Day 12
Rome
Monday, 7 July
Monday, 7 July
Total Steps
16336 👟
Temperature
31°C ☀️ | 37°C 🥵
Humidity
55% 💧
Photo Count
144 📸
We ventured out over two streets to find a cafe for breakfast. We found Caffè Villa Mercede and chose a small pizza and croissant each.
While having breakfast we looked at either getting a 48 hour hop on hop off bus ticket or the Atac Roma 48 hour ticket. We chose the Atac ticket as it allowed us to take buses, trams or trains at any time and went to more places around the city, while also being cheaper.
Our next hurdle was trying to find where to get tickets so we asked AI, which told us that most newsstands and buildings with a white T sign sell them (except for the places we went to). We ended up going to the Termini where a newsstand sold them. On the way to the Termini we passed the Arch of Sixtus V and through a loud, stinky tunnel under the train track.
We then took the first bus to the Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti (Spanish Steps). We climbed all 135 steps😉, up and down.
After a lot of stair climbing we needed a refresher. Fortunately there was a McDonald's near by. We then stopped at the Trevi Fountain. I would have made a wish, but it didn't take PayWave💳.
On the way to the Pantheon we found the Tempio di Vibia Sabina e Adriano (Hadrian's Temple). We entered the building and saw an American kid talking to a robot that couldn't understand English, and it just stood there confused😯
We finally made it to the Pantheon, when some lady said we could join a small skip the line guided tour, which we did, and it was interesting.
By this time we were hot and ready to go back to our apartment, but mum wanted to make one last stop at the Pyramid. On the way there we saw this magnificent building, Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, and decided to get off the bus and check it out. We had to climb a heap more steps but, once we got to the top, what an amazing view. We could pretty much get a 360° view of the whole city of Rome, including the St Peter's Basillica, Mercati di Traiano Museo dei Fori Imperiali, Colosseum, The Forum and the Teatro di Marcello. We went inside the building and saw some sculptures and artwork while climbing back down the stairs. We got back on the bus and went to the pyramid, which was a bit underwhelming, before going back to our apartment.
ℹ️ Tip:
I recommend right clicking on the long panorama images and "Opening Image In New Tab" and zoom in to view the whole thing ☺️
We decided to have dinner at La Trattoriola di Luca, the restaurant next door to our apartment. They gave us some bread and water and we ordered an artichoke and ricotta cheese starter, which was horrible🤢but at least we tried it. For our mains, I had the paccheri cacio e pepe Carbonara and mum had the bucatini Carbonara.