CFB in Rome
Hi all!
Kerry here, writing about our Rome mini break.
We found our trip through British Airways Holidays. After comparing like for like with Easyjet we found the BA Holidays deal better value, with more luggage allowance and much less unholy flight times. We paid £350 each which included 4 full days and 4* hotel with buffet breakfast.
Travelling around Rome
To get to the city centre from Fiumicino Airport we caught the Leonardo Express train direct to Rome Terminal, where we planned to catch the Metro to travel around the city. The thing with the Metro is it only covers half the city, so expect to do a lot of walking.
Duration: 30 minutes
Frequency: Every 15-30 minutes
Cost: €14 each way
Beware:
Before you board the train, once you’ve scanned your ticket at the gates to enter the platform, you MUST stick your ticket inside another small, inconspicuous machine further down the platform to ‘validate’ it.
There are public buses and taxis to catch, but still be careful when catching a taxi as tourists can be overcharged.
Accommodation
Hotel Metropolis is about a 7-minute walk to Lepanto Metro Station and equidistant from Vatican City and the extravagant designer shopping area by the Spanish Steps. Our hotel was positioned on a shady, tree-lined road. It was modern, comfortable, had a powerful shower, good air con and the staff were chirpy and helpful. Breakfast was full of variety. I always like to see sugared donuts as a breakfast option, tell myself I’ll have one tomorrow and then never actually do it.
Day 1 – Carbs, Ice Cream and Rome’s Central Park
Mondo Arancina
Near to the hotel we found an Arancini place called Mondo Arancina, a small chain of casual snack stops specialising in the Italian/Sicilian speciality of deep fried, stuffed rice balls. Splayed out in front of us was dozen flavours of golden Arancini. We went for the Bolognese and Mozzarella stuffed ball and Truffle Mozzarella.
Gelateria La Romana
The Gelateria La Romana gelato cafe near the River Tiber made the perfect place to sit and plan our day. Pink chocolate is all the rage at the moment and until this visit we hadn’t actually tried it, so ordered a scoop of the Ruby Chocolate Chip over Hazelnut Truffle. We’d describe it as slightly tart, red berry flavoured white chocolate. We also picked up a Ruby Chocolate Kit Kat from a corner shop.
Villa Borghese Gardens
Next stop was the Villa Borghese Gardens for a few hours of walking around in a green and pleasant environment. It’s the equivalent of New York’s Central Park or London’s Hyde Park. At every turn we found more architectural treasures, ruins, fountains, lakes, a gallery, the Villa, cafes and a fabulous city view point that overlooked the route down to the Spanish Steps. It turned out to be a bit of breathing space from the densely packed tourist areas.
**Hire a peddle car or a Segway to get around the park as it’s quite vast. It’s like a theme park for architects!
The Spanish Steps
The Spanish Steps were built to link the Trinità dei Monti church that was under the patronage of the King of France, with the Spanish style square below.
Trattoria time
Craving a true Italian carbonara, we hit up a Trattoria. We knew exactly what we wanted – a bottle of Pecorino and bowl of carbs. You won’t recognise this carbonara from the creamy English interpretation though…
Day 2 – Christian Art, Castles and Coffee
- Vatican Museums
- Castel Sant’Angelo
- Pompi Tiramisu (now found in London too)
- Sciascia Caffe
- Fountain of The Four Rivers
- Cantina & Cucina
Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel
The Vatican Museums are Christian art museums located within Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by popes throughout the centuries including several of the most renowned Roman sculptures and most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world. This place wowed our tiny minds! After you’ve toured the Museums you must visit the Sistine Chapel. You can’t take pics inside, so sadly we have none to show you, but trust us, it’s utterly incredible.
**Our tip would be to pre-book your visit to the Vatican Museums for as early as you can stomach it. We booked our excursion through Expedia, but there’s lots of choice. It’s much cheaper to rock up early and guide yourself around though. The queues quickly become unimaginably long, so be warned! A guided tour is helpful though because you can learn so much.
St Mark’s Square
Afterwards, we walked out of the Museums and through the pillars marking the boundary between Italy and Vatican City (the World’s smallest country). It’s at this point you get the feeling you’re Robert Langton in The Da Vinci Code. It started to rain while we were there but that meant we had a cracking opportunity to snap some creative photos…
Pompi
The thought of take away tiramisu sounds rather cliché, but it’s a real thing! These Pompi cafés pop up all around Rome, so getting hold of this traditional treat is easy! €4 per box isn’t half bad either!
Castel Sant’Angelo
Castel Sant’Angelo is so near to Vatican City it’s a good idea to do one after the other. The main draw of visiting this historic castle is the view from the top, and if you like rare and precious jewels, you’ll also appreciate the free Bvlgari jewellery exhibition on here at the moment. €15 entry and no need to pre-book.
Sciascia Caffe 1919
Most of the coffee shops have a speciality or something unique they’re known for. Sciasia Caffe near Lepanto Metro was established 100 years ago in 1919. Its speciality drink is a shot of espresso in a cup drizzled with chocolate around the inside. See below on the left…
Fountain of The Four Rivers
Evening is a magical time to be in Rome. It’s just as important to see the architecture at night as it is in the day. On our second night we stopped at Piazzo Pamhilj opposite the Fountain of The Four Rivers. A quick glass of Prosecco infront of that view was magical!
Cantina & Cucina
Cantina & Cucina Italian restaurant was an absolute smash hit. While we stood in the queue waiting for a table, the staff served us free Prosecco! It was such a fun place to be and this was entirely down to the personality of the staff. We took a pocket food quiz with us to dinner and did quick fire rounds with the staff throughout the night. It was so cheap too!
Lasagne and Spaghetti with Meatballs 
Bruschetta
Chocolate ‘Salami’ 
Tiramisu
Day 3 – Colosseum, Keyhole and Four Cheeses
- The Colosseum
- Roman Forum
- Fuorinorma restaurant
- The Aventine Keyhole
- The Pantheon
- Trevi Fountain
- The Altar of The Fatherland
- Pizza!
The Colosseum
We arrived at the Colosseum for 8:30am on our Third day. Every day there’s an invasion of approximately 20,000 tourists here, so unless you want to queue for hours to get in, pre-book your excursion or arrive as soon as it opens. We would recommend an official guided tour as there’s no information to read on your way round.
Roman Forum
Combine your trip to the Colosseum with the Roman Forum, as it’s nearby. It’s a strange collection of obliterated ancient Government buildings. The nearest entrance to Forum is just off the Colosseum, but if you walk for another 10 mins to the second entrance there’s never a queue to get in. This can save you literally tens of minutes queue time.
Lunch at Fuorinorma
If you don’t like to mix sweet fruit with savoury items, look away now! We have to say the board of food looked much more appetising than it ate. The pate spread on the slices of bread was horrible. Everything was either a little bit too dry or undercooked salad beans and pulses and overcooked aubergine shrivels. Not a great lunch experience this one.
The Aventine Keyhole
Through literally a keyhole in a door, you’ll be able to see a perfectly framed image of the dome of St Peter’s Basilica, but sadly our cameras couldn’t focus on it. You can see it with the naked eye though and it’s such a cool experience. It’ll literally take 30 seconds of your time, but it’s such a surprise! It’s the little things in life, isn’t it? Good to do after the Roman Forum.
It was a long walk out there though, but we don’t regret it. On the way to the keyhole (5 mins before you get there) you’ll pass a park on your right offering stunning views over the city.
The Pantheon
The Pantheon is free to enter and as it’s so large inside the queues reduce quickly. The most popular time to visit is midday as the sun beams directly through the hole in the centre of the dome through to the floor in the most ethereal way. What we didn’t realise at first was that the hole in the top of the dome is completely open to the elements so when it rains, it rains all over the marble flooring. The building is still used as a Church to this day so you can sit inside and stay as long as you wish. Another must see!
Trevi Fountain
Trevi