
We then headed to the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere. This is a breathtakingly beautiful church. The mosaics in the apse are spectacular. St. Peter’s Basilica is undeniably breathtaking, but we actually found the smaller, local churches (of which there are many) more beautiful. Each one is different, full of magnificent, unique details like mosaics, alter paintings, stained glass and ornate ceilings. The Basilica of Santa Maria is one of these churches that really takes your breath away when you walk in. It is a peaceful place for a moment of reflection.
We had dinner at the highly-rated Tonnarello. We started with bruschetta and prosciutto with melon. This was followed by rigatoni al pesto. We concluded our trip to Trastevere with gelato at Fior de Luna. Peach, hazelnut and stracciatella were our flavours of choice.
We took the long walk back to Esquilino, enjoying the city at dusk. We decided to explore the Colosseum in these dusk hues and watched the sun go down behind the ancient monument. The stone façade shone against the lilac, blush and lavender shades of the evening sky.
We began our penultimate day with coffee and cornetti at Sant’Eustachio Il Caffè. We sat at one of their outdoor tables, enjoying good coffee, delicious pastries and people watching on a Sunday morning.
After our morning coffee, we wandered to Piazza Navano before a midday visit to the Pantheon, another must-see Roman landmark. The Pantheon, in its current form, dates back to 113-125 AD, although there was a temple at the same site from as early as the reign of Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD). The rotunda is quite mesmerising, and the oculus provides a forever shifting beam of light into the church. When (occasional) rain falls, the floor is slanted and drains the water away.
Afterwards, we popped into the Church of St. Louis of the French to marvel at the trio of Caravaggio masterpieces. All three hang in the Contarelli Chapel and are based on the life of St. Matthew. This church – the official national church of France in Rome – is situated right between the Pantheon and Piazzo Navona and we made a point of visiting after watching the clergy filter out onto the street after the Sunday morning service.
Our last piece of culture of the day involved a visit to Palazzo Barberini. This gallery was an unusual highlight of the trip. There was a fantastic exhibition about Pope Urban VIII. The exhibition was superbly curated, and we learnt a huge amount about the power and influence of the Barberini family, of whom Pope Urban VIII was a famous member. The gallery holds a stellar collection of art, and you can conclude your visit with The Triumph of Divine Providence, a magnificent ceiling fresco that you can gaze up at, reclined in a deck chair.
Our afternoon ended with cocktails at La Terrazza del Cesari. This dreamy setting offers a view over Rome’s rooftops, including the Saint Ignatius of Loyola Church. Coral pink umbrellas and elegant seating, coupled with delicious cocktails, makes it the perfect place for an aperitivo.
We had a beautiful meal at Gli Angeletti and since it was our last night, we had to order cacio e pepe. We concluded our night with a walk to the Trevi Fountain to see it illuminated against the navy blue sky. We returned to Mancuso for dessert, trying their hazelnut and custard with lemon zest gelato. Both were delicious.
On our final day we did our last explorations. We had an evening flight back home, so we could really enjoy a full day in the city. We began the walk to Piazza di Spagna and had coffee and pastries at the base of the Spanish Steps.
We climbed the Spanish Steps and walked to the gardens of Villa Borghese, situated on the Pincian Hill. The park is eighty hectares large and boasts greenery alongside sculptures, monuments, fountains and ponds. It has a very romantic atmosphere and the Temple of Aesculapius is the perfect place to people watch and take in the park’s beauty. We sat watching visitors take row boats out on the lake. We also enjoyed observing the resident geese and terrapins.
We concluded our visit with a lovely lunch in the parkland’s restaurant, where we sat outside listening to the raucous chirp of cicadas and reminiscing about our great trip.
We felt that it was only appropriate to make our last stop in Rome a gelato shop, so we headed to Gelateria della Palma, which boasts 150 flavours of ice cream. Among our choices were rose petal and honeydew melon.
Addio Roma, grazie mille!
