Travel – Kevin Blyth

Rome 3-Day Itinerary: Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Colosseum and much more!

July 20, 2024July 20, 2024 by Kevin Blyth, posted in Travel, Travel and tourism

Day 1, The Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain

I was in Europe for a business trip and we decided that it was time for us both to see Rome. We’d been to Italy several times, but never actually made it to Rome. Josanne wanted to see the Sistine Chapel, and I’d always wanted to see the Colosseum, so both of those were on our “must do” list.

I’m not sure on exactly what needs to be done to be like a Roman in Rome (per the “When in Rome, do as the Romans do“), but as we only had 3 days to spend there, we ate, we drank, we walked (and then walked some more) and we took in the sights. That felt sufficiently Roman to me!

We had pre-booked 3 excursions before arriving via Tripadvisor / Viator:

Skip the queue for the Vatican and Sistine Chapel,
The Colosseum and Roman Forum, and
a Walking Food Tour.

We flew into Rome Fiumicino airport from Paris Orly and then jumped on the train into the city. This was quick, easy and efficient. We’d booked into The Hive hotel, which was only a 5-minute walk from the Termini railway station. We put our bags in the room, put on our walking shoes and set out straight away to explore.

One thing that we always do when overseas is walk wherever possible. You get to see so much by not jumping in a cab or on a train / metro.

Due to it being a short visit, we wanted to maximise our time, so on day 1, the challenge was to get to the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain and to grab a bite to eat.

Now the first thing to be clear on is that getting photos with no-one in is always a significant challenge in large cities. Sure, you get the photos that look like no-one is there, but if you pull the camera back……

Rome is no different and as you can see with the photos below, you can “sort of” create the illusion that you are there on your own. But zoom out just a little bit and the truth becomes very apparent!

They always tell you to be very careful of pickpockets in Rome. I bought myself a bag that you wear across your chest. I could fit cash, credit cards and a phone into it easily and it kept it all in front of me and out of my pockets. We had no issues at all with people trying to pickpocket us, but anywhere there was a crowd, we were always wary.

We managed to spend several hours looking around Rome in the area between our hotel and the Trevi Fountain, before heading back to shower and get ready for dinner as Day 2 was a big (and busy) one for us. At this stage, we didn’t know that Viator were about to let us down in a big way!

That evening, we decided to eat at the hotel. It was the first night of Euro 2024, Scotland were playing Germany and after the first 45 minutes, I knew it was going to be yet another disappointing tournament for Scotland. There, got that off my chest and I don’t have to mention it again!

The plan for Day 2 was to do the Vatican and Sistine Chapel followed by the Colosseum. It was a warm day, close to 30 degrees.

Day 2 – The Vatican, Sistine Chapel and Colosseum

We were up nice and early and headed off for the meeting point for the 7.30am tour. I’d deliberately booked both of today’s tours as “skip the queue” ones through Viator as we only had limited time to get around. We arrived around 30 minutes before it began. Unfortunately, while Viator had taken our money, they hadn’t actually booked us on the tour.

We eventually managed to speak to someone from the tour company who basically said “Sorry, we can’t do anything for you. We suggest you find another tour“. I asked if they could get us on one the following day, but they said no. We were both disappointed but with no other choice, we set about doing what we didn’t want to do – stood in queues to get in. I was kept amused with some conversations with friends back in New Zealand, both of whom are journalists and were making up spoof headlines for my predicament!

Josanne somehow guided us to a relatively short queue to get into the actual Vatican. For 10 Euros, we got right to the top for some stunning views down to St Peters Square as well as seeing inside of the Vatican. Although I’m a Rangers supporter, I’m happy to say that I didn’t burst into flames!

It was an interesting climb getting up to the top and there were parts where it felt that they were out to get those who were both claustrophobic and scared of heights!

We were fortunate that this was only a 30-minute queue to wait in, as we had a longer 3 hour wait in the queue for the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel. Josanne really enjoyed seeing Michaelangelo’s work though, especially the fresco of The Creation of Adam. That said, we couldn’t hang about, as thanks to Viator, we only had a short period of time now to get across the city for our tour of the Colosseum.

Some views of inside the Vatican:

Once we made it to the roof, the views were stunning:

There were also, of course, the colourful Swiss guards on show. Given that there are only 135 of them in total, there are 1.48% of them on show in the photos below!

Once finished in the Sistine Chapel (no photos are allowed in there), we had to grab a taxi to the Colosseum as we didn’t have the time to walk or take the underground. Be aware that in Rome, taxi drivers will frequently want cash. As we had none on us, it took us a while to find one who would take us. Once we did though, he got us there pretty swiftly.

