Sorry for the long radio silence. It has been so busy in our house the whole spring that our anniversary trip to Rome that occoured in February is just this much late from the blog. More about everything that has been going on coming up later...
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| Keep this picture of this mandarin in your mind. There's a real story behind this picture and you will hear that later. |
We never really planned on doing this trip but as in our usual manner it just happened. Our anniversary was coming up and we wanted to do something really nice because of it - like a ski trip, nice dinner or a cruise. Nothing just seemed right. Even though we didn't really have any money we just went to browse some cheap flights in the hope of finding a good deal. We found two destinations with relatively cheap tickets and started to count our pennies if we could actually afford to take a little trip abroad. Eventually the pennies added up and we decided to go for it. A choice between either going to Rome or to Istanbul. It took us many days of thinking and comparing but we still couldn't come up with a resolution - I mean both of them are good choices. The weather and the recent terrorist attacks in Istanbul made us go with Rome. It was still winter in Istanbul and we wanted to get some sun since it was so cold back home. Linnea had been there as a child around that time of the year and I had been only at the railway station with my friends on our interrail so not really too seen city for neither of us. We bought the flights, booked a cheap hotel and started the countdown to our little trip. Only ten days to go.
The day of departure finally came; I still had to work in the morning so we met up at the railway station and took a train to the airport. We first flew to Kiev, Ukraine and from there to Rome. It was getting pretty late on arrival so we headed straight out to find the train. When we got to the train I had a minute of time to buy the ticket before the train would have departed, the machine didn't want to sell me tickets so we just ran for the train. Barely made it. The conductor was nice enough to sell us tickets for the "normal" price, since apparently in Italy if you don't have a ticket already you need to pay 50 euros extra on the train?! That would have killed our budget already on the first night. So remember to buy ahead. After arriving to the railway station we took a little walk towards our hotel and checked-in to our room. The place looked decent for the price so we were satisfied. Time for a well earned sleep.
In the morning we got quite a surprise while eating our breakfast in bed: They had apparently put us in the wrong room and we were told to move to a dorm room that I don't remember booking. I got a bit upset at the lady about it but she stayed very rude towards me. We got online and found another hotel for about the same price and decided to go there. After multiple phone calls I got a refund from the online booking site for the whole thing and even got the lady at the reception to refund me my city tax I paid after arguing with her about it. Thank you and goodbye (I wish but we had to return the next day cause I forgot my phone charger there, an awkward reunion).
Our next hotel was way nicer, what a pleasant surprise. We got a huge room and bathroom, a nice view to the streets and we were right next to the Vatican. Hence being close to the Vatican we decided to take a trip out there. It's a very absurd place, our hotel was located so that we had to walk alongside of the border wall to get to St. Peter's Basilica. A huge wall of which behind high buildings built on a small piece of tax paradise, hiding billions of dollars from the world. We passed by the Basilica, not going inside cause we weren't really too interested about that and the line was accross the whole country (yes, funny, the Vatican is a country).
We started to wander around the city, just admiring it's beauty and hours just passed by without us even noticing it. Accidentally we arrived at Trevi, the famous fountain seen in every picture about Rome. After escaping the mass tourism at the fountain we bumped into this nice homeless guy with a sweet dog. He barely spoke any English but we still managed to talk with him a bit. He made Linnea a beautiful bouquet of flowers from balloons - street art, you gotta love it.
It started to get late so it was time to swing by the hotel and find a good place to eat. Our hotel manager (the nicest guy in Rome!) recommended us a local place which served nice cheap food. I had some lamb and Linnea a seafood pasta. Delicious honest food (and some good white wine), what more do you need?
The next day was kind of a special day, our first anniversary day. This was the day Linnea came to see me in Albania exactly one year earlier. More about that later too.
So, you can't go to Rome without visiting the Colosseum so off we went. Our legs still being a bit soar from yesterdays walking we decided to take the metro. The Colosseum is a very impressive building, being built such a long time ago with manual labour. There was just one thing really bothering me, the quality of the reconstruction. Horrible! You can see where it's been rebuilt and what is actually old from a million miles away. The tiles are different colour and style which makes it look very fake. A real shame for a monument with such historical value.
Yet again we found ourselves wandering around the little streets of Rome having absolutely no clue which direction we were going. This is typical in the city since all the little streets get you lost very quickly (so Italian). Luckily while being lost we found a little pizzeria and we gave it a shot (the good thing about Italy is that you are always allowed to eat pizza and not even feel shame for missing the traditional kitchen like you would somewhere in Asia). Good pizza for a good price! Worth it.
And after lunch comes desert so it was time to hunt for some. I googled the best gelateria (ice cream) in Rome and we started walking. We arrived there only to find out it was closed! What a bummer. I googled again and we headed out to the second best gelateria in town. Amazing! The gelato was so perfect there are no words for it. This left me wondering though how good the best one would have been... Right in the neighbourhood we found a lot of small and very cheap restaurants so we started looking for a nice one to have dinner at. We got it narrowed down to a few candidates and decided to make a choice when the hunger would hit us.
Time to eat! We picked a nice reataurant with a beautiful terrace. We only paid like 12 euros for three courses and a wine. Not bad! And the food was very good. It was late but we still wanted to walk back to the hotel. Rome is a safe city to walk at night and you can really feel it. Many other big cities at night feel a bit unsafe but Rome makes a perfect exception.
On our way back we passed the Vatican and I was pretty shocked and upset. Dozens and dozens of homeless people sleeping around the pilars of the Vatican since they shut down the city at night. It's a bit upsetting since the church always talks about helping eachother and providing for the poor. But here these people are sleeping, on the cold ground, covered literally in carbage bags and cardboard boxes, locked out from the riches within the church while cardinals and the Pope are having a luxury meal and a comfy sleep.
On our last full day we decided to ease it up a bit. We already walked around the city for two days so time to chill a bit. We wanted to go somewhere where we could enjoy views over the city. After googling around a bit I found this fancy hotel with a roof terrace and views over the city, a little further from the Spanish steps. We went to check it out (I don't think the doorman in the lobby took us too seriously since we looked nothing like the regular customers) and the view was just incredible! The hotel wasn't that high but it was located on top of a hill which made it look taller. The prices were pretty incredible too. Neither of us have ever paid so much for a coffee and a coke. But we thought about it like we are paying for the views and not the drinks.
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| Our lazy day wasn't quite this lazy. |
Somehow we found ourselves being at the Colosseum - again - but this time with some jummy pizza. Along the way we stopped in this one little pizzeria which make local Roma pizza. It's pizza but with a lot thicker crust than a normal pizza and it tastes heavenly (well, hey, pizza). So there we were, just sitting by the colosseum and enjoyin our time and the heat of the sun before having to leave back to wintery cold Finland.
I don't know how many hours passed but we woke up to reality that evening was starting to fall and it was time to say goodbye to our little winter getaway. We headed back and prepared ourselves for an early morning wake up to head back home.
TTYS,
Arno
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