Welcome back to “When Wine Calls” as we travel historical, romantic and enchanting Italy.
Following out train trip from Bologna (about 2 ½ hours) we arrived at Roma Termini on our next leg of our adventure. As expected, the terminal was chaotic as we made our way to the taxi rank where we stood in the Rome heat in a queue for about 45 minutes watching all the taxi drivers who didn’t want to wait their turn to get to the head of the rank attempt to hawk their services to travellers getting frustrated waiting in the queue – watching the fun with all the honking and yelling actuallyhelped pass the time for us in the heat.
We eventually made it to our hotel located, like in Bologna, down a cobbled street laneway with only a small entranceway to signify that it was in fact a hotel. However, on entering through the big front doors we emerged into this lovely open air Italian courtyard and knew we would fall in love with this hotel over the next four nights. Our room had large windows complete with louvres opening out onto the garden courtyard below.
On normal days the courtyard is set up for breakfast but due to the extreme heat while we were there, we only got to eat there on the last morning which was a shame as it was a very relaxing area.
The hotel was located very close to the Ponte Sisto bridge which was built in 1479 and is the access way to the Trastevere District which is a real Bohemian area with fantastic piazzas, bars, and street music.
We spent each night in this district frequenting different bars, restaurants and walking the numerous tiny laneways full of graffiti but with so much atmosphere.
On the night of our food tour as we were walking back to our hotel, we heard music coming from one of the piazzas with a large crowd, so we went over to investigate and the next thing we were dancing with the crowd and having a fantastic time to end the evening.
On another night as we were walking over the Ponte Sisto, we saw along the riverbank of the River Tiber (Fiume Tevere to Italians) a long row of temporary restaurants and bars set up for summer. We headed down there and amongst the bars etc were rows of “football playing game” units that were being used by all ages reflecting how passionate they are with football in this part of the world. In Italy we have discovered that you never know what is around the next corner, but it is always unique and fantastic to embrace.
I mentioned in the blog on our Bologna adventure that we had arranged a food tour which we did not enjoy at all, and we were questioning whether we would proceed with the food tour we had booked in Rome. In the end we decided to go ahead, and we were so glad we did.
The tour comprised of about twelve people, and we were taken to numerous restaurants throughout the Trastevere district and tasted some amazing food with plentiful amounts of wine ending with gelato, of course. It was in such contrast to our Bologna experience and provided us the opportunity to become familiar with this wonderful area and we returned there each night trying out new bars and restaurants.
On the topic of gelato we were fortunate to have a gelato shop located straight across from our hotel which we frequented on many occasions during our stay. For those interested I had no idea that it was there until we arrived at the hotel but I was certainly excited when it came into view although Pauline doesn’t believe me and thinks I researched it prior to booking the hotel.
The next day we had organised another free walking tour which took in the famous sites such as the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona, Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, the Arch of Titan (built in c. AD81) and the Sala del Mappamondo building in the Piazza Venezia encompassing the balcony that Mussolini provided his most famous addresses including the declaration of the Italian Empire in 1936.
We have found these free walking tours great for getting to know specific areas of a city and are conducted generally by local university students who are passionate about their city and want to share it with you. At the end of the tour, you decide how much to give them as a thank you and they receive a proportion after payment to the booking company with the funds they receive usually going to assist them with their studies. We have booked these walking tours in many of the cities we are visiting on this adventure as we find out interesting facts about the city from local students from their perspective rather than from the tour books as well as seeing, not only the landmark sites, but areas tucked away that you would not usually find which we inevitably go back to and explore again the next day – if you are travelling through Europe try out these free walking tours and see what you think.
While in Rome we deliberately decided not to encompass visits to all of the significant highlights throughout this fabulous city leaving places such as Vatican City and some landmark Museums off our list. We had toured these places extensively the last time we were here and with the summer crowds we would not have been able to enjoy the experience anyway.
However, we did want to go back to the Colosseum and our research found a tour that explored the Coliseum Underground and was a “skip the line” tour which also encompassed The Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and the Arches’ of Septimius Severus (203 AD) and Constantine (312 AD).
It was just as well we had booked this tour as the queue to visit these areas was unbelievable, with people lining up for hours in the 40-degree heat.
The one part of the tour we hadn’t read in the fine print was that the tour was over 3 hours with two of those hours in the open air in the scorching sun. It was a relief when we got to the underground section of the tour and could walk around the tunnels and channels which were the remnants of when the gladiators, lions and orther animals used to enter the stadium via timber lifts to the timber stage floor.
In essence it was the backstage to the arena in modern terms and what a great experience it was see first-hand the underfloor mechanics of the Coliseum and then go and stand on the replica of the stadium floor itself and embrace yourself in this magnificent amphitheatre but without sharing it with the large crowds that were in the upper tiers – a truly memorable experience.
The first three days in the heat eventually took there toll and so on the last day we went out for a stroll along the river in the morning crossing the St Angelo Bridge to the Castel Saint Angelo, a 2nd century castle & museum with Vatican City and St Peter’s Basilica as a backdrop. The museum was closed on Monday’s, so we headed for a restaurant with a water spray fan for lunch and then back to the hotel for a rest during siesta time in the air conditioning.
When dinner time rolled around the temperature gauge had hardly moved and it was so hard to find a cool spot so we headed for one of the bars along the river and drank Aperol Spritz’s to keep our fluid’s up – the drink of Italy, at least in the summer, then back to the hotel as we had an early wakeup call in the morning for our train journey to Bari. In Bari we are expecting that the temperature, while still hot in the mid 30’s should be a touch cooler being on the coast, than Rome, we hope so at least.
While we had been to Rome previously it is such a great city with so much unique and ancient history that, even to this day, continues to be uncovered from the depths of the flooded river plain the city was founded on. The locals are very welcoming, and you can share a lot of fun with them despite some language issues at time. Yes, it is a crowded city at this time of year but only if you want to visit all the landmark locations without pre-booking but for us, we had a great time exploring the city down its narrow laneways, quaint food places, bars, shops and deli’s and loved every bit of it without the hassle of the crowds in most places. The biggest issue we found walking around Rome was trying to cross the roads at pedestrian crossings wondering whether the drivers will stop or simply drive straight through – ah Rome, road rules are practically non-existent here but that is part of its charm.
We are currently travelling on another of Italy’s high-speed trains travelling from Rome over the to the east coast town of Bari which is the steppingstone to our adventure through the Puglia region (commonly referred to as the heel of Italy). As we travel across the country we have been talking to some fellow travellers sitting next to us from Seattle and really enjoying hearing about their travels – it is one of the great delights in travelling to have the opportunity to run into other like-minded travellers and share stories about our adventures.
So, until somewhere in Puglia, “Arrivederci” and we will catch you soon.
Bruce & Pauline
When Wine Calls 
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