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| omarjamaludin |
 Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:29 pm Post subject: Travel Tips - How Conquer Rome in a Weekend! |
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Joined: 18 Feb 2004
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just wanna share with you fine I-bands ppl 
Intro
Rome , (or Roma as some people would call it - like Italians in general ) is the capital for Italy in the region of Lazio.
Legend has it that Rome was founded by the twins Romulus and Remus who were supposedly raised by a wolf.
this is not bestiality okay...just babies sucking on wolfie niples..like the jungle story
By the way that statues exists somewhere in Rome but i could not find it for some reason (imagine me shouting at my female colleagues whole day 'hey enough of shopping! when can we go and see the wolf-breast-feeding-babies statue!!!!??') but that's another story...
back to topic - some people might say 'yeah you need atleast 4-5 days to see all of Roma has to offer' but being the optimistic guy who has time / budget constraint i've decided to try finish up Roma in a weekend with my esteemed colleague from my company ..
The Journey to Rome
Roma has three airports - since the other two is not an 'international' airport, i'm just gonna ignore it and tell you about the other one which is the Fiumicino Airport or Leonarda Da Vinci International Airport.
Located about 30 mins by train south west of Rome , you can just hop on the train from the airport which will set you back 11 euros.
my colleague elsie in the train...
The train ride is pretty comfortable - i know for a fact that taking a cab from Roma to the airport will set you back 40 euros so if you have 4 people - it is better to take the cab - faster and more convenient i'd say. But if you wanna see some of the countryside before arriving in Rome , do take the train.
The train will stop at Rome's central train station called Termini - something like KL sentral in Malaysia lah.. Termini is well connected - you can board the Metro line (underground) and busses from here. We shall use this Termini as a starting point of our journey - but do check in to your hotel first 
Let's start the tour shall we?
Vatican City area , 9am - 1pm
We start our tour by going to the fartherst point from the Termini - Vatican City and St Peter Basilica. Take the Metro (yellow line) from Termini to Cipro station (about a 15min ride).
to be continued....
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Last edited by omarjamaludin on Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:31 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| omarjamaludin |
| Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:30 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 18 Feb 2004
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Location: Tmn Melawati
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The Metro train are not really as modern as Malaysia's LRT - it is more like the New York Subway or some of the old Tube train of London.
Anyway, from Cipro Station you have to walk for about 5 mins to the Vatican city area. You can't really go in the Vatican City itself - I'm not sure why - but you can always go to Basilica and Sistine Chapel (these are the main attraction anyway, who wants to see a small country like Vatican City anyway? just kidding )
In front of the Basilica St Peter - there's a huge square with a nice fountain - very nice place to take pics as shown below :
You can queue up to go into Basilica and once you're done with that you can head up to Sistine Chapel (about 10 mins walk)
and go see the wanders of Michael Angelo's painting (all for about 5 Euros i think - but gate closes around 3.30pm!)
Castel Sant' Angelo , 2pm-3pm
So once you've done all that which should take you maybe 3 hours ( you can actually spend a day in this area alone, but we're on a time constraint remember?) let's head to the Castel S. Angelo (Castle of St Angelo i think?). It's about 20 mins walking to the east of the Vatican City area and located nicely by the Fiume River.
From Wikipedia (too lazy to paraphrase )
"The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as the Castel Sant'Angelo is a towering cylindrical building in Rome, initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. The building, located in the rione of Borgo, spent over a thousand years as a fortress and castle, and is now a museum."
Castel Sant'Angelo
a statue around the castle area
the castle again..
to be continued - Spanish Steps...
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| omarjamaludin |
| Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:32 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 18 Feb 2004
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Spanish Steps 3-5pm
From the Castel Sant'Angelo , we walked east crossing the Fiume river to the Spanish Steps.
It's a good half an hour walk but well worth it since you'll be seeing nice river view and lotsa of these small-small piazza. Also as you walk to the Spanish Steps , you'll pass by the high street or shopping center of Rome - something like Oxford St of London , Orchard St of Singapore or Jalan TAR of KL he he he... you can find plenty of Italian brand shops like Salvatore , Hermes , Gucci and stuff like that. This is a shopping haven for ladies or old aunties la - for guys there's nothing much here - unless you are very metrosexual LOL...
so back to Spanish Steps - what is this Spanish Steps anyway? it's definitely not a latest dance craze like Macarena la ..
