Wheres me jumpa

Minnie and I have agreed to get away more this year. For various reasons over the past two years we have’nt got away enough and we intend on putting it right this year! First stop was Rome.

Ryanair flight to Ciampino airport and a return flight with Aer Lingus from Da Vinci airport came in at €140 for both of us. Neither airport is particularly close to the city. A bus from Ciampino to Termini took nearly 1 hour, although traffic was bad. The train from Termini to Da Vinci took approx 25 minutes.

We stayed in Hotel Lirico, a modest 3 star hotel, just around the corner from Termini station. The room was big, comfortable, clean and of course perfectly priced! The staff were very friendly and the location is excellent for getting around the city. I would definitely stay here again.

We kicked off the trip with dinner at a great Sardinian restaurant . It was like eating in a family’s living room. Great food and great service. I got my first sample of heaven, another round of food. The Italians have this great concept of another round of food between your appetizer and your main course. I for one think this concept should be introduced in Ireland, post haste. Several glasses of wine rounded off our first evening in Rome.

On our second day there we decided to blitz the sights. Something we regretted in the end, as we were shattered. We began by visiting St. Peters. A free audio tour(you will be hounded by people offering their services, the free one is more than adequate) of the church outlined some fascinating stories and facts. Most impressive was the dimensions of the church and how deceptive they are, i.e. what you think is small is actually very big, e.g. the engraved letters around the ceiling. The letters in the picture are 6ft tall, note the people just above them.

Next stop was The Colosseum. I was looking forward to this the most. While it is certainly very impressive, even in January, it was very busy and it was hard to find a good spot to take it all in. Here’s me trying to take it all in…

The Pantheon took us ages to find, it is buried in a maze of winding streets. But it was more than worth it. This huge ancient structure is now surround by low rise buildings and it looks completely out of place. It is as if it was just dropped into its location. Easily my favourite sight of the trip.

We stopped off at a few other sights throughout the day. The last if note was the Trevi fountain. Again hugely impressive and again very busy!

Tired and hungry we grabbed some food and rested up for our last full day in Rome. We returned to the Vatican to tour the Vatican Museums. To take even the majority of the museums in would take far longer than my annual leave will allow for. The main focus for us was the Sistine Chapel. It took nearly two hours to get to it and leave the museum again so allow plenty of time. And allow for plenty of ssshhhing in the Sistine Chapel also.

Intent on sampling more wine and food we quickly stopped off at The Spanish Steps.

Last stop was The Capuchin Crypt. The crypt is adjacent to a church. It comprises of 6 small rooms or chapels. The decor is unusual to say the least. The bones of nearly 4000 monks are used to decorate the chapels. It will take you only five minutes to go through it all but it is five minutes of heeby jeebies!

We left on Sunday morning very happy with our few days in Rome. There is so much to see, we touched on the major sights. I cant wait to go back again and find the lesser known area’s and above all sample the food and this incredible extra round of food the Italians have invented!

Next stop, London baby!