Rome - 12 hours visiting the Eternal city

I was fortunate enough to be invited by the lovely specialist tour operator called Citalia to visit Rome known as the Eternal City and although I had visited the city once before, it was some years since I had last been.

An early start meant that I was on the very first flight EZY8251 that EasyJet operates from London Gatwick North terminal to Rome, Fumincino airport - this being Rome's major International airport serving the capital.

Our flight departed on time and the cabin crew were all very friendly and courteous throughout the flight. In around 2 hours we had landed in Rome (local time just a little after 10am) to be greeted by a lovely warm, bright sunny morning and as soon and as the group had cleared the passport/immigration checks we were all ready to board our coach with our tour guide called David for the exciting time ahead.

The morning rush was in full flow in the capital with busy traffic and it was just lovely to see everything going on around as we were taken on the coach to our first stop and to visit The Vatican City, a city-state surrounded by Rome, it is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. It's home to the Pope and a trove of iconic art and architecture. Its Vatican Museums house ancient Roman sculptures such as the famed “Laocoön and His Sons” as well as Renaissance frescoes in the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel, famous for Michelangelo’s ceiling.

We had a good amount of time to ourselves here and were able to go to see inside St Peter's Basilica and wonder around outside taking in all the great sights.

The Vatican was packed with tourists and it was only morning here in Rome, it is certainly worth planning your day and arriving as early as you can and that way you can try and avoid the very long queues that form from late morning onwards, as more and more coach trips will come to bring tourists for all over the world to this rather special little gem.

After the time at the Vatican we then met up with our lady tour guide in Rome for our 3 hour walking tour in order to explore and see the major historical sights, she kindly gave us all headsets to wear so that we could hear her talking and what she was pointing out as we wandered past.

We walked and stopped for a short time at the Pizza Navona, with all the cafes and eateries dotted around and people sitting and enjoying a drink or something to eat, it was here in one of the small side streets leading off the square that I brought myself the most tastiest piece of pizza I have ever had.

The walking tour then took us onto the Pantheon a former Roman temple, now a church, and on the site of an earlier temple commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus.

A stop at the Spanish Steps gave us a short time to marvel at the impressive buildings that Rome has, onwards we went and our next stop the Pantheon a former Roman temple, this was followed by the famous Trevi fountain, an impressive sight to see and the famous tradition of the Fountain is for people to toss a coin over their shoulder into the Trevi’s waters, which legend has it ensures return to the city for visitors.

There was a huge gathering of people at the Trevi fountain and it was looking fantastic after I believe it had undergone a major clean and restoration costing something like $2.4 million.

The tour continued and we then arrived at the Colosseum and Roman forum that is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the centre of the city of Rome.

The iconic sight as you approach it really does make it clear to you that you are in Rome, you see pictures of it in books and have surely heard of it but for it to be standing right infront of you makes an awesome experience and you can only imagine what it must have been like when the gladiatorial contests went on.

After all this walking it was finally time to rest our legs and onto the lovely restaurant called Le Terme del Colosseo to have a very well earned tasty bite to eat. Being close to the Colosseum it makes for an ideal place to relax after all the sightseeing.

I thoroughly recommend you try and find this restaurant if you can, it was like being hidden inside a cave and very nice and different and we certainly received lovely Italian hospitality while enjoying our meal and drinks here.

Finally the group gathered altogether and awaited our coach to wizz us back to the airport for our late EasyJet flight EZY8258 that was due to depart Rome at around 10pm. The return inbound flight took around 2hrs 15 minutes to get back to London Gatwick.

12 hours in Rome seemed like a week with so much that I saw in such a short space of time. I have promised to return again hopefully next year, only next time I will stay longer.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my journal and have found it informative

Grazie, Michael