Day 1 - Friday, July 13 -

Flying in after ten days in London.

Quickly through Heathrow Security. For all of the horror stories, we navigated check in, customs, and security in under 30 minutes. This was much faster and easier than leaving Rochester or Chicago on th way to London.

The flight was quick and we had a great view of the Alps. The flight was, however, rowdy. It was a normal BA flight but it was the oddest flight I have ever been on. People constantly trading seats and moving throughout the cabin. People standing up in groups and leaning over seats. Flight attendants constantly up and down the aisles, squeezing past these congregated groups and not saying anything. Truly odd.

Landed in Rome, baggage was slow to arrive. Once through, the ATM would only work in Italian. This was stressful but I manage to get Euros. Our driver brought us into our apartment in Rome on record time. How many mph is 175 kph? .

Last night we ate dinner at a restaurant right below our apartment. Amazing and not too pricey. Al Braciere on Via Della Chiesa Nuova. We walked through Piazza Navona an I joked that we could accidentally bump into the Pantheon if we took a wrong turn. 5 minutes later, we rounded a corner and there was the Pantheon. Amazing view at night.

Wifi is spotty right now so I won't do Rome updates until that gets settled. Maybe once we are home if it doesn't work out well.

Day 2 - Saturday, July 14 -

Headed right out and walked to our meeting point for our Forum and Colosseum tour. Met up at a cafe near the lower forum and headed out.

Great tour though Roma Experiences. https://www.romaexperience.com/
Our guide was Paola and she has a PhD on archeology. Very knowledgable and yet able to entertain the children in our group. I can't recommend them high enough.

We walked towards the Basillica de San Clemente and stopped for lunch at one of the many places along the way. When we got to San Clemente it was closed for its afternoon break so we decided to head home and do the same.

We quickly rested and set out to stroll the local neighborhood.

Dinner was at the restaurant down stairs again:
http://www.ristorante-albraciere.it/il-ristorante/

Excellent and well priced

After a long dinner we headed to Trevo Fountain and people watched for a whole before crashing.

"Our driver brought us into our apartment in Rome on record time. How many mph is 175 kph?"

Sounds like our driver. He accomplished this while carrying a conversation on his mobile phone. My main concern was that in the event of an accident how they could possibly find our insurance policy (for the kids) in what remained of the tangled car wreckage. We survived but I don't know how our 2 bottles of Johnny Walker Black remained intact in the boot. Shaken, not stirred thankyou bartender

Day 3 - Sunday, July 15 -

Woke up early as we had the 9 am slot for the Borghese Gallery. This is a log, uphill walk. A cab or the bus may have been wise. After a bit of a mob to get in once they opened the doors (as we had all lined up on the portico instead of at the door down below the portico where the entrance actually is) we were in and got our tickets.

We grabbed some coffee and food at the cafe in the gallery while everyone else was lining up to get in. We had 30 minutes to wait before 9. We checked our bags (all have to be checked in) and headed into the gallery. Very impressive. We didn't quite spend our whole 2 hours here and headed out to the Capitoline Museum.

After getting turned around in some of the Roman alleys, made it at around noon (an hour walk) only to be greated with a long line. We waited and headed for the one exhibit we came for, Lux Arcana. An exhibit of original Vatican Documents that have never before been seen. Simply amazing. Well worth the walk, wait in line, and admission price. Letters from Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were highlights for me.

We eased back towards the Campo di Fiori area and had a late (by our standards) lunch at Hostaria La Danesina. Again, cheap and amazing.

We rested in our apartment for a bit (I can't stress enough that this apartment was in the perfect location for easy quick resting whether coming from the Vatican, Historical Sites, or just strolling the Piazzas) and the headed out for a walk through Trasteveri. It was a bit further away than it appeared on the map but was a nice walk to see the other side of Rome.

We then went to get some Gelato at a well known place near us. Gelatetia del Teatro was great. Small servings but crazy flavors and very high quality.

