Hi Guys,
As you maybe have seen on my instagram I’m back from a trip to Rome. Let me guide you through my days to give you some tips & tricks about this amazing city.
Day 1 – 31th of May
Our adventure began very early at 5.00 AM! We left to catch our flight in Brussels. We flew with Brussels Airlines & paid €153,26 each with hand luggage & a suitcase. Our flight left at 7.30 AM & we arrived at 9.30 AM in Rome. We landed on Leonardo Da Vinci airport (Fiumicino) & from there we had to get to Central Rome. You have different option to get there, by train, bus, taxi, …
We were in doubt about 2 options train or bus…? The bus costs €6 each person & took about 1 hour to get to Rome Termini. We took the quicker but more expensive option; the train. 30 minutes later & €14 poorer we arrived in Rome Termini.
First things first so we walked to our hotel which was a 15min walk from the railway station. 15 minutes doesn’t seem that long but with the bad state of the streets & sidewalks it took me forever with my luggage to arrive to the hotel. 😂
We arrived in our hotel ‘Smooth hotels Rome Termini’ that we booked through Secret Escapes. My experience with Secret Escapes will be online soon in another blogpost.
While we were waiting for our room we totally got into vacation mode with the delicious cocktails we ordered. In smooth hotels Rome Termini you get some appetizers with your order; going from some chips to bruschetta’s with different toppings.
After this delicious treat it was time to go to our room. As you can see for yourself it was a standard room with a dubbel bed & an open bathroom. We had enough space to put everything & the beds were really good! The only thing I found less interesting was that the bathroom had no door. When I got up early in the morning to take a shower my boyfriend was also awake because of the light & the noice of the shower. The hotel also offers you a smartphone you can use during your whole trip. It has free internet, audioguides (to pay), …
After discovering our room we ate a quick lunch at our hotel. They had a special ‘welcome menu’ for the first day of their guests. We paid €12 each for a first or second course & a soda or water.
Time to discover the city! We just started walking in the direction of the Spanish Steps & let the city surprise us along the way with their buildings/statues/fountains/…
We didn’t walk all the way down to be at the bottom of the Spanish steps but took a street next to it so we ended up on top of the Spanish steps. In that case we could walk them down & continue our journey.
Next stop was Piazza del Popolo, not far from the Spanish Steps. We were super intrigued by the steps who led to Terazza del Pincio. Terazza del Pincio gives you an amazing view over Rome en Piazza del Popolo.
When we were on Terrazza del Pincio we saw a park, from Villa Borghese, behind us & decided to check this out! While walking we saw different electric vehicles & go carts. We thought it would be fun to do that so our search started to these electric vehicles & so we found them. This was soooo much fun! (Thanks Jana Verstraete for this tip! Make sure to check out er youtube channel & blog on http://www.janaverstraete.com)
My boyfriend & I have this thing when we are on a holiday & that is going to The Hard Rock Café (if there is one of course😉). Because The Hard Rock Cafe of Rome is close to the park we were in, we decided to do this on our first evening. (I know, we should be ashamed not to eat Italian food on our first night! 🙈)
Day 1 was already perfect, we couldn’t wait for the other days!
Day 2 – 1st of June
Good morning peeps, time for our 2nd day in Rome! First of all we went to the hotel restaurant for our breakfast 🥐. I must say, for Italian people it is quite a nice breakfast! You have different options to eat, drink, … Even for people with allergies (which is sometimes hard to find). They also have an extra menu with other options than the buffet breakfast if you want. (Not included of course so you have to pay for these other options.)
With a well-filled stomach we started our second day with the first thing on the agenda; The Trevi Fountain! We went early (9AM) in the morning so there would be less people than in the afternoon.
The staff of the hotel recommended us to see the fountain twice, once during the day & once by night. I must say, I was not that impressed by night because the fountain wasn’t beautifully lit. I imagined little romantic spots everywhere that showed the details of the fountain.
After a 10 min walk from The Trevi Fountain we came across The Pantheon. It is a real beauty to see & wauw the dome from the inside is amazing.The entrance is free & I recommend to visit it during hot days because it is a nice way to cool down 🙃.
A couple of blocks further we bumped into Piazza Navona. You have a lot to look at here, a beautiful church, 3 fountains & it’s the perfect spot to rest a little bit. They are many restaurants to choose from if you want to drink or eat something. Or you can do like us, search the nearest supermarket & buy some chips & drinks there & go back to the square to picnic. 🍹
Time to head out for lunch, before we left for Rome I checked Jana Verstraete her vlog about Rome & got some tips on where to eat. So we took a restaurant she recommended; Virginiae! (Fun fact, the owner if this restaurant speaks dutch!)
We both took a spaghetti carbonara, first Italian meal of our trip & it was delicious! 😉
After our lunch we started walking & walking & let the city guides us to beautiful places. We discovered the little streets of Rome for a while & then we decided to go back to the hotel to freshen up & escape the heat.
During our walk back to the hotel we stopped for our first ice cream; we bought one at Gelateria La Romana! We realized we were super lucky we didn’t have to wait so long for our ice cream. Because when we walked by all the other days after there was a huge waiting line. This gelateria is just out the city centre but really worth a visit!
All dressed up, we were ready for dinner! While we were walking to the restaurant we crossed Palazzo del Quirinale & an intersection with on every corner a cute fountain.
It was time for PIZZA 🍕, so l’archetto was the place to be according to Jana (IG: Janaverstraete) & Manon (IG: Mannievdw). I must say, they were right! The pizza was super delicious pizza & not expensive at all. The restaurant was located in a small street which made it more romantic by night when the lights of the restaurant went on. Tired but satisfied we crawled into our bed ready for the next day!
