Europe 2nd Trip - Rome, Italy (Day 4)

28th Oct 2013, Monday, Sunny

Today is the last day in Naples and we are going back to Rome for a 3 days' stay. We woke up at around 6 plus and got ready for the day. We packed our luggage and went upstairs for our breakfast (Still love the croissant and the triangular pantry there - it was known as sfogliatelle...... ^_^....nice nice). After the wonderful breakfast, we made our way back to our room and collected our luggage, later went down to do the check-out. Then we got the hotel staff to help us get us a cab to drive us down to the train station. After 5 to 10 mins, the cab arrived and we said goodbye to the hotel staff (who were all very helpful and pleasant during our stay).

Our Queue Number

When we arrived at the train station, we went to the tickets reservation office to make our train reservation. It was a group of people waiting in the queue too..luckily it wasn't as crowded as in Rome. But we were targeting for the next coming train, so i was left to wait in the office and my friends went to the platform with our luggage first (so once i am done with the reservations, we can just board the train). After a 10 mins wait, i finally got my turn and got the reservations done. I rushed out the platform and caught with my friends and we boarded the train. It was a 1 hour plus ride to Rome. So we just rested on the train while the train left Naples to Rome. We reached Rome train station at 11 plus (we wanted to deposit our luggage at the train station first, but the queue was super long) and then we got on a cab to head down to the hotel (it was like 5 mins ride from the station to hotel). The hotel name is Target Inn and the lift is inside a cage, where you need to open the cage and then go into the lift and the door is with spring, which it will spring back at you. Anyway, the lift is not big too, and so we need to go up separately due to our luggage. Then we deposited our luggage at the hotel as it was still early for check in. After that, we made our way down to see the catacombs. We had to take the metro down and then changed to the bus...oh god, the metro and the bus really took a long time to come. We took the bus to go along the Appian way, and the road was still with rocks and the road was quite small, there wasn't any road for pedestrians to walk with the cars zooming by.

San Sebastiano Catacombs

Finally, we reached the place to see the catacombs, which is along Appian Way. There were 2 catacombs places there, the one we wanted to go is not opened yet, so we went to the smaller one - San Sebastiano Catacombs. We made it for the English guided tour, so we went down to see. It was quite small and dark, and saw some coffins spaces and graves inside. The guide was speaking too fast and the accent was a bit hard to understand..but can still make out some of the things she was explaining. Then she showed us the grave of Sebastian which was later moved away to St. Peter's Basilica. Later we were also shown that there were 3 rooms that were dug further deep in, these can be used for generations to generations if the area were bought. Then she explained on the vases used as urn and the paintings on the ground and the walls. Then she showed us the dinning place inside and told us that the church which was built by Constantine on top of the catacombs. After this, the whole tour is done, which lasted us like 15 to 20 mins inside. The tour ended in the basilica where we were allowed to take photos around, but there was going to be a funeral going on soon, so we were allowed like 5 mins or so walking around. After this, we went to the souvenir shop where we got some postcards and stamps to send back home.

Twin Churches of Rome

After this, we rested for awhile on a bench outside...stupid shoulders aching.....Then we took the bus down to the other catacombs (which is bigger) - Catacombs of San Callisto. When we reached there, the English guided tour is about to start. One of my friend went ahead and bought her ticket first, the other friend doesn't want to go in so i stayed outside with her while we waited for the friend who went in. While waiting, we walked around the catacombs, there was a path towards some private houses. So we just strolled along that road and enjoyed the breeze and blue sky and white clouds...saw some geese at one of the houses too, i went up to try to take some photos of them while my friend was busy texting on her phone...hohoho...We had some chocolate too while waiting, we waited at least half an hour or more, then my friend appeared again. After the wait, we made our way back to the metro station, where we saw the ruins building on Palatine Hill. After that, we took the metro to the start for Doice Vita Stroll and Heart of Rome Walk. But the starting point for Heart of Rome walk was further, so we went ahead with Doice Vita Stroll. When we came out of the metro station, it was just a normal street and when we turned behind a shop, we saw the Piazza del Popolo, it was so grand...really made you 'wow' there....it was so spectacular! There was an Egyptian obelisk standing in the center of the Piazza, and it was brought over from Egypt. And nearby the obelisk, was a fountain with some lion-like statues. But some kids were just sitting on the statues and riding them around. On the far end of both sides of the Piazza, were Fontana del Nettuno and another statue (not sure what is is....). And you can see the twin churches (Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria di Montesanto) standing in front of the Piazza.

