If you haven’t been to Rome yet, prepare to be amazed. The city has so much to offer: massive ancient buildings and streets full of culture at every step. Despite seeming like a massive city, everything you need can be a walk away (if you are willing to walk a distance).
The purpose of our trip was to celebrate a friend’s birthday, which included activities on two evenings, leaving the daytime to be organized fully ourselves.
Transport and accommodation
Getting to the city centre from Rome Fiumicino airport was very easy – the trains go often and regularly and depending on whether you want to take a slower or a faster ride, the prices vary, but are nothing insane.
Our accommodation was close to the train station. We booked an Airbnb for the four of us. Have a sneak peek of the apartment here. It had a really nice Italian style, a living room, two bedrooms, a kitchen and two restrooms.
Streets of Rome
As always, I had made a dedicated Google Maps list of all the interesting places, museums, sightseeing and cafes we could potentially go to. Find the link at the end of the post below.
As mentioned before, simply walking around gives you so much to see, either massive architectural masterpieces or lovely side-street galleries.
Sightseeing in Rome
If there is one lesson that I take with me from this trip, it’s that whenever visiting such a popular city and wanting to go to museums and other places, always book the tickets in advance!
Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of that so we missed visiting Sistine Chapel, St Peter’s Basilica and Borghese Gallery. We even had an incident with a third-party salesperson. We qued up on Sistine Chapel’s line hoping to somehow get to visit it, even though last-minute tickets can be very expensive, too. Then one rather professional-looking lady came up to us and insisted to go with her if we didn’t have the tickets in advance. Since she looked quite in a hurry and made us anxious, too, feeling that this is our chance to join the next visitation group and go inside. But when she lead us to her so-called office a couple of streets away, we weren’t so sure about the plan anymore. A quick Google search also showed us that this company had a very low rating by customers and we didn’t dare to give our money to this lady in exchange for hoping to get to visit the basilica.
On a brighter note, if you don’t have a lot of time, but want to see as much as possible, a lot of places can be admired from the outside! Like the Colosseum, the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain.
Luckily, there were two museums we could get last-minute tickets to: Galleria Doria Pamphilj and the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art. That was a perfect combo! The first gallery shows a spectacular collection of paintings, furniture and statuary from the 16th century and is likely the largest privately owned collection in Rome. The second one is a huge modern art gallery, where you can find pieces from recent years as well as dating back to the 1960s. The ground floor is dedicated to the 19th century with works by Paul Cezanne, Antonio Canova, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh. On the top floor, you can see 20th-century art, including Futurist, Cubist and Dadaist.
Make it authentic – attend a traditional Italian cooking class
Part of the birthday celebrations was attending a cooking class and making a three-course meal together. We went to Cooking Classes in Rome to learn to make bruschettas, bolognese pasta and tiramisu the authentic way under Chef Andrea. We really enjoyed the whole experience! The staff was so friendly and professional, the place was perfect for a group of 18, and the food was delicious, too! That class definitely made the trip even more unique and special.
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