We arrived an hour late at Fiumicino, Rome and managed to find the bus station, where we boarded a Schiaiffini bus (return 12 Euro). The weather was fine and we enjoyed our first glimpses of this great city and especially seeing the River Tiber was very exciting. An hour later we were dropped off at the Termini Station. We managed to orientate ourselves and started walking towards our accommodation, Aria B&B in the Via Nino Bixio. Fortunately the drop off point for the bus was more or less in the middle of the huge station complex and this shortened our walk a bit. We did manage to carry and drag our luggage, but it was not easy, because the road had several obstructions and the pavement was quite narrow at times. When we finally got to the Via Bixio we got a fright because there was no Aria B&B. But after some careful looking and asking some locals, we stood in front of a huge imposing door and thankfully we saw Aria as one of the name plates. We rang the bell and sure enough the door opened and we entered a huge and rather grand entrance hall with an ancient cage lift (like the one in the old Edward Hotel) and the stairs were lofty and grand too. There were various businesses and even another B&B housed in the building. We were on the second floor. A young oriental looking young lady welcomed us and we used the antique lift. They were expecting us and we could leave our luggage with them (as pre arranged) until 14h00 when we could check in. We were rather tired, but set off to the Termini to buy the Rome card. We settled for the 3 day card with transport and some museums included. We were glad that we did not pre buy the card on line. It would have cost us a lot more! Now we took the underground to the Colosseum. When we emerged above ground, the sight of the impressive ancient structure, but also the immense crowds greeted us. We landed up in the crowd and wondered how we were going to get inside the Colosseum. The queues were endless and the atmosphere was hectic. A pretty blonde student approached us and suggested we go on a tour to avoid the long queues. We decided to go for it, despite the cost (cannot remember how much, but around 30 Euro!). We were assigned a lady guide and after some more confusion we are led into the Colosseum. We each get earphones with a transmitter (reminded me of my ship tours!). It really was an awesome place and despite the crazy crowds, one cannot but be impressed by the ancient arena. Our guide gave some good information, but it was not easy to stay together. When she has done her tour, we were instructed to wait at an exit to meet our next guide. Somehow we missed the follow up tour, but we could join the next one. The Roman Forum was also a very exciting place and after following our guide, we were now free to stay and explore by ourselves. And there was lots to explore. Almost too much to take in. One could only marvel at the abilities of the ancient Romans to build on such a vast scale more than 2000 years ago. And of course their influence on architecture was such that, because we are all so familiar with classical buildings, it did not feel so old. The light was generally good and we took lots and lots of pictures, me with my new Huawei and Stephen with his little Canon. We were exhausted, but we kept on exploring. We were getting worried about our luggage at Aria B&B. We had planned to get back by lunch time, but now it is was already 18h00. We took the Metro back to Termini main station and had a look at a few restaurants at the station complex, but they were all very fancy and catered for tourists, so were far too expensive. We decided to try and find a local place and went down a back street towards Aria. We landed up in the Indian quarter. This doid not appeal and we were really now getting desperate. At the corner from Aria, we saw a little local place and they had very reasonable pasta. We sat down with great relief and enjoyed a lovely meal. We also discovered that we would be having our breakfast here tomorrow morning and arranged for plain croissants. Now it was time to “clock in”. Someone happened to enter the big door as we got there and we snuck in too. Upstairs the owners were waiting for us. They were getting very concerned. Our luggage was already in our room. We were pleasantly surprised with our room. It was spacious and very neat and the en suite was also very decent. This was a great relief. By now we were really tired and Stephen’s leg was aching. But we were very happy to be in Rome and to have seen one of the great structures of antiquity!

Geschreven door Leartravels