The Colosseum was everything that I hoped it would be. However, our tour guide kept us in suspense, as we were first taken around the Roman Forum. This was also very worthwhile from our perspective, as it gave you a great insight into the history of the area. It’s definitely worth spending some time looking around the Forum, especially with a guide. It was hot, and there isn’t much shade around, so a hat and water were essential.

And then it was onto my undoubted highlight of our time in Rome; the Colosseum. It’s something I’ve always wanted to see. When you take the modern-day arena or stadium, no matter the sport that you are watching, this was its predecessor. Built between 72 and 80 AD, it is just over 1,950 years old.

That it is still standing is fortuitous if you believe the folklore that says,

“As long as the Colosseum stands, Rome shall stand; when the Colosseum falls, Rome will fall; when Rome falls, the whole world will fall“.

It’s probably as well that it was built on such solid foundations!

The Colosseum didn’t disappoint. It was all I’d hoped it would be and more. Majestic in appearance, I stood in awe looking at it from the outside but was much more in awe on stepping inside and looking down at the floor then up at the stands. I took the time to stop, to listen, to imagine the cheering crowds who will have witnessed sights that, fortunately, I never will. It’s as stunning a monument as I’ve ever seen.

After only a brief wait in the queue, and the obligatory bag x-ray, we were inside. The tour guide spent around 25 minutes giving us an overview of the history, after which we handed back our headphones and were left to continue exploring on our own. I could have spent the whole day there!

We stayed inside until closing time and I lost track of the number of photos I took. I only had my iPhone with me and not my actual camera, but the photos with just a phone were impressive enough.

We managed to lose each other inside, but as there was only one way out, I hung about and waited for Josanne. The Colosseum closing coincided with Rome’s very large Pride Parade, so it took us quite a long time amidst a plethora of colourful characters in various states of (un)dress, to get back home.

One of the things that I loved about the underground in Rome is that you can just use your credit card to tap on. You did this and it gave you 90 minutes access to it. This was eminently more sensible than queuing to buy tickets, although sadly, I only found this out on the last day!

On finishing our walk home, we were so tired that we just stopped off for a McDonalds, had a shower and an early night to be ready for the next day.

Day 3 – Exploring the lesser-known sights with a Roman Historian

On our last day, we were very fortunate that one of Josanne’s friends, a Roman Historian from Auckland University had said that he’d give us a tour around the city looking at some of the “less famous” but equally interesting sights.

Jeremy met us just after breakfast at the Pantheon and we walked around the city for 3 or 4 hours before stopping for lunch (and a couple of drinks). I only had one Negroni as it was so strong and settled for an Aperol Spritz as my second one.

The queue for the Pantheon was already very long so we didn’t go in. Jeremy noted that one of the best things inside was the floor which gave a great indication of floors from that period.

We next went into the Sant Ignazio of Loyola Church. There were lots of people taking pictures of the frescoes via a mirror in the middle of the church, but that wasn’t why Jeremy had taken us in there.

On walking up to the end of the church and looking up, it appears that you are looking up at the inside of a Dome. But look closer (and you have to look very carefully and get right up underneath it) and you can see that it is actually a fake dome. The artist, Andrea Pozzo, has actually painted it on a flat surface to make it appear as a dome after a fire destroyed the original one.

The other frescoes in the church are also fascinating and give a 3D impression of characters floating upwards.

Next, we headed to the Piazza Colonna, where there is a marble column of Marcus Aurelias (think Russell Crowe in Gladiator and it’s that Marcus Aurelius). The column tells the story of his battles, so provides a very good overview of life in those Roman days.

The Piazza Navoni was next, although we couldn’t really get good photos here as all the fountains were covered up and being worked on. Jeremy noted that you’d get very expensive but poor-quality food here, so we didn’t stop for lunch.

In quick succession, we then took in a quaint old bridge into a newer part of the city (which turned out to be handy as it’s where we picked up our walking food tour later that evening) a couple of temples (one of Portunus, the other of Hercules Victor), the Santa Maria in Cosmedin Church (famous for the Mouth of Truth – I didn’t get a photograph of this – but the floors in the church were also worth seeing as they were typical for that period).

Jeremy then showed us the first known solid building in Rome, as this was one of the digs that he had been on.

