36 Hours in Rome

Taking the train back from Bari, we arrived in Rome for our final day and a half before flying back to the US. We stayed at the Room Mate Filippo hotel, a new modern hotel near Piazza Barberini and the Spanish Steps. We had a wide variety of lodging on this trip, ranging from this boutique hotel to a top floor AirBnB to a cave! We've also stayed in a few different neighborhoods in Rome now, and all of them are good options. This location is a bit quieter, very convenient to the subway, and still walking distance to all of the main attractions.

The Altar of the Fatherland, complete with giant flag, welcoming us back to Rome!

Our room. Very modern!

The over-the-top lobby of our hotel.

We didn't do too much on this rainy evening. We had dinner at a tiny restaurant called Fraschetteria, just a few blocks from our hotel. When we say tiny, we do mean tiny - there were only four tables, one chef, and one waitress (the co-owners). The food was great. The power went off briefly during our meal, but luckily didn't seem to affect the tiny kitchen. We took a short post-dinner walk, stopping by Piazza Barberini and the Triton Fountain, and picking up some limoncello from a corner store. We then took in the view from the hotel rooftop before heading to bed.

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A lovely (but rainy) night in Rome.

Dinner time!

Cheese and meat board.

Date night in Rome!

The piazza near out hotel looked lovely in the rain.

Hotel rooftop views.

The next day, a Saturday, was our last full day in Rome. After breakfast, we walked to the Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore. This is the main church in Rome (keeping in mind St. Peter's is in the Vatican). We tried to visit on our last trip to Italy, but there was a massive line to get in. This time, during the winter and a pandemic, there were no crowds. This is a truly impressive church, with a variety of interesting art. It has a much older feel than St. Peter's, as it was originally founded in 432 and has extraordinarily well preserved 6th century mosaics. These mosaics served as the foundational art for the depiction of Mary and other figures.


After visiting the church, we went to a pharmacy to get our required COVID-19 test. It was a relatively easy process - we created an online account, got tested in a tent right outside the pharmacy, and a few hours later the results were available to us digitally, which we uploaded in the Delta app to pre-clear us to fly. David briefly considered bolting when he saw how far the swab vanished inside Paul's head...but reluctantly held his ground...the fight or flight reaction is one hell of a thing.


Our next stop was a museum not too far from our hotel, the Palazzo Barberini. This is a good museum if you're in to paintings. They did have a few interesting non-paintings, including a really old globe. Leaving the museum we walked to the Spanish Steps area and had a nice lunch at Dilla. After lunch we walked around some more, checking out the Trinita de Monti church at the top of the Spanish steps, having a quick espresso, and then returning to the hotel for a bit.

The soaring and expansive interior of the basilica.

Fascinating 6th century mosaics line the arches in front of the altar.

The mishmashed front of the basilica.

The Palazzo Barberini museum is an impressive complex.

Well that's interesting. Impressive marblework.

A really cool old globe in the museum.

The Spanish steps weren't exactly empty, but were WAY less busy than a pre-pandemic summer visit.

Lunch was delicious.

Wine in the morning, wine in the evening, wine at supper time...when you're in Italy, you can have wine anytime!

Plaza at the bottom of the Spanish steps.

In the late afternoon we took a taxi to Museo Centrale Montemartini. This fascinating museum is in a giant former power plant, opened in 1912 to supply power to the city. The plant closed in 1963, and the building re-opened as a museum in 1997. Many ancient Roman sculptures and artifacts are placed among the boilers and machinery. The temporary exhibit was a really cool collection of mosaics. After the museum, we walked to the nearby Basilica San Paolo, but we couldn't find a way inside, and assumed it was closed for the evening. 

From there we walked west and then north across the Tiber river to the Portuense neighborhood. Despite being only about 2.5 miles south of the historic center, this neighborhood is completely off the tourist radar. It's more of local residential and shopping neighborhood. We stopped by an AS Roma Store to buy some gifts, and then had a beer at Birifficio Marconi. This was a nice little brew pub with some interesting beers, including one with mint. Since we weren't near a subway or direct bus line, we caught a taxi back to our hotel (fighting quite a bit of traffic since it was a Saturday evening), and relaxed for a bit before dinner at Mazze. It was a good meal with a quirky waiter - would recommend.

Realistic fish mosaics from ancient Rome.

The museum has the pope's train!

Such a cool contrast between statues and machinery.

Marble and steel.

The bell tower of the basilica.

Happy hour!

We drove by Rome's Christmas tree in a taxi.

Our last dinner in Rome.

There's no upper limit to the amount of pasta we can eat, honestly....David made a tiktok about it!

Of course there was dessert...

Sunday morning we woke up around 7AM to start getting ready to go to the airport, but instead awoke to notifications that our flight had been delayed 5 hours. Our plane was just leaving New York City on its way to Rome. On the one hand this was not ideal because we wouldn't end up back in our home in Atlanta until after midnight, but on the other hand it gave us an extra half day in Rome. The weather was the most cooperative of the entire trip - a cloudless, sunny, cool Sunday morning. After a leisurely breakfast at the hotel we set off on a meandering multi-hour walk passing many sights including the Trevi Fountain, Roman Forum, and Colosseum. We also entered the Basilica de Santa Maria in Ara Coeli, a 12th century church that is a bit hidden behind the massive Altar of the Fatherland. We also walked back by the AirBnB we had stayed at earlier in the trip, and stopped by the store across the street to pick up some more biscotti to take home. After grabbing all of our stuff from the hotel, we went to the airport and flew home to Atlanta, with some nice sunset views of the Italian and French coasts.