Being the predictable folks that we are, we had dinner downstairs again. We did walk around and found a few of the places recommended by the food apps were closed on Sundays. So, we went with what we know. Again, amazed at the quality of the food and we haven't repeated a meal there yet.

We crashed shortly after dinner with a big day ahead of us.

Looking forward to reading your Rome report after your delightful London TR.

Nice to see the updates. Glad you are enjoying Rome too!

Hi
I am beginning to plan next years trip to Rome. Would you mind sharing name and website of your apartment and your comments on it.
Thanks

bmk

t

TDK, once home I can give you all the details you need and a detailed review of the apartment.

JerLon
Thanks would appreicate the info.
Hope you are having a great vacation.

Thanks for sharing this nice informative post here.

Looking forward to more (and info about your hotel). Great TR!

"I'm typing these updates on my iPhone"

"I Landed in Rome, baggage was slow to arrive."

Sometimes I forget how much fun this place can be.

Day 4 - Monday, July 16 -

Woke up early to get to our 9:15 AM Scavi Tour. The Swiss Guard wouldn't let us through until 9:00 AM and then we got to the Scavi Office without any issues and went on the tour. A woman on our tour continually tried to take photos and was stopped each time.

The let us out into the pathway area between the Sistine Chapel and the Basilica. We were able to stop into the Basilica (and probably could have walked up the ramp into the Sistine Chapel too).

We quickly rested before heading down to Pizzarium for Lunch. The best pizza, ever. Well worth a stop.

We then went on a Vatican Museum tour with RomaExperience. Our guide was not good and seemed distracted. However, RomaExperience refunded us the tour amount minus the cost of admission to the museums.

Did the museums, the Sistine Chapel, and St. Peters and were beat.

We rested for a bit and then did dinner at a restaurant somewhere on Governo Vecchio.

Day 5 - Tuesday, July 17 -

We woke up and walked through Campo Di Fiori in the morning. Lots of good fresh fruits and vegetables. Very well priced and very high quality.

Lunch in some restaurant in an Alley between Campo Di Fiori and the main road before heading towards TopBike Rental for our Appian Way Bike Tour.

We booked this tour through RomaExperience but they outsource all of their bike tours to TopBike. To save a few dollars, book directly through TopBike. I might still book through RomaExperience though as they have a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee and are very easy to deal with.

The Bike Tour of the Appian Way (http://www.topbikerental.com/Appian.php) was absolutely perfect. Definitely the highlight of our trip. I would recommend this to anyone who can ride a bike. It is a side of Rome you cannot otherwise see.

The bike tour goes until around 8:00 pm. We ate dinner and crashed. 40 km on a bike is tiring.

Day 6 - Wednesday, July 18 -

We started off with the Eating Italy Food Tour - http://www.eatingitalyfoodtours.com/.

This tour was high quality. Our guide, Domenico, is from Jersey but has lived in Rome for 12 years. He did a great job. It was easily a full meal (or two) plus a fun tour with a lot of history and teaching mixed in. One of our favorite tours.

If you go on a warm day, be sure to bring lots of water though as there aren't many stops along the way.

After the tour (and the walk back to our apartment) we needed a quick rest before heading out for a walk through some Piazzas and some much needed Gelato. We tried a few places and all were good. My favorites were Frididarium and Gelateria del Treato (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187791-d1140866-Reviews-Gelateria_del_Teatro-Rome_Lazio.html). Some very unique flavors available at Treato.

We roamed a bit and found a knock off bag for the wife and some sunglasses for myself. Please be sure to barter. I saw a few folks paying the first price the street vendor suggested. Insane. The bag started at $50 and we got it for $15. The sunglasses started at $50/pair and it ended up being 2 for $20. I think I could have got the sunglasses down a bit more.

Day 7 - Thursday, July 19 -

We got up and packed up before walking over to Campo do Fiori to grab some snacks for the trip and have a quick breakfast.

Our driver was 15 minutes early and got us to the airport in record time.

I will say this again, this airport may function worse than any airport I have ever been in (including in Tanzania and Kazakhstan). They are slow and inefficient. The computers were not working at the British Air Kiosks and British Air would not check in anyone until the plane had departed London (it was delayed). Maybe this is a complaint against BA, not the airport, but it was ridiculous.