The next area we passed was one that I found particularly fascinating, as it was an old Roman theatre, upon which some apartments had been built. They are still inhabited, apparently by a very wealthy (and one assumes powerful) Roman family. We walked past this area a couple of times during our stay, so I’ve attached the various photos I took from both;

By now, we knew we had to start heading back to the hotel to freshen up for our walking dinner that evening, but Jeremy still had time to whisk us past the Victor Emmanuel II Monument (referred to as the wedding cake), the Forum of Caesar, the Santi Luca e Martina church, Trajan’s Market, Trajan’s Column, the Spanish Steps (from a different viewpoint this time), the Piazza del Popolo with its two matching churches (Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto), the Flaminio Obelisk and the Piazza del Campidoglio.

We’d bought Jeremy lunch part way through to thank him for showing us round and I must say, we saw and appreciated so much more from having been shown around by a Historian. He kept apologizing for going into teaching mode, but we loved every minute of it, and it certainly added to our enjoyment of the visit.

Our Walking Food Tour

And so, after yet another quick shower and change of clothes, we were back out for our last outing in Rome – our Walking Food Tour. I can’t remember every course that we had, but we started in a restaurant that had over 2,000 wines on their wine list, had an absolutely delicious cheese board, pizza and limoncello tasting to name but a few.

And with the end of the food tour, our 3 days in Rome was at an end. All we had to do was get back to the hotel, get packed up, have one final sleep and then it was off to Venice for the next three days.

But as I said at the start, we love to walk wherever we are and that brought us the last, pleasant surprise of our trip. Getting to see some of the landmarks in the dark was equally as impressive as during the daylight.

We could easily have spent another couple of days in Rome and kept exploring. But we were on a tight schedule and 3 days was what we could manage with everything else we had to fit in. It was a great adventure. Rome is a very walkable city and we managed to get in the main things that we both wanted to see. Having a tour with a genuine archeologist was a fantastic bonus.

Would I go back?

Absolutely.

And given that we both threw a coin over or shoulder into the Trevi Fountain, I believe that means it’s inevitable!

Useful tips for the traveller

Light comfortable clothes are best in summer, when it is hot and humid.
Don’t be a target for pickpockets – it’s easy to get a bag that you can have in front of you and close to your chest
Try to walk as much as you can – you’ll be amazed and how much more you see. We occasionally used the underground, but only when we had to.
Carry a water bottle with you. There are plenty of refilling points around the city with fresh water from wells.
Expect taxi drivers to ask for cash. They almost seemed upset that we didn’t have any on us.
The skip the queue tours are really worthwhile – especially if you are on a limited amount of time. They aren’t cheap, but it’s better than standing in a queue for 3 hours. If you don’t want to pay extra, be wherever you want to be early as that will limit your waiting time.

Beijing – a Far Eastern delight

September 17, 2018September 18, 2018 by Kevin Blyth, posted in Beijing, China, Great Wall of China, Peking duck, The Forbidden City, The Great Wall, Tiananman Square, Travel

The Great Wall of China was a Bucket List destination that, for me, was sufficiently distant that ticking it off would not be without difficulty. That said, it didn’t stop it from actually being on my List.

As I’ve become older (and I hope, just a little wiser!), I’ve gained an increasing interest in history – something that I was at pains to avoid while at school. Not the sort of history that just involves having your head stuck in a book, but the sort that involves visiting the place that is talked about in the book; about experiencing the history alongside its modern inhabitants; about looking, feeling, touching and tasting the history as it envelops you.

I think that being my wife’s proof-reader while she studied ancient Egyptian history only served to reinforce my interest in what I’ll call “travel history”. It was certainly far more interesting than the business degrees that I’ve had to do to keep me in gainful employment!

Right next to The Great Wall on my list was the Forbidden City, so I had a quinella of an opportunity. This was promptly turned into a trifecta by being able to visit Tiananmen Square, made famous by the student who stopped a column of tanks during the much publicised 1989 protests.

Tiananman Square. I think that there were queues just to queue!

I’m also very fortunate in that my job sometimes takes me overseas. When the opportunity to head to Beijing in August 2018 arose, I knew that I had the ideal opportunity to figuratively get my Bucket List marker pen out of the drawer.

Beijing, a city of over 21 million people, wasn’t quite what I expected. Sure, there are some areas that look and feel fairly communist, but it’s also a real mixture of new and old. Some of the architecture, while not along the same lines as Shanghai, is definitely interesting, undoubtedly drawing off feng-shui.

The old. Side streets close to one of the parks close to the hotel where I stayed

The new. This was the HQ of one of the Chinese TV stations.

Getting there

The only direct flight to Beijing from Auckland is currently with Air China. The flight takes 13 hours, although we were slightly delayed, I assume, due to weather en route. I’d booked my flights to arrive on Friday, so that on Saturday and Sunday I could spend some time fulfilling my travel history chores.

