Rome - Day 2

This was a busy day with a slow start. Our Rome sightseeing started with a red bus tour of the inner city, which left us all sun fatigued as we had not appreciated how hot and sunny it would be. At the end of the bus tour, which began at Termini, we grabbed filled baguettes and took the red bus round to the meeting point for our guided walk of the Forum and Coliseum.

The bus tour was an excellent way of getting your bearings and seeing the main sites ready for going back to see an area or site in detail. With stops, the trip takes about 2 hours in total.

The afternoon was a pre-booked group guided walk with When In Rome Tours at 4.00pm of the Coliseum and Ancient Rome (the Forum) (30 Euros each). The walk started at the fountain to the right of the Virrorio Emanuele Monument (as you are looking at it from Piazza Venezia). Excellent, but tiring, tour especially in the heat. Next time I would wear a hat!! We did learn that you can fill up your water bottles from the water fountains that are seen all over Rome. The water is cool and refreshing, and perfectly safe to drink, just remember to have your empty water bottles ready to fill up. I managed the walking, but began to flag at the end. Due to lack of change we were not able to tip the guide, so this is something to remember for another time.

At the end of the Coliseum walk we headed to a nearby restaurant recommended in the AA Pocket Guide of Rome called Binario 4 at Via San Giovanni in Laterano 32. This was as cheap, but excellent, as the guide book suggested. After starters, dinner, wine and lager we headed 2 or 3 shops up the road (away from the Coliseum) and had our first ice-cream. Ice-cream from the gelateria throughout Rome is to be highly recommended. After a tiring, but informative, day we headed back to the Residenza for the night. We ended the evening with a bottle of wine on the upper terrace of the Residenza, shortly to be made into the open air breakfast room. When the terrace is fully open it will be a wonderful adition to the hotel.

If you only have one day in Rome, I could not recommend the Forum and Coliseum highly enough, especially with a guide. This walk helped us to appreciate everything else about Rome that was to come.

We were there in June, be warned that the heat is much greater than you will expect and the power of the sun drains you of energy completely. Do drink plenty of water at every opportunity.

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