Once past BA, we navigated security and found our gate. Security here is a joke. The guard was reading something on his phone (some website on a smart phone), I handed him our passports and he just waved me off and passed me through.

24 hours (and lots of crying babies) later, we were home in Rochester.

Apartment Review -

We rented this apartment: http://www.flipkey.com/rome-vacation-rentals/p286001/

The price was reasonable and the location was amazing. I would rent it again in a heartbeat. The owner, Olivia, is great. She arranged all transportation for us (at our cost, of course) and was very good at communicating. She recommended restaurants and lots of other options in the local area for us.

For us, it was a 15 minute walk to the Vatican, 20 to the Colosseum, and 5 to Piazza Navona.

Perfect area to be.

My only complaint is that the WIFI only worked in the closet. I'm not sure why (signal strength?) but, if I needed WIFI for work, I would probably bring a signal extender with me and stick that in the closet.

She says it sleeps 4 but it easily slept 2. She also owns the adjacent apartment (she clearly split this into 2 apartments) and both can be rented together for a larger family or two couples.

Questions?

Sounds like you had a good time. Thanks for the write up.

Thanks for the trip report. A bike ride sounds great. I went right over to the website to check it out. The gelato places sound good and so does the restaurant below your apartment. Hmm...I might just copycat your trip. I need to check out the eating tour now.

It appears you went to the TRasteveri neighborhood twice -- Since the food tour was located there. Is that correct. Would you suggest walking there from your apartment to the tour location - since you still walk for four hours more ? Was the tour location easy to find?

Thank for the name of the apartment.
Am I right that there is not an elevator and if so how many steps to reach the apartment?
My other concern is the weakness of the WIFI.It seems as if it might be difficult to use a PC in the closet or were you able to sit in the sitting area to use your pc?
Can you give the address so I can pinpoint the location of the apartment on a map.
I really appreciate your feedback so soon

The food tour is mainly in a neighborhood south of Trasteveri. I can't recall the name, I can check if you need.

The food tour is a very easy walk but we ended up sprint/walking to get there as it is much further away than expected.

If we had more money than time, I would have taken a cab. However, we had more time than money

The tour guide offers to call cabs at the end of the food tour and we declined. We needed to walk off the calories. It was a bit of a hike though.

Again, we are fairly fit and active. We liked walking extended lengths (we walk at least 3 miles a day at home during good weather outside of working out). If you don't fit that bill, cabs are a reasonable option.

If we had used cabs for some of the longer walks, we would have added around $100 to our expenses. I think from the apartment to the site of the tour would be around 8 euros. Quite reasonable.

Thanks Jer - sounds like a cab there and a walk back would be ok for us then. I envision being late and lost!

TDK - I was able to sit in the closet. I put a chair in front of the door and there is a shelf that is almost at desk height.

It wasn't ideal, but it worked for me.

Address is: via della Chiesa nuova, Rome. I won't give the street number for some anonymity.

No elevator. Maybe 20 steps? Two flights plus a flight of 3 or 4 steps.

Sounded like a wonderful trip!

Davispeets - 6 People missed our tour. They just put them on the next tour to go out. No biggy. However, your vision is quite accurate to reality. It is a non-tourist area for sure.

JerLon, it sounds like you had a wonderful trip. We will be staying in Rome in August and your notes are very helpful. Thanks for sharing!

JerLon
Thanks for the information, I am adding this apartment as a possibility to my list.
It sounds as if your trip was great. I also have made notes for my trip next year

How long was the bike ride? Is it mainly on cobblestones? I'm such a wimpy bike rider but hubby loves the notion....44 days and counting..... sounds like you had a good time. How was the weather?

The bike ride was six hours long of which four were pedaling.

Also stopped at the catacombs, at a farm, and stopped at several interesting sites.

Weather was amazing. 80's and sunny.

Big Sigh.....sounds nice, I may have to share this with hubby. Thanks for the info.