Alas, while the weather had been fabulous in the weeks before I travelled, as I got closer to setting off, I could see changing patterns, to the extent that the Saturday and Sunday were now promising thunderstorms, with Friday being the only decent day, given that I’d be working the following Monday to Friday.

With this in mind, I’d been liaising with the concierge staff at the Conrad Hilton in Beijing to try to arrange something for the Friday. This in itself came with a number of risks and difficulties, not the least of which was that I wasn’t scheduled to land until 4.30am on Friday and the tour would set off sometime between 7-8am.

They booked me on a tour that was available and said that they would cancel it if my plane was delayed. Which it was. Fortunately, it wasn’t delayed sufficiently to prevent me from getting to the hotel, showering, changing and heading off!

About the tour

I’d somehow envisaged that I’d be on a bus tour. I suppose that was the intention of the firm that ran them (I used Gray Line tours www.grayline.com) and I opted for their “seat in bus” tour that they called – rather appropriately I thought – “Bucket Life”. This tour would take in Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Juyongguan section of the Great Wall.

On the day I went there was only myself, a Canadian lawyer filling in a day after a number of meetings before flying back to New York, and an American teacher living in Tokyo, who had flown in for 3 days of sightseeing. Our guide Liu (who insisted that we just call him Leo as that was easier) therefore didn’t have to shout to make himself heard – not least of all because we were in a car rather than a bus.

So just an hour after getting to the hotel, I was cleaned up and heading off out. My mind and body weren’t entirely sure what time of day it was, but I assumed I’d get wakened up by either of my travelling companions to take photos if I fell asleep!

But that wasn’t to be a problem. Much of the tour would be spent walking. And unless I mastered somnambulism, I’d most certainly be awake! Not to mention hot and dripping with sweat in the humid 34C conditions.

Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City

The first part of the tour was the part I thought would be quick and easy. What I hadn’t realised was that Tiananmen Square was 109 acres with the Forbidden Palace being an additional 180 acres on top of that. Leo told us we’d be walking in this area for the first two hours of the tour (it didn’t say this in the description of the tour, so comfy shoes are a must).

We started the tour along with many other thousands of (mainly) Chinese tourists close to the Mausoleum of the still revered Mao Zedong, chairman of the Chinese Communist party from 1945 until he died in 1976. The queues of those wanting to see his final resting place were incredible. Leo told us that we were lucky that we were visiting on Friday rather than Saturday, when they’d have been even longer! We were not going to see Mao, so we spent some time looking around the square (which I believe is the largest in the world), taking in the Monument to the People’s Heroes, Parliament (the Great Hall of the People) the National Flag (guarded by Chinese troops stood rigidly to attention in the 34 C heat), and the National Museum before heading down to Tiananmen which Leo told us literally stood for entry to the square if my mind serves me correctly.

This was the queue to see Mau’s mausoleum. It was thousands deep and stretched from one end of the square to the other.

We had a few photos within the square before using the underpass to get to the entry to Tiananmen, where we would enter the actual Forbidden City.

We were told that the 80,000 tickets for that day had all been sold out by the previous evening. No tickets meant no entry, so it was lucky that we’d been on the tour and not just turning up as solo tourists (so if you do decide to do this on your own, it’s worth bearing in mind – book your tickets in advance – don’t just turn up).

It felt as though all 80,000 ticket holders were setting off at the same time as us. Each of them seemed to have an umbrella (as protection from the sun rather than rain), and I was to be hit in the head on many occasions as we covered the 180 acres during an incredibly hot and humid day.

Tiananman Square and the entrance to the Forbidden City

We set off through Tiananmen, passing into the Forbidden City through the Meridian Gate, across the bridges over the Golden Water, the Gate of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Supreme Harmony – Harmony seems to be an integral part of Chinese culture – the Hall of Middle (you guessed it) Harmony, the bedrooms, and out of the Gate of Heavenly Purity (what? Not Harmony?) via the Imperial Garden. The latter was very small considering the overall size of the site and it was about the only shade afforded during the tour. I guess that as it was only the Emperor and his family who could use the gardens, they didn’t need to be big. Their size and position was also an important part of Feng Shui we were told.

The approach to the Forbidden City entrance

Are you really Chinese if you don’t have an umbrella?

How the brochures probably tell you it looks like inside…..

….versus how it actually looks. 80,000 people is a lot of tourists to get through every day!

It is impressively large inside with virtually no shade.

I did manage to find an area inside where there were no crowds!

It took us the full 2 hours to get through and we were literally soaked in sweat, and in need of a couple of bottles of (cold-ish) water by the end.