Trevi fountain on a Sunday morning.

David taking in the view.

The interior of Basilica di Santa Maria in Ara Coeli.

After raining all week, of course it was a brilliant sunny day right when we had to leave. 😂

The Campidoglio, or Capitoline Hill.

One last walk by the Pantheon.

Monaco in the foreground, and Nice in the background.

We've been to Rome a few times now, and it's no surprise that we love this city! There are still museums, neighborhoods, and attractions we'd love to return to visit. Until next time, Ciao, Roma!

Rollercoaster & FC Roma Game!

For our Saturday in Rome, we focused on fun activities instead of just sights or museums; specifically roller coasters and a soccer match! We took a bus in the morning to the EUR neighborhood on the southside of Rome. EUR is a weird fascist-era neighborhood that largely consists of government buildings, office buildings, and large open spaces. We took a quick look at some of the architecture, and then walked to Luneur Park, a surprisingly cute family amusement park. Usually on trips we take in winter, roller coasters are off the table. Luckily Luneur Park was open on the weekends for a Christmas event. Paul got a spin on each of the roller coasters.

Paul at Luneur Park.

Even the ferris wheel has the cute little owl logo.

They had some holiday decorations, including a polar bear.

The spinning roller coaster is creatively named "Spinner."

Hi Paul!

Of course they had a Wacky Worm.

From here we took a taxi even further south, to Cinecitta World, a large "Universal Studios" style theme park in the suburbs. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, and a bit difficult to get to. Supposedly there's a shuttle bus you can take from EUR, but we weren't sure if it was running during the Christmas event or only during the summer. There's no train or public bus, so taxi was our only option. It would have been a relatively quick trip from EUR straight down the highway, but we got stuck for a bit in a traffic jam caused by a stalled truck with a portly grandpa standing behind it waving traffic around him.

Cinecitta World is a well-themed park with several great rides. It was also open just for a Christmas event, complete with a Christmas market and Santa Claus. The park is unique because while it is themed after movies, it doesn't actually have the rights to any of the intellectual property. So you won't see a Jurassic Park or Spiderman ride, rather they have rides like "Indiana" (a nod to Indiana Jones) and "Jurassic War" that barely skirt copyright infringements. More interestingly, they have a few rides that are well themed to Italian culture and myths. Inferno is an indoor roller coaster themed after Dante's Inferno, including a projection of a demon eating a baby. Volarium is a ride where you fly through the air with Leonardo da Vinci, swooping over Tuscany and 15th century Florence. We wrapped up our time at the park with a spinach pastry from the Christmas Market, took a picture for a family posing with Santa, and caught an expensive taxi (that we had to wait 20 minutes for) all the way back to Largo di Argentina in the center of Rome. Since Paul previously visited Magicland, he's now been to all of the big parks in the Rome area - although there are several little kiddie roller coasters spread around the city that still need to be visited. 

Paul at the entrance of Cinecitta World.

Christmas market on main street.

Altair, the park's big roller coaster.

There's Paul in the second row! Good job David on getting this picture!

Entering the Rome-themed section of the park.

By now it was mid-afternoon, and we grabbed a sandwich to go from Panepiu on the south side of Largo di Argentina. This is a great, tiny, cheap, conveniently located panini place with high quality ingredients. We picked up some drinks and chips at the little store across from our AirBnB, and ate and relaxed before our next adventure - an AS Roma game! We were a bit hesitant to go to a large sporting event in light of the pandemic, but there were strict vaccine rules and the stadium is open air. We tried to go to a soccer game on our previous trip to Rome, but the date of the game was moved with less than a week warning, so we missed it. We caught a bus up to the stadium (our unlimited bus passes were extremely handy!), which hosted the summer Olympics in 1960. It was cold and drizzly, but luckily the stands are covered by an overhanging roof. The atmosphere at the game was fun, with opposing Roma and Inter Milan fan sections chanting and lighting smoke bombs. We were close to the Inter Milan section, but they were separated behind a plexiglass wall - soccer rivalries are serious business in Europe! Unfortunately for the home team, AS Roma was badly outclassed, with a score of 0-3 before the half. We left a bit after the 70th minute to beat the crowd and catch a bus back to our AirBnB, which worked out well.

Our AirBnB balcony was wet from the rain, but we can still take pictures of beer on it. :)

Olympic Stadium.

Paul with his new Roma scarf and mask!

Lots of flags in the Roma supporters section.

Inter Milan fans celebrating a goal. Note all the security in yellow vests!

Arriving back in our neighborhood, we decided to stick relatively close to the AirBnB for dinner due to the continued threat of rain and the chilly temps. We had some decent dinner and great cocktails at Santa Maria Bistro, then wandered around the nearby Jewish quarter, stopping for some gelato.

The vibe in Santa Maria.

A carbonara pizza!

Yay, gelato! Pretty tasty from Cremeria Romana.

A menorah in the Jewish quarter, for Hanukkah.

The Portico d'Ottavia ruins. You can't walk five feet in the center of Rome without seeing some ruins!