Minimoon, Not Honeymoon Day 1
Normally after a wedding the happy couple get the chance to escape to a sun-kissed beach for two weeks of bliss as they relax on their honeymoon. Unfortunately, as the wife (hehe, love using that word) was due to start a new job just 10 days after the wedding, we decided to put off the honeymoon proper until next year and instead go to Rome for a few days on a “mini-moon” instead.
We booked a hotel in the Forum district (that’s south/south-west Rome to you) which maybe wasn’t as central as we’d hoped, but the hotel looked nice enough and wasn’t as expensive as some of the places we’d been looking at.
We set off from home at about 6am and arrived in Rome at about 1pm. Our private car eventually turned up and took us to our hotel, thus negating the need to rely on public transport. After a quick freshen up and change of clothes to something a bit cooler we headed out to do some touristing. The nearest sights to our hotel were the Forum/Palatino and the Collosseum and so we decided to head that way first as we only had half a day to kill.
We walked along Circo Massimo, the ancient chariot race track before heading up Via di San Gregorio which would reveal The Colloseum to us as we approached it from the south. It was quite a magnificent view and we had a wander around it, taking some pictures before deciding to go inside.
Normally, we would just pay to get in and take a wander around but this time we decided to go on a proper tour. So instead of just looking around we actually learnt something about the history, it’s use, why it’s so dilapidated now (the stone and iron was taken to build lots of churches and cathedrals) and had the smaller details pointed out to us. We also had a chance to wander around at our leisure before meeting up a bit later to be taken around the Forum and Palatino with another guide, as part of the deal on the ticket we’d bought.
The second walk was just as interesting, mainly due to the guide’s enthusiasm and knowledge. The best part being the en-masse attack on some other tourists to get a better view of the Forum itself. After the tour we bought our Vatican tour ticklets for the next day (it was supposed to rain) which meant we would have to be up early to get there for 8.30am. So much for a relaxing break!
Our guide also gave us some good tips on places to eat and drink around Rome. Places like the Jewish quarter and a couple of other areas that we would probably investigate over the next couple of days
As it was getting late we headed back towards the hotel and grabbed some food at a restaurant just around the corner, unfortunately it wasn’t the best introduction to Italian cuisine! In fact it was pretty rubbish! Hopefully it would get better over the next few days, especially with the suggestons we;d already been given.