From here, we set off to have a traditional Chinese lunch (and an obligatory viewing of a silk quilt making factory (where I bought nothing more than a couple of fridge magnets), but where there seemed to be an expectation that I needed a silk-stuffed duvet to take home, before making our way on to the Great Wall.

The Great Wall

At some 21,000km long, there are plenty of places where you could go to see the Great Wall. The trip I’d chosen was to the Juyongguan section. The booking guide notes that this area literally means “First Pass under the Heavens” and that it was a fortified pass often referred to as the Throat of Beijing. There are many others to choose from, but this one was only around 1.5 hours from Beijing and I neither had the time nor the inclination to sit on transport for any longer than that off the back of a 13-hour flight!

And it was everything I’d expected. On the way, we’d learned that while parts of the wall had been started as long ago as 700BC, most of what we know today as the Great Wall was built around 200BC, predominantly to protect the country from nomadic raids. When used for defence, smoke (during the day) and fire (at night) were used to alert soldiers up and down the wall if raids were being attempted.

I hadn’t anticipated quite how steep some sections of the wall were. They were clearly built on ridge lines to maximise their effectiveness but following contours must have made it exceptionally difficult to build. This area has been well reconstructed, so it’s a good choice for a visit. While it is steep, imposing and stark, it didn’t actually always do the job for which it was intended and in the mid-1600s it was breached by the Qing dynasty who defeated their predecessors, the Mings. But the intention of this isn’t to be a history lesson – just to note that it’s a good section of the wall to visit!

We only had a couple of hours here – long enough to cover a couple of the watch-towers and to get up sufficiently high to take some great photos, showing the extent of the wall in the area. While I consider myself “relatively” fit, I don’t mind admitting that I was sucking in air like the best of them. It’s a steep climb, some of the steps are very large, and if you don’t have a head for heights, looking down could be problematic. That said, it was definitely a worthwhile visit and one that I enjoyed. My legs were definitely a bit stiff the following day though!

A tea ceremony

Our tour finished with a visit to a tea house for a tea ceremony. Not being a huge tea drinker (I like the odd cup of earl grey with milk and sugar – which I suspect would be frowned upon in China), I wasn’t too bothered if we did this piece or not. That said, it was good to see how it is made and to try a number of different teas (slurping was actively encouraged, and it turns out I was a natural at that)! Truth be told, a cold beer ceremony would have gone down exceptionally well after climbing in all that heat!

Getting ready to try 6 different types of tea (all of which were actually quite nice if the truth be told).

And from there, it was straight back to the hotel. Well, when I say straight back, we were now in Beijing rush hour, so it wasn’t the quickest of returns.

About the food….

I often think that I like to travel to where I like the food. The food in China didn’t disappoint! I’ve no idea what some of it was but I had Peking Duck (twice) – which is part food and part theatre to be fair – and Hainan Chicken twice. I think that it’s probably more Singaporean than Chinese. I had it once in the hotel (it was raining heavily and I couldn’t be bothered venturing out that night and it was OK. But I also found a local, cheap restaurant where it was fantastic – and with a beer cost me around NZ$8.

This was the Hainan chicken that cost me around $8. It was much more expensive and not nearly as nice in the hotel, so it’s worth heading out for food.

Peking Duck – part food, part theatre.

I was always well fed at work, with something different being ordered for me every day (although I did have to ask if we could limit it to one course so that I stayed awake in the afternoon!).

A few final points

I had a limited amount of time to do the trip but knew what I wanted to see. Often when travelling, I’ll do my own thing and make my own way, but when time is of the essence, tours really are useful to make sure you see as much as you can in a limited amount of time. While I booked it via the hotel, I could just as easily have done it online. The “Bucket Life” tour did what it said on the tin. I got to see my trifecta of Tiananmen, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall within a day. It cost me CNY560 (so around NZD125) and I thought that was good value for money, especially as it did include lunch. I was expecting to be on a coach full of people for that amount but there were 3 of us plus the driver and guide. You can do it on your own with a driver and guide, but this is much more expensive.

The only other thing I’d say is that if you’re visiting in summer, don’t forget a hat, sun block, sunglasses and water. You’ll also do well to wear comfy trainers (you don’t need any more than that) and I’d have loved a change of t-shirt, given that I was literally dripping with sweat on two separate occasions during the day! Other than that, just enjoy it. If, like me, you’ve just come off a flight and are a bit jet-lagged, the beauty of this trip was that there was so much walking, so you couldn’t possibly fall asleep.

Now, I need to find 3 additional items for my Bucket List (I could have said 4, but a tea ceremony has never actually been on my bucket list!)…….