"A big city of 1st centuary still exists!"
Written on : 12-December-2016
Visted During : November 2016
Some more Information
One important information before getting into details - Wear dresses below knee length if you wish to enter the cathedrals.(Applicable for both boys and girls.)
You need atleast 2 days to even cover the major places of Rome. One day in Rome can not do justice. But, all my explanation below is based on my visit to Rome for just one day. I would say, my visit to Rome was incomplete. But, since I had gone via Holiday team, I had least control over my itinerary. If you are planning the holiday yourselves and want to enjoy and visit all major places, a minimum of 2 days is suggested for Rome.
Colosseum will be the main reason why you would be visiting Rome and hence I will not stress over visiting this place. However, my experience about Colosseum is given in the below section. The other main attraction of the city is the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica. If you wish to visit these 2 places, keep aside at least half a day. Also, be warned of extremly long queues to enter the Basilica. On the day of our visit, the queue was as long as it would have taken 2.5 hours to enter. So, we did not make it to this place. So, I have no clue of what is that I have missed.
Irrespective of whether you visit St.Peter's Basilica or not, do enter the Vatican city. On visiting the Vatican city, logically you have visited one more country even though in real you do not feel you did! All the souvenirs you buy related to the Vatican are extremly costly as this place is one of the most sacred ones for Christian community.
Rome is pretty well connected via Trams, Buses and Metro. So, for the ones planning your holidays on your own, booking a room in outskirts of the city is not a problem since reaching city center is not a tough job here.
With all these being said, my suggession to any travellers is - If you like visiting a heritage place and like to spend sometime knowing about the place then plan your visit to Rome on your own so that you get ample time to visit all the locations. Many of the places in Europe are not so friendly to your pocket to plan your travel inside the city on your own. But, Rome is.!
My Experience and Opinion
Rome will forever be a very special place to me for one big reason. Rome is the place where I got my "Arrival" stamp in Passport for the first time. Rome is the first place from another country than mine where I first kept my step. I was amazed, awestruck, and thrilled. Yes, no exaggeration here when I say i was thrilled. I have seen places like Hampi, Delhi, Agra etc which are capitals of Indian Heritage. But, I was amazed looking at the way ancient buildings were maintained, and how Romans feel proud about their history.
It is totally a different feeling when you know that you are walking in streets that were build during Roman era! Those roads are built using small stones and even today they are intact.
Colosseum of Rome
When I travel to any place, I do not study much about the place. My belief is, I may not be able to appreciate it completly if I study everthing. But, I do have a habbit of reading about the place after coming back. Colosseum is one place which I was eager to read about once I visited. The history of Colosseum speaks a lot and no wonder it is one of the contender for 7 wonders every time.
The Colosseum is too vast to imagine it just with the memories of any other amphitheatre we see! The Colosseum has seen centuries of rain, cold and heat yet has stood strong. But, Colosseum failed to stand strong against earth quake. Only half of the Colosseum is proper now. That half leaves you in the imagination of how big, majestic and beautiful the amphitheatre might have been!
You might spend an entire day in Colosseum if you are someone who is enthusiastic in understanding and learning history when you visit any place. There are enough things which might leave you curious when even after coming back. One of them is when you see a showcase with bones of animals and one of the bones is of Asian tigers! Yes, way back in 1st and 2nd century itself they had animals brought from various parts of the world and it is still unknown how did they bring those animals all the way from different continents. This one thing left me so curious and I still do not have a concrete answer of how did they carry tigers from India/ other countries of Asia way back then.
Colosseum definitely is majestic and beautiful. I would list it in one of the must visits in life.
The Spanish steps
Spanish steps is one of the places which is ranked high in the list of places to visit in Rome. The end of spanish steps has a cathedral and also the spanish steps is known for the shopping options it gives to the tourists.
The Roman Forum
The ruins of Roman forum is dated back to the dates of Julius Caesar and speaks a lot about the early roman kingdom and their culture. The temples, the piller, the palace, streets everthing look weathered, damaged yet look majestic. Look for the photo in Photos section below.
Rome - The city
Rome as a city is a very beautiful and neatly maintained, well connected one. However, it is said to have a lot of traffic during peak hours. But, Metros and trams help the city to beat traffic. Both Metro and Trams cost you 1.3 Euros irrespective of the distance you travel. So, they are pocket friendly too. I have personnally travelled in public vehicle and I felt reaching any place is not difficult deal provided you have a map with you. Since we did not have google maps, we went back to basics of using paper map. Enjoyed tracing the route in a paper map after a long time. At some places, there are Indian restaurants and all other kind of restaurants. Finding a restaurant of your choice is not tough here. The city is very vast and just the city center (The old city) itself is so vast that it is not possible to cover by walk unlike other cities in italy where are major monuments are in walkable distance.
The Vatican city
Vatican city is considered to be the tiniest country. I am not sure if I should call it a city or a part of a city. For me, Vatican city is just a part of Rome city. But, Vatican city is one of the reason why visit to Rome becomes worthier. The St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museum everything look fabulous. However, I do not have first hand information about the inner structure of these since I could not visit and did not want to spend an entire afternoon standing in the queue. For people who do not want to stand in queue but still want to see, you have an option to spend 45Euros/head which gives you a guide + direct entry to Basilica + direct entry to Museum.
Photos
Colosseum from outside
Colosseum from inside!
Colosseum and we
The Roman Forum
Piazza-del-Campidoglio entrance
Piazza-del-Campidoglio Square
St. Peters Basilica Facade
Hundreds of doors and Windows in Colosseum
Our breakfast in Rome.
A bird in Piazza-del-Campidoglio