Crucifixion of St. Peter (Taken from web)

At the side before we made our way to the Piazza, there stood the church of Santa Maria Del Popolo. It was quite a big church and there were a lot of beautiful paintings inside, and there were 2 great paintings (by an Italian painter - Caravaggio) hidden inside the church, which required to insert coin just to on the light to see them and no photo-taking is allowed. The 2 masterpieces were Crucifixion of St. Peter & Conversion of Saul (St. Paul). We stayed inside for a while, then there was a guy who inserted the coin to light up the 2 masterpieces chamber. Once the coin was inserted, everyone just rushed into the chamber to see the 2 masterpieces. It was super cool...the paintings were so real (almost can see the image popping out)....After the amazing viewing of the 2 grand masterpieces, we headed out to walk over the the Piazza and onto the streets of Rome. There were a lot of shops for shopping and the buses which were going around the streets were small type and it looked cute..hahhaa.....There was even a Ferrari shop around there....(saw a Ferrari F1 car in italy...kekeke).....After some shopping around, we were hungry and then we decided to go down to a 200 years old restaurant - L'Enoteca Antica di Via della Croce.

Tiramisu

The place has a nice ambiance and there was paintings on the walls too. We ordered a lamb shank, spaghetti, cheese platter, cod fish dish and tiramisu as the dessert. The food was nice, i like the lamb shank, the fried potato (as the side) and the cod fish. Most of all, i love the tiramisu!! We ordered their creme brulee at first but they run out of it. So we ordered tiramisu instead, and it was a good choice. I almost wanted to lick the whole plate but cannot...hehehe....but i was using my spoon to lick the remaining.... :P.....It was soooooo nice!!! I had a happy dinner there...hahahaa....and it costs us euro $75 (including the tax and tip). After dinner, we went to the opposite shop which was selling chocolates and gelato. There was a table showing their beautiful packages too, and one of our friend was already snapping her camera away on their food. Mi and my other friend felt kind of bad if we don't buy something from them and the staff was already asking us what do we want to get. So we went ahead and got a small cone of peppermint ice cream. It wasn't so good as expected and it costs euro $2.50 for a single scoop, it was just ok. After this, we continued our way down to the Victor Emmanuel Monument. It was a short walk down the streets, when we reached, we were standing on the opposite of the street, looking at the monument. And in the center, it was a big roundabout for the cars....But it was quite dark when we arrived and i can't see the statues on top of the Emmanuel. It also holds the tomb of the unknown soldier, who was chosen from the among 11 unknown remains from WWI war.

Roman Ancient Forum (Night View)

After the viewing of the Emmanuel, we made our way down to continue the walk.We walked past to a church which doesn't look so grand from the outside (Santa Maria in Aracoeli) with a very high stairs, besides it, was the stairs up to Capitoline Hill. By the time we walked until here, we were all tired from the walking and we still had to climb the stairs up..hohoho.....There were 2 great big statues standing on top of the both sides of the stairs...and opposite the Capitoline hill is the Theatre of Marcellus (which we later knew about during our segway tour) and it was the first amphitheater built before the Colosseum. Anyway, we climbed up the stairs to the Piazza del Campidoglio. My friends took a break on top of the stairs while i went in to explore around. Inside there, stood the statue of the emperor Marcus Aurelius and the statue of She-wolf with the twin brothers, Romulus and Remus (which both were explained by our segway guide too). We were unable to find the grand staircase, which was mentioned in Rick Steve's book. After a short stay there, we made our way down to the bus stop, but the bus we wanted doesn't come and while waiting, we saw 2 tour groups coming and went up to Capitoline Hill too and they seem like doesn't come back down. One of my friend doesn't want to give up looking for the grand staircase, so we went up again. This time, we walked further into the square and at the right side of the Piazza, there was a road downhill (it just looks like a normal road that is going downhill, who will expect at side of the road.....) it would turned out to be the view of the Roman Ancient Forum. It was lighted with few lights, but it was beautiful in the night too (although i will prefer to take the photos of it during the daytime).....

After taking some photos there, we made our way back to the bus stop and stood there and waited for at least an hour for the bus back to hotel. We were so happy the bus came, and were able to go back to the hotel to rest after a long day of walking (we were in need of water this day too....all run out of water...hahhaa).

Hotel Stayed:
Target Inn

Places Visited:
San Sebastiano Catacombs
Catacombs of San Callisto
Piazza del Popolo
Church of Santa Maria Del Popolo
Victor Emmanuel Monument
Capitoline Hill
Roman Ancient Forum