You can start to get a taste for Rome in 48h, (we had only a weekend to visit), and for this reason we needed to decide between the Sistine Chapel and Coliseum and Foro to get a feel of this great city.

Because we had an idea that Rome fills the senses with its many squares, fountains, narrow streets, neighborhoods, food, drinks, deserts and ice creams… for these reasons Rome is known as the eternal city.

We decided to enjoy Rome by strolling through the streets and making plans on the hoof on the Saturday and visiting the Foro and Coliseum on the Sunday.

The first Sunday of each month offers free entry to all areas of the Coliseum (Foro, Palatino and Coliseum).

This coincides with our visit as this is when we arrived.

One of the things that surprises us most was when we arrived to the train station “Roma Termini” because inside one part has been tastefully restored and it has been transformed into an enormous food market “Il mercato centrale Roma”. You can see the different roman food on offer.

We were open-mounted about the possibilities that there were, in each shop they have any specialty: pizzas, vegetarian dishes, cheeses, chocolates, burgers, truffle dishes, fresh fish… all types of food that you can imagine.

You must try and go to one shop and buy the food and the waiters come to the tables to take orders for the drinks.

We decided to taste the TRAPIZZINO; it was our first time but may be it won’t the last. The trapizzino is made with pizza dough and filled with typical Roman recipes; we taste two: one with vegetables and chicken and the other with meat balls with tomato, very good, especially the chicken one.

Our journey started very well we had supper in the market with our suitcases and we finished we went to the hotel, which is situated very close to the train station, hotel Morgana , the hotel is twenty minutes on food to the historical center and the relation between the quality and prices is highly recommended.

On Saturday we decided to explore the streets on food. We took the underground in Rome Termini (train station) to the “piazza Spagna” and it was our first stop.

We put together a simple walking guide that you can follow so you won’t visit one place twice.

The “Piazza Spagna” is the main meeting point in Rome and is also very famous because of the Audrey Hepburn film “Rome in holidays” however, don’t expect to see the square empty at any moment, included when it is pouring as it’s always crowded and lively.

From Piazza Spagna we walked via Condotti enjoying the designer’s shops and the window displays showing the latest fashion. In Condotti Street we recommended you stop for a “ristretto” coffee in “Café del Greco” is a local coffee shop with more than 250 years of history.

At the crossed roads between Condotti and Corso Avenue we turn left and we arrived to the “Poppolo Square”, in this square the most interesting thing is the two churches which are exactly the same but if you look closely you will discover some differences and also here you will see the “Fountains of Neptune”.

From here you can double back to Corso Avenues and turn right in Caravita street and go straight on until you arrive at “Agripas’s Pantheon” or “Rome’s Pantheon”, in the center of Rome you find a temple built in 118 AD, it’s breathtaking an you have free entry.

It’s true that Rome is like walking through the pages of a history book.

If you turn and face the Pantheon you will see three streets and on the street on the right you will find the “Piazza Navona”, for us this is the most beautiful square in Rome. This square was built on an old stadium dating from 85 AD.

The old stadium and the current square have exactly the same measurements of 276 meters long by 106 wide and it holds up to 30.000 people, for this reason the square has an oval form based on a roman circus.

The Piazza Navona is a beautiful spot for lunch or dinner, but not in the same square… in Rome you must to escape from the main tourist areas (as a most big cities), but in a few meters adjacent to any street you can find local restaurants serving perfect Roman cuisine like the place we chose, the don’t have a website but they have a facebook page you can consult: Piccola Cucagna.

We ate like at home, in a cozy atmosphere, Mediterranean food, and delicious deserts.

We tasted carpaccio, aubergines with pesto, tiramisu and panacotta with strawberries. After a good coffee we left to search “Corso Avenue” and we continued ahead to “Piazza Venezia”, in this place the first monument that we found was the controversial “Vittorio Emmmanuele monument” the local name for this monument is “The Typewriter” because of its shape.

The monument was built to commemorate the Italian reunification however many beautiful renaissance buildings were knocked down to situated the monument, hence the controversy.

One the other side of the square you can find Palazzo Venezia (Venice Palace) that gave its name to the square. It is a unique as it the only original renaissance building in the square because in front of it is a reproduction which was built in the XX century.

We continued our walk and returned to Corso Avenue and counting five streets on the right we arrive to the “Trevi Fountain”, it was a marvelous sight but extremely crowded as was the “Piazza Spagna” but it feeling much more crowded because the square is condensed in a small area.

It is impressive to see however.

Then we decide to go back to the hotel to rest and get ready for Saturday night, we decided to visit the old neighborhood of Trastevere on the other side of the river Tiber, where there are many typical “Trattorias”.

We tried to work out the difference between the “Trattoria”, “Osteria” and “Ristorante” and concluded that the “Trattoria” is a family restaurant with authentic handmade Italian dishes following family recipes, the ”Osteria is a bar that specializes in wine with various menus and a “Ristorante” is a restaurant, more formal, with a more elaborates menus and normally more expensive.

We decided to try the “Taverna della Scala” an old “Osteria” in the busy neighborhood of Trastevere where we had a good dinner, the highlight was the “Gnocchi al Tartufo” (truffles) we never imagine that these two ingredients would go together and be so tasty, it was really delicious.

On Sunday morning we walked twenty minutes from our hotel, situated close to the train station, to the ticket office “Foro Romano”, we would like to remind you the first Sunday of each month the entry is free and you save 12€ per person, this is the cost of the tickets (in 2018). However the tickets must be picked-up form the Foro ticket office because the Coliseum ticket office usually has long queues.

If you are not here for the first Sunday of the month, it’s better to purchase you ticket on the internet, it’s 2€ more (14€ per person)  but it’s worth it because you  avoid the massive queues around the Coliseum.

But be careful to book you tickets on the official site “Roman Tourist” Coopculture as there are many sites which are usually more expensive.

Another option is Roma pass which will give you entry for 48 or 72 hours to sights that you decided.

Going with children maybe a good option is to take a visit with a English guide for the Forum, the Colosseum and the Palatine … that way, they live a true history class in situ. We took the audio guide in Spanish, but it fell short. The best of the forum for us: the two arches of Triunfo, especially that of Tito with its almost 2000 years of history.

In the same enclosure you visit also the hill of the Court one where one was finding the imperial residence. What we liked most of the visit to the Palatine are its view over theRoman Forum and circo Massimo.

Once tour the Roman Forum and Palatine  you have to exit and return, with the same ticket, to the Coliseum. A lot of people goes only to the Colosseum without going through the Forum so the queues are tremendous, as you can see in the photo.

 Queues for the Colosseum reach the Arch of Constantine.

Once inside the Colosseum you shudders you to see the greatness of this building, no doubt the Colosseum is the symbol of Rome. Both, the outside and inside, are worth. You have to calculate a quarter of an hour to give the return and 45 minutes inside, with what you need a full hour to visit. And as we said before it is easy to jump the queue in three ways:

1.- Remove the entry into the ticket office of the Forum that does not have large queues and go directly to the entrance of the Coliseum without the tail.

2.- By making the booking, costs 2€ more, you also spend without tails.

3.- Rome Pass card, which includes preferential entry. Without tail.

Colosseum  don’t say no more, we simply leave some photos we did in March of 2018.

Panoramic view inside of the Coliseum in Rome.