【Travel】Rome + Vatican .::Salute to the Roman Empire::.

If you would like to feel a stronger connection with Rome and the Roman Empire, watch a gladiator themed TV drama or movie before you come. We really liked the TV series ‘Spartacus‘ (warning: contains strong violence, erotic and naked scenes), which tells the story of rebellious slaves and gladiators back in the Roman Empire, and how they started a revolution. It’s based on true historical events which made it more fascinating!

Colosseum

As soon as I stepped inside, I was overwhelmed by the sheer grandness of the arena. My eyes saw rubble, but my mind saw the arena in its prime: The arena filled with 50,000 common-man Romans, cheering and shouting; The gladiators wielding their chosen weapons on the sand, the centre of everyone’s attention; The masters sitting in the viewing box watching on, waiting to give the pollice verso – Thumb up means to spare the defeated gladiator’s life, thumb down is death.

This reminded me of a quote that I saw: “The eye doesn’t see. The brain sees. The eye just transmits. So what we see isn’t only determined by what comes through the eyes. What we see is affected by our memories, our feelings, and by what we’ve seen before.” Indeed, in Rome, it’s not about what’s there, it’s all about what you see.

Little of the original arena floor remains today, so you can see straight into the now-exposed underground structure that so many gladiators and prisoners, and even animals, had passed through, alive or dead. We listened to Rick Steve‘s free audio-guide when we toured the Colosseum, and it definitely gave us a more in-depth perspective of the Colosseum itself, the Roman Empire and the gladiator glory.

I pre-booked our tickets so we went straight in, no queue! Click [here] to see my post on how to avoid the queues for major attractions in Rome, including the Vatican Museum.

{Colosseum}
Hours: Opens very day excluding 25 Dec and 1 Jan, from 8:30am. 
Closing times: 
×Last Sunday of March to end August 7:15pm｜
×September 7pm; October 6:30pm｜
×November to 15 February 4:30pm｜
×16 February to 15 March 5pm｜
×16 March to last Saturday of March 5:30pm.

 

Roman Forum & Palatine Hill

Ｉt’s best to schedule your visit to the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hills with the Colosseum, as they’re right next to each other and the entry to all three sites is covered by your Colosseum ticket. From the hill, you’ll get a good vantage point of the Roman Forum.

Not much of the structures and architectures are left in the Roman Forum today, but we could still picture the Roman Forum in its glorious days from the remaining columns. Julius Caesar walked on this soil when he returned from his victorious trips- it felt special walking the path Caesar walked on!

It suddenly started raining while we were in the Roman Forum, so we ran and hid under a void with a small roof above our heads and listened to Rick Steve’s audio-guide. As we listened on, we realised that the place that we stood in was Caesar’s Temple, haha. This goes to show how everything is full of history in Rome.

A hint of spring brings life to the Forum.

Be sure to check with the ticket office the closing time info and the exit direction before you start touring.

Caution: Don’t get trapped!

The exit near the Colosseum side of the Forum had a serious design flaw that got us trapped between a revolving door and a security door that was padlocked! For some reason they decided to padlock the security door but kept the revolving door operational (the green light was on and we went straight through). The revolving door was the kind that has metal bars on the other side of the door blocking people from re-entering the premises. We tried the intercom and no one was on the other side…luckily a church session nearby just concluded and two lovely ladies comforted us and went to find the security guard for us. “I won’t leave you“, one of them said. Lots of other young churchgoers stayed on the other side of the padlocked door with us too, offering escape ideas… We were finally freed after 15 minutes. In hindsight, it was actually quite funny, and I kick myself for not recording our “imprisonment” moment – but I really wasn’t in the mood to take out my camera at that time…we were trapped, it was getting dark and raining…and it was really embarrassing!

{Roman Forum + Palatine Hill}
Hours: Every day excluding 25 December and 1 January, from 8:30am.
Closing: 
×Last Sunday of March to end August 7:30pm｜
×September 7pm｜
×October 6:30pm｜
×November to 15 February 4:30pm｜
×16 February to 15 March 5pm｜
×16 March to last Saturday of March 5:30pm.

 

Piazza Navona

If you want to buy a piece of painting to remind you of your Roman Holiday, come to Piazza Navona.

Yes, it’s touristy but it also means there are  a lot to choose from and affordable. A lot of them looked that they sourced their ‘paintings’ from a mass producer because they all looked more of less similar, if not identical. However, take your time and look closely, you’re bound to find something you like. Be sure to ask them which ones are ‘hand painted’ and which ones are ‘printed on canvas’ – to be honest I couldn’t really tell the difference with my bare eyes, and it’s perfectly fine to buy a printed piece, just that you gotta know what you’re paying for before you haggle!