Let me steal some lines (again) from Wikipedia:
"The Spanish Steps (Italian: Scalinata di Piazza di Spagna) is a set of stairs in Rome, ramping a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, with the church under the patronage of the Bourbon kings of France, Trinità dei Monti, above."
taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Steps"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Steps
really busy part of Rome especially Saturday night...those are my colleagues by the way..
For those who are lazy to walk or old farts (just kidding ) Spanish Steps and the whole shopping district area is conveniently located nearby the Spagna Metro Station. So you can either walk from Castel Sant'Angelo to Spanish Steps or board Metro Yellow line to Spagna Station.
Oh just a quick info on the Metro line - you pay 4 Euros for whole day pass or 1 Euros for a all-access ticket that will last you 75 minutes.
to be continued - Fontana Di Trevi
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my photoblog - http://sigemok.blogspot.com
Last edited by omarjamaludin on Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:40 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| omarjamaludin |
| Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:34 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 18 Feb 2004
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Fontana Di Trevi 5-7pm
Once you're done with Spanish Steps, walk south to Fontana Trevi (about 10 minutes).
Fontana Di Trevi is a very nice fountain where people throw coins over their left shoulders and make wishes and stuff ( "Please let me get laid in Roma with hot italian chicks" is not really a wish - tried that and nothing happened dang wasted $0.20 euros! )
Here comes a wiki!
"The Trevi Fountain (Italian: Fontana di Trevi) is the largest — standing 25.9 meters (85 feet) high and 19.8 meters (65 feet) wide — and most ambitious of the Baroque fountains of Rome. It is located in the rione of Trevi."
taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontana_di_Trevi"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontana_di_Trevi
Since 5pm in late fall seasion time is quite dark already (sunset usually around 4 pm) this is where we can take picture of your typical silky2 water with 1/8 sec shutter speed stuff. Bring a tripod guys!
Conveniently located in the same vicinity of the fountain is Gelato Bar! wee hee..there's plenty of Gelato ice cream parlor in Roma - I've been to two places so far Gelataria Bar and Giolitti - you can definitely forget about your local Malaysian Gelato place called Lecka-Lecka.
If you're one of the folks who thinks LeckaLecka invented Gelato then read this on please:
From Wiki:
"Gelato or Gelati is an Italian frozen dessert made from milk and sugar, combined with other flavourings. The gelato ingredients (after an optional pasteurization) are super-cooled while stirring to break up ice crystals as they form. Like high end ice cream, gelato generally has less than 35% air - resulting in a dense and extremely flavoursome product."
basically you what you'd get is an ice cream which is more creamier and oh so yummy - these are usually hand made at the back of the store instead of like Lecka2 where they processed it in some Kilang in Sg Buloh and shipped it over to KLCC and Bukit Bintang all hard and frozen...
go to this place - Giolitti - ask the locals where it is - ask for gelato served with whipped cream ..yummy..
what lecka lecka?
to be continued - Pantheon & Piazza Novona
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Last edited by omarjamaludin on Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:41 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| omarjamaludin |
| Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 18 Feb 2004
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Location: Tmn Melawati
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Piazza Navona and Pantheon 7-9pm
From Fontana Di Trevi , walk westwards for about 15 mins and you'll reach Piaza Navona. It is the largest square in Rome and truly a sight to be seen.
I did not take much picture here since there was fun fair going on so you can't really see the size of the square itself.
More info can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_Navona"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_Navona
*nerd talk* according to wikipedia , this piazza was featured in Dan Brown's book - Angel and Demons - as one of the Altars of Science. *end of nerd talk*
merry go round @ Piazza Navona
inside one of the churches around the piazza navona
errrrr...
This is a good place to have dinner - plenty of Italian Restaurants around here - do try Cafe Bernini at the northern end of the piazza.
after the dinner - time to relax and play some games to loosened up that stomach a bit hehe..
next stop - Pantheon
About 3 minutes walk east of that piazza is the great Pantheon - the great Temple of the Gods!
wiki wiki - "The Pantheon (Latin Pantheon[1], from Greek Πάνθεον Pantheon, meaning "Temple of all the Gods") is a building in Rome which was originally built as a temple to the seven deities of the seven planets in the state religion of Ancient Rome, but which has been a Christian church since the 7th century".
plagiarized from here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon%2C_Rome"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon%2C_Rome
I think in addition to the Colosseum, this is one of those architectural marvels you've gotta see with nice dome ceiling with one big hole that lit up the whole place.
This place closes around 8.30 but it's best to go there during there to see how the sunlight comes in and lights up the whole building.
front entrance of the Pantheon
inside the Pantheon
Priest inside the Pantheon...
to be continued - Roman Forum and Colloseum at night!
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my photoblog - http://sigemok.blogspot.com
Last edited by omarjamaludin on Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:41 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| omarjamaludin |
| Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:37 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 18 Feb 2004
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Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II and Colloseum 9-11 pm
Once we're done with Pantheon , we head south east about 20 mins walk to Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II.
This huge monument was build entirely with white marble which contrast with most of the brownish colored buildings in Rome.
It also has tall Corinthian columns, fountains, a huge equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel and two statues of goddess Victoria riding on quadrigas.
next stop - Colloseum!
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| omarjamaludin |
| Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 7:37 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 18 Feb 2004
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Colloseum
this shall be your last place to visit for the night..what's better than spending some time during the night admiring the real reason people flock to Rome - the Colloseum...
to go to Colloseum from the Monument Victoria - just head down south - you can basically see Colloseum from the Monument itself , it is about 200m away. On the way to the Colloseum , you can see ancient ruins left by the Romans - which are gazzeted as historical site.
if you need a tripod for night shooting , worry not cos there's plenty of enterprising pakistanis / indians who sells cheapo tripod for you to use..
well that's basically the travel guide for the whole Saturday - it should be around 10-11pm right now..good time to go back to the hotel and get a good night sleep.
Sunday - Whole day
Basically for the following day on Sunday - you can opt to go back to all the places you've been to on Saturday so that you can see how different it'll look like during the day. In the morning , you can go to the Colloseum for the tour inside of the building, this will set you back 11 euros. You can also get an audio guide for 4.50 euros.
woo dizzy..
as you can see , there's really no sand field where they have the gladiator fights and stuff. Those are actually platforms filled on top with sands and underneath is a basement area where they keep all the animals , armour and also VIP lounge for the Gladiators.
After checking out Colloseum - I'd suggest you take the Metro line (there's a nearby Metro line) to check out Spanish Steps, Fontana Di Trevi and and Pantheon.
Piazza Rotunda - in front of the Pantheon
Well guys, I hope you guys would find these slightly too-detailed travel guide helpful in the near future when you visit Rome..if there's one place you gotta visit in whole of Europe - make sure it is Rome - my colleagues went to Barcelona and other cities after that - they say it's not as fun as Rome where Rome basically provide tons of tourist attraction in one central place and the culture/historical values of the Baroque and Roman times are still well preserved until today.
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| cartman, eric |
| Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 12:02 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 05 Jan 2006
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dude....ur in italy....
mane gambo2 vintage Vespa...??? 
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"Jean Claude Van Damme is back. In the same crap you've seen over and over, and over again"
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| GryMlock |
| Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 12:09 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 24 Nov 2003
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Location: Agombak Ago go!
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| omarjamaludin |
| Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 12:12 am Post subject: |
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| omarjamaludin |
| Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 12:12 am Post subject: |
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| cartman, eric wrote: | dude....ur in italy....
mane gambo2 vintage Vespa...??? |
ala tu msia berlambak! lol...
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| deadzid |
| Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:48 am Post subject: |
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| silbi |
| Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:57 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 12 Oct 2005
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been there done that...
aku pergi Rome 3 hari dulu ...siap satu hari tu aku dapat pergi Pisa and Florence in just one day...naik tren dari pagi from Rome to Pisa and Florence...then balik Rome malam tu gak...rasa macam orang giler coz travel sorang2...time tu awex2 + member2 sume dah kena balik Msia dah.
but this was nearly 10 years ago...haha!
yupp....Roma Termini memang tak moden...aku ignat dulu ada 2 line je..Line A and line B...takde ler macam Paris or London...
then lepas Rome gua turun Barcelona...Barcelona is still the best place for me!! |
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