Day 3 – 2nd of June
Our 3th day didn’t start that great! 😔 My boyfriend felt sick when he woke up. But with the idea that it would go better we went into town after breakfast. We went back to the railway station & started walking the little streets there what led us to a park next to the colosseum. This was not the plan because the district around the Colosseum was planned on day 5. 🙈
Is Rome this small or are we too fast?! 🤔😅
My boyfriend wasn’t getting any better so we decided to take it easy & look for a nice place to drink something. For someone who didn’t feel that great, he had no problem with drinking this large beer. 😅
It was also the national holiday so there were people EVERYWHERE! It was way too crowded for us so around noon, after lunch, we went back to the hotel to sleep it off.
We were really in doubt what to eat; in the hotel, maybe fastfood, … I eventually searched the nearest restaurant on trip advisor with good reviews so we ended up at Caffe Piave.
Unfortunately this is already the end of our 3th day.
Day 4 – 3th of June
We brought out the catholic in us! On our 4th day we planned a visit to Vatican City. We bought tickets in advance for the Vatican museum & St. Peter’s Basilica. Normally the entrance of both things is free but if you chose to visite it for free you have to keep in mind there is a queue of around 2-4 hours for a free entrance. We arrived at 8.30 AM & our time slot to enter the museum was at 9 AM. The square was super empty, really nice to experience this. Btw, we took the underground to get here because we didn’t how long it would take us to get here by foot & we had to be on time for our entrance slot.
After visiting the Vatican museum the square wasn’t this empty anymore. Everywhere people who were waiting in line to get access to the St. Peter’s Baslica. Luckily for us, we had also skip the line tickets, we couldn’t imagine waiting in the lines that we saw. You had to be crazy!
After a quick lunch it was time for St. Peter’s Basilica; WAUW, this is just WAUW! I was super impressed how big this was & how this building was built.
Voila, we can also check this from our bucket list. Time to go back to Rome center. This time by foot, because we had all the time in the world. Again Jana gave me this tip about super delicious ice cream & there was one this side of the river so we went for ICE CREAM in Gelateria Dei Gracchi ! 🍦
After this super delicious ice cream we searched our way back to Rome center & came across this amazing place; Palace of Justice! Why we found this amazing? Because it was quite, it had a little park in front of the building with palmtrees & it was sooo quite. (whoops already said that!)
Because Rome is super busy & has barely some quite places where you can escape the people this was our spot! We needed to clear our head & we just lay down on the grass. The wind blew through the palm trees, the sound of the running water from the fountain; this was perfect!
After a 15min nap under the palm tree we continued our journey & walked to the Castel Sant’Angelo & Ponte Sant’Angelo. You have, in my opinion, an amazing view over St. Peter’s Basilica. I think this must be a magical view at night with all these lights.
We weren’t that hungry that evening so we went for a burger/fastfood restaurant; The Good Burger. And I must say it didn’t disappoint. A burger is always a good idea, don’t you think? 😉
& this brought us to the end of day 4!
Day 5 – 4th of June
Second last day it is! 😔 That day, this time planned 😉, we visited the Colosseum, Forum Romanum & Palentine Hill. This was the hottest day ever! We were already melting at 9.30 AM while waiting in line for the Colosseum. We bought tickets with an audioguide to know everything about the colosseum. Because we were too early to enter the Colosseum we check out a perfect instagrammable photo spot near the colosseum & took a lot of picture to kill the time. (Not that I was complaining about it tho 😉.)
After the colosseum we visited the Forum Romanum, this was included in our ticket from the Colosseum. This is a big park with lots of Ruins from how Rome really was. But because it was super hot we had to stop every time we found a bench or tree to rest. 😅
Despite the heat it didn’t stop us to go all the way up to Palentine Hill. After many stairs & slopes we had this amazing view!
We started to get hungry after all that walking so we searched for a nice restaurant in the neighborhood. & we found this nice tapas restaurant; 100 Montaditos where you could choose so many things! From little sandwiches, patatas bravas, fish & chips, chicken fingers, … & not expensive at all!
Next up was something I was really looking forward to! In my opinion the most impressive, beautiful building of Rome; Altare della Patria or Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II. Inside is a museum & you can go all the way to the top where you have an amazing view over Rome! Must do if you are in Rome!!
The day went by so fast we almost forgot it was our last night in Rome. We rushed to Terrazza del Pincio to enjoy the sunset from a higher place. It was super romantic to end our last night here!
Day 6 – 5th of June
7 AM; High on life! Yes we were so crazy we got up really early on our last day to visit The Trevi fountain for one last time. I wanted pictures from us with no-one in it! 🙈 (& I got them 😉)
We arrived at The Trevi Fountain & no joke, but you couldn’t get near the fountain because they were filming ‘Christmas In Rome’ with Lacey Chabert & Sam Page! Luckily it didn’t took long so the moment they let the people near the fountain our photoshoot started. I’m super happy with the result!
We hadn’t planned anything else that day so went back to the hotel where we ended our trip the same way we started them, with cocktails on the terrace! We talked about our trip, our opinions, what we saw, what happend & what we have done. It was a trip I will never forget & I can recommend to visit Rome as well! Just make sure to do it before June or After September otherwise it will be TOO DAMN HOT!
I hope you liked my blogpost & you got some tips from it! Let me know in the comments if you are planning of visiting Rome! You can find all these places on my page on the app ‘Mapstr’, just add me ‘Paulien Strobbe’.
XoXo
Paulie
Life With Paulie 