We bought a medium-sized Piazza Navona hand-painted water colour piece from an artist named Jarek, he also threw in a small printed Colosseum free for me, yay. Jarek was from Poland, and spent a few years in the US before he came to Italy. He speaks good English and he’s at the Navona Piazza 4 days a week. Here’s a photo with the artist.

 

Pantheon 

We were absolutely blown away by the perfect architecture of the Pantheon that was built with pure skills and precise mathematics. It’s amazing how it is still standing tall and in continuous use after almost 2000 years!

No computers, no heavy machinery； just human brains, craftsmanship, labour and precise mathematics! The dome was built with no roof so it lets in plenty of sunlight during the day. The marble floor in the middle was completed with little holes so the drainage system underneath will take care of the rain when it storms. Very neat.

{Pantheon}
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 9am - 6.30pm|Sunday: 9am –1pm.

 

Trevi Fountain

So, this is the money-printing fountain that collects some €600,000 a year just by being there and looking pretty! Mike and I each threw a coin in, only to find out that we did it all wrong (as you can see in our video highlight below).

After reading more about the Trevi Fountain, the ‘proper’ way of doing it is actually to toss the coin with your right hand over your left shoulder, with your back to the fountain. One coin means you’ll return to Rome, two coins means you’ll return and fall in love, three coins means you’ll return, fall in love and get married! Oh well, it’s alright, I can live with not getting married in Rome;)

 

Bocca della Verità

Another extremely well-known Rome fixture made famous by popular culture – Bocca della Verita, better known as the Mouth of Truth. It’s now placed in the portico of the Santa Maria in Cosmedin church. If you want a photo with the Mouth of Truth, be prepared to queue up for it. We couldn’t justify ourselves to stand in what looked like a 1-hour queue under the sun, so we took this photo and went to have gelato instead;)

{Santa Maria in Cosmedin}
Church hours: 10am-1pm & 3pm-5pm.
Portico hours: 9am-1pm & 2:30pm-6pm.

 

Vatican Museum

The Vatican Museum is definitely a museum worth visiting, and it’s the only way you can get to the famous Sistine Chapel. No photos are allowed in the Sistine Chapel but we saw so many people pretending that they didn’t know and got told off by the security! I decided to just be an obedient tourist so I refrained from taking any photos, and just took a seat on the side of the Chapel, connected to our audio-guide, and took the The Creation of Adam and other fresco painting in with our own eyes.

The queue at Vatican got extremely crazy when we walked out just after mid-day, I felt so sorry for the people standing in line! Click [here] to see how we legitimately “jumped the queue”, and how you could easily do it too.

{Vatican Museum}
Ticket office hours: Monday to Saturday, 9am-4pm.
Museum hours: Monday to Saturday, 9am-6pm, exit from rooms by 5:30pm.
Closed: Sunday (except the last Sunday of each month, free entry 9am -12:30pm). 
Check the official website for more closing dates.

 

St Peter’s Bascillica

Another magnificent basilica. Interestingly, we learned from the audio-guide that a lot of the materials used in the St Peter’s Basilica were actually taken from other architectures throughout Italy – so basically, wherever you go, St Peter’s Basilica gets mentioned!

You can join the line to climb the cupola (dome) of St Peter’s Basilica as soon as you step out of the Vatican Museum, after the Sistine Chapel. Do consider paying 2€  extra to catch the lift up and save you some 200 steps. It’s worth it as there are just too many things to see in Vatican/Rome to waste your energy on steps!

This is their very impressive dome with mosaic art. From here, we climbed more stairs and navigated through the narrow passageways and stairwells (do not attempt this climb if you are claustrophobic, it does get quite crammed) to reach the very top. The view from the top was wonderful, with the whole of the St Peter’s Square under our feet.

St Peter’s Square/ Piazza.

The only problem was, we got stuck there longer than we had hoped as it was really crowded (it was a Saturday afternoon) and there was only one exit to come down. So do be prepared to have little patience and time to spare if you are going up.

 

Vatican Post Office

Yes, I decided to add this in as an attraction too, because rumour has it that the Vatican Post Office is much more reliable than the Roman Post Office, and even the Romans come over the wall when it comes to posting important parcels!

There a post office right beside the St Peter’s Piazza. My advice is to buy your postcards in advance or buy them from the Vatican Museum gift shops and write them when you’re queuing for the St Peter’s Basilica.

 

30-second Video Highlight

This is our 30-second video highlight recording our Roman Holiday moments

 

• Click [here] to see my Rome food review.
• Click [here] to see my post on ticket-booking, transportation and more in Rome.

HER{curio}MAJESTY – I was here. April 2014.