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| Me and Lindsay sipping our first coffee in Rome. |
"Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in,
continue firm and constant." - Socrates
My dear friend Lindsay is one of those precious, constant, and irreplaceable souls. She cares deeply about people and protects that which she loves with fierce intensity. For seven years, Lindsay's been one of my closest confidants and she's never opposed to sharing a bottle of malbec or pinot noir. After all, isn't that a true test of friendship?
Lindsay introduced me to Chris, she has always spoken the truth even when the truth hurt, she's hosted several birthday parties for me, played an important role when Chris' proposed to me, and she supported me as my Matron of Honor when I married the man of my dreams.
You can imagine my excitement when Lindsay announced that her and her Hubby would spend the entire month of July in Europe. Lindsay and Evan managed to take a month off of work, and since it had been Lindsay's dream to see Italy, that is exactly where they planned on spending the duration of their European vacation.
At the beginning of July, I booked a $40 round trip Ryan Air flight from Budapest to Rome, and the three of us spent two days seeing the sights, drinking coffee and sharing pizza in the ancient city.
Here are a few "Know Before You Go" tips from my trip to Rome:
- First off, the city of Rome is magical! It is a part of history that everyone must experience at least once!
- Some 7-10 million tourists visit Rome every single year, and I think most of them were there at the beginning of July. If you go in the summer, prepare for crowded metros, expensive lodging, and 2-hour lines to get into main attractions.
- If you want to avoid lines (and save time and money) for - say the Colosseum or Vatican Museums, plan ahead and book your tickets online.
- The metro is easy to use, so in order to save money on lodging, book outside of the city center but make sure you are within walking distance of a metro stop.
- That being said, there are numerous summer strikes that halt the transportation system. Ask your hotel if they know of any planned strikes while you're visiting so that you can plan your trip accordingly. When we were in Rome, there was a strike on the Friday we were trying to leave the city. That Friday, the city demanded that everyone must be able to get to and from work, so the trains, busses, and metro ran until 8:30am, shut down, and then started running again at 5pm for the evening commute.
- My friends, Jacob and Heather, showed us around the Trastevere neighborhood and that quickly became my favorite part of Rome. The metro does not run into Trastevere, but the busses do. It is worth a trip - trust me!
- It was ridiculously hot at the beginning of July (some people said we visited in the middle of a heat wave), so next time I visit Rome, I will avoid July and August. It should be comfortable (and less crowded) to tour Rome in the months of May and October.
- You will see ancient water fountains all around Rome - DRINK THE WATER! The water is clean and very refreshing! If you visit in the hot summer months, you will begin searching for those little fountains from heaven!
Enjoy a few pictures from our quick trip through Rome:
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| Look at all the people trying to get into the Pantheon! |
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| The Pantheon is 2000 years old and still has the largest, unreinforced concrete dome in the world! |
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| Thanks for the suggestion Heather! Cafe Thzza D'Oro's iced coffee and cream near the Pantheon. |
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| These fountains become your best friends in Rome! Drink up! |
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| A flower picture for my Grandma, Joyce. Rome, Italy. |
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| Posing in front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City. |
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| At the top of the Spanish Steps looking out on Rome. |
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| We met up with my college friend, Ben, at an awesome place called EATALY. |
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| Amazing seafood pasta at EATALY. Seriously, check this place out! |
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| Summer bars and live music along the Tiber River in the Trastevere neighborhood. |
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| Enjoying the night life on our last evening in Rome. |
Awesome blog, love the pics. Great info for Italy. I am planning a trip there soon. We bought our one way tickets for Serbia... OCT 31 is the big day. Hope to meet you one day.
ReplyDeleteTina Chronicles of Serbia blog
October 31 will be here before you know it! I know you're so excited to get back to Serbia! Safe trip (srecan put)!
DeleteLooks like a gorgeous trip! My family took a great quick trip to Rome one summer in college but I don't think any of us tried drinking from the fountains. (Hi Ben!)
ReplyDeleteLana , loved reading your post about Rome!! Leaving for Rome on saturday for the first time!
ReplyDeleteI wrote the blog as soon as possible since you said you were going there! Have a blast and bring a water bottle to fill up at those free (freezing cold) water fountains all over Rome! If it's a hot day, you will be so grateful for those little fountains! :) Have a wonderful time!
DeleteMy sister and I plan on taking a trip here in mid October. This post made me super excited. Rome looks amazing!
ReplyDeleteHello! This is a good read. Keep it up! I will be looking forward to visit your page again and for your other posts as well. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about tour rome italy. I'm glad to stop by your site and know more about tour Rome Italy.
ReplyDeleteThe Roman Empire had begun more formally when Emperor Augustus (63 BC–AD 14; known as Octavian before his throne accession) founded the Principate in 27 BC. This was a monarchy system which was headed by an emperor holding power for life, rather than making himself dictator like Julius Caesar had done, which had resulted in his assassination on 15 March 44 BC. At home, Emperor Augustus started off a great programme of social, political and economic reform and grand-scale reconstruction of the city of Rome. The city became dotted with impressive and magnificent new buildings, palaces, fora and basilicae. Augustus became a great and enlightened patron of the arts, and his court was attended by such poets as Virgil, Horace and Propertius. His rule also established the Pax Romana, a long period of relative peace which lasted approximately 200 years. Following his rule were emperors such as Caligula, Nero, Trajan, and Hadrian, to name a few. Roman emperor Nero was well known for his extravagance, cruelty, tyranny, and the myth that he was the emperor who "fiddled while Rome burned" during the night of 18 to 19 July 64 AD. The Antonine Plague of 165–180 is believed to have killed as much as one-third of the population.
“Accessible Rome” tour for wheelchair users and the physically disabled.
Hi Lana, I know your husband from college and he pointed me to your blog. Great information! Would you mind sharing where you stayed in Rome and Venice? We are looking to visit both in April!
ReplyDeleteHi Kate! What a small world! Thanks for stopping by and reading about the blogs. Honestly, I don't have good suggestions in Rome as we stayed with friends both times we visited. I always use the website hotels.com though to book my hotels (and they have a rewards program), so I would use that site. In Venice, we got a good rate at a small B&B that I booked on that site, but I cannot remember the name. Send me an email and I will try to find my travel notes for those places and email you. chrisandlana@gmail.com
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