A lot of planning went into Rome. As we only had such a short amount of time (3 full days) to enjoy all of what Rome had to offer, I wanted to make sure that we could see and experience as much as possible….. and also eat as much food as possible.
We booked most of our tours through Walks of Italy , which I had seen on various other blogs that gave the tours rave reviews.
The three tours we booked with Walks of Italy were
- Rome In A Day Tour: Including Vatican, Colosseum & Historic Centre
- Rome Food Tour with Pizza-Making, Local Market & Tastings
- Crypts, Bones & Catacombs: An Underground Tour of Rome
One of the great things about booking with this tour company is that you will skip all the lines, even in March there was quite a number of people at all the attractions, so I can only imagine how bad the queues would be in the warmer summer months, so a benefit such as no queues would really be a huge time saver on your holiday. Another benefit of these tours are the guides. They are very passionate and knowledgable and take great care to pay attention to detail when teaching everyone of the history, architecture, culture and food of Rome and Italy. You will be given headphones and a radio with a live mick connected to your guide so that you won’t miss a thing that is said. We also organised a night of opera in Teatro dell’Opera di Roma to see Maria Stuarda.
Day 1
We arrived into Rome on a Ryanair flight that landed in Ciampino Airport. We had then booked a taxi with Rome Airport Transfers to take us to our Airbnb – Jewel Museum House. Anna Maria, our host has a great help in the lead up to our holiday, answering any questions we had and was very easy to contact. We then went for a delicious meal to Ristorante Il Papalino.
Day 2
For our first morning in Rome I had booked us in for the ROME IN A DAY TOUR: INCLUDING VATICAN, COLOSSEUM & HISTORIC CENTER. This tour starts in the Colosseum and walks through the city, stopping at various spots such as the Trevi Fountain and The Pantheon. The tour then goes to The Vatican City, with a very informative tour through the museum leading the way through to the Sistine Chapel (which is AMAZING!! Picture’s don’t do it justice). My advise if you are considering to do this tour – BRING COSY SHOES!!! That night we headed to Teatro dell’Opera di Roma to see Maria Stuarda.
Day 3
We booked into ROME FOOD TOUR WITH PIZZA-MAKING, LOCAL MARKET & TASTINGS. This tour starts at about 10am in Campo de’Fiori Market. It will take you on a brief food tasting tour through some of the stalls to taste different kinds of pesto, balsamic vinegar and truffle. Then into a butcher to try the meat, then into a cheese shop to try the different type’s of cheese from different regions then onto get some dessert and finally to make some pizza. All along the way on this tour you are thought; how the food is grown and made, the process and the most popular regions that distribute certain foods.
After this tour which ends about 2.30pm, we walked and walked until we got lost in Rome, which I would highly recommend for anyone to do, you can sight see all the free attractions along the way, such as the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain and various different street fountains, stone work and murals.
Day 4
We done the CRYPTS, BONES & CATACOMBS: AN UNDERGROUND TOUR OF ROME on our last day. This was a highly interesting tour and would be of great value and interest to anyone who likes history. Trying to imagine what it must of been like to build a wall made out of 4,000 bones, walking through the rooms at night with only candle light must of been totally eerie, but this is what they did and you will ask yourself why and how, as everyone in our did when you enter these rooms
Apart from all of the above, the tips and tricks I can recommend are
- Get Lost, Rome is beautiful and will have something amazing to offer around every corner, be it a beautiful balcony covered in ivy over looking a cobbled path or a fountain with beautiful stone sculpture surrounding it or oh hey, a Wonder of the World still standing 1,945 years later.
- If you are hungry, every restaurant you go into will be delicious, but if your really want to find something good, get lost (again) and find somewhere that doesn’t have people standing outside telling you to come in, if they have to do that, there is a reason. Also if a restaurant menu as too many languages to read from in the menu, it may be a tourist trap, usually Italian and English are all they will need.
- Do not take rose’s or anything else from anyone who tries to sell you something on the street and unless you do want to buy something, don’t entertain them, just say no thank you and walk away.
- Take comfortable shoes.
- Water coming from any of the fountains in Rome is drinkable, it comes from the aqueducts.
Some other posts I have on Rome are
Have you been to Rome before? Can you think of anymore tips to add or places to see?
x
Irish Mountain Child 
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