Rome - Day 2 🇮🇹

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Buongiorno! With a busy day ahead of us we were awake at a reasonably early hour, if not the crack of dawn then perhaps the cleft?

Breakfast was the first thing in our agenda - always the highlight of a hotel stay if it’s included in the price. Sadly though it was more of a restaurant-style setup rather than a pile ‘em high buffet and so I felt socially unable to request my usual plate of ‘one of everything, plus a few spares’. Still, the apricot croissant and orange juice went down very well and we were off and on our way to the always bustling Roma-Termini station.

Today we were riding on the ‘B’ Metro line south to Colosseo. As with seemingly all trains passing through Termini it was a tight squeeze and standing room only for the journey and we were glad to be released from the train and into a cool Rome morning. Colosseo station certainly isn’t messing around when it comes to the primary reason that most visitors would exit here as the second we left the building we were face-to-face with the magnificent Colosseum. I think only Cologne-Hauptbahnhof compares for smashing you in the face with the main tourist attraction the moment you exit the station.

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Despite it being a weekday morning in February the hordes were out in full force. Thankfully we had pre-booked tickets and as such were able to enter in time for the 9am window we’d selected in advance. In a masterpiece of inefficiency we had no less than three seemingly identical ticket checks to make our way through, the last of which temporarily left me stranded when the ticket reader being used by the member of staff glitched out after Ellie had already passed through. After tens of people had streamed past me in the other lines I decided to abandon ship and try the next chap along, only for his reader to also fail. By this time the original lady I’d got stuck with was back in action so I asked very nicely if she’d mind letting me through as I was the one who’d been stuck in front of her moments ago, only to be met with a curt ‘back of the line please, sir’.

A few deep breaths later I rejoined the line and was eventually granted passage. Initially we found ourselves exploring the interior of the building, with plenty of artefacts and fun facts to keep us amused. I particularly enjoyed that the Colosseum floor was originally fitted with trap doors so gladiators and animals alike could be raised upwards to the surprise of the audience (‘this week Maximus will be fighting…a lion!’), and that other times it was used for the staging full scale naval ‘battles’ for the amusement of the Roman crowds. If you were a powerful Senator or dignitary you could get your name carved in a special marble seat, which would then be chipped off in the event of your death. I’d like to introduce this at Carrow Road, please.

After wandering through the exhibits on the inside of the building we eventually found our way out into the main arena, which looked very impressive even in the overcast conditions. We were given the opportunity to view it from all heights and angles, which caused the cynic in me to query just how many of the bricks I was seeing were authentically ‘Roman’ - there seemed to be quite a few that had been crafted by more modern techniques than those at the time would have had access to, although I’m sure the defence would be that the Colosseum would be a lot more horizontal without their intervention.

Once we had had our fill of all things gladiatorial, we utilised the fact that our tickets also gave us access to the nearby Palatine Hill and Roman Forum. There were more ancient ruins here than you could shake a stick at, mixed in with more modern gardens and orange groves, and we spent a happy couple of hours feeling like a couple of regular Indiana Jones, if Indy had spent his adventures surrounded by bored-looking school groups.

History achieved, it was time for lunch. The internet recommended the Monti neighbourhood as a good place to find a bite to eat. We’d quickly established the theory that once people were no longer aggressively heckling you to come inside their restaurant, we were likely to be outside of the more ‘touristy’ areas of the city and therefore more likely to get a nicer and cheaper meal. Thankfully we were proved to be correct, with the small cafe we found providing a delicious Bomboletti pasta, a lasagna, a beer and an Aperol Spritz for only €27 total. The number of Italians amongst the customers was another sign we’d chosen well.

As it had been at least an hour since we’d exposed ourselves to some history, it was back on our feet and on our way to the Victor Emmanuel II monument (he was the second king of Italy, don’t you know), a grand white edifice surrounded by a variety of statues, some of which appeared to tell the tale of Romulus and Remus, the legend of which tells the story of the foundation of Rome. I attempted to reach back the best part of 25 years to when I’d learned this myth at school and treated Ellie to an extremely garbled version which mainly focused on why they featured on AS Roma’s badge.

From there we headed round to the former site of the Circus Maximus. This took us past a building with the intriguing label of ‘The Mouth of Truth’, which sounded very Lord of the Rings to me. There was also another building with a prominent carved inscription dedicated to Mussolini. Interesting decision to have kept that. This, coupled with one of the plaques back at the Colosseum that was definitely written with a pro-Mussolini slant was a sobering reminder why Lazio, as one of two football clubs in the city, has a support base that is still openly fascist in the year 2026. Thank goodness we don’t go quite that far in the UK. Although which club do you think would ultimately end up worshipping a right-wing despot and why is it clearly West Ham?

Back to more ancient pastimes, the circus was in fact mainly the site of all things chariot racing in Rome, albeit far less well preserved than the Colosseum. Still, it was clear to see where the chariot track and stands would have been, and we had a lovely old time clip clopping about on our way to the Circo Massimo metro station and then on to our hotel for a much-needed rest.

Excitingly, this trip to Italy has pushed us up to visiting 15 European counties together, that’s exactly one third of the continent! We’ll boost this up to 16 tomorrow by journeying within Rome to the Vatican City, AKA the world’s smallest nation. Normally I have a rule that in order for a visit to count we have to spend at least one night in that country, but as the Pope’s home is so small there aren’t any accommodations available and I’ve needed to adjust my self-imposed rules accordingly - to my own amusement I have named this allowance ‘Invoking the Papal Exception’, which sounds suitably Vatican if nothing else.

After spending a few hours letting our feet cool down, it was back onto the capital’s streets for another excursion. We’d been recommended the Trastevere neighbourhood by numerous sources as an excellent location for dinner. So even though it was a bit of a trek, we wanted to give it a go. We had the now familiar walk to Termini station, which although less crowded did cause Ellie a few issues at the ticket barriers when her gate only opened at a width narrower than any human could pass through. Thankfully she showed some quick thinking and managed to hop through another gate behind someone else without attracting the attention of the Polizei.

We found ourselves retracing our steps from earlier back through the Circus Maximus. I decided to liven up the journey by trying water from the various fountains along the route - Rome is famed for its excellent water and most were cool and clear, but I did manage to find one that tasted of fried sulphur. Mussolini’s revenge.

Thankfully dinner wasn’t far away as we crossed the Tiber for the first time into Trastevere. The side streets were awash with amazing smelling restaurants (although if you’re looking for something that isn’t traditional Italian cuisine your options are slim to nil) and we eventually found ourselves in a lively, friendly restaurant that served up some excellent pizzas and local beer and wine, plus various Italian football memorabilia on the walls to keep me amused. Ellie had some room for some gelato on the way home and applied some Grade A knowledge to find the good stuff, the general rule of thumb being the fancier the display, the worse the gelato! We knew she’d hit the jackpot when upon exiting her chosen location we found ourselves our purchase had been scrutinised by a large tour group while the guide explained that this was an example of a first rate store. Having allowed myself a small sample of her cone, they were definitely correct.

And that’s all from me! Ellie will see us home tomorrow with our third and final day. In which case, unless we have any very unexpected holidays between now and September my next entry will be written as both a married man and detailing our journey to both a distant and uncharted land for the both of us… 🇯🇵

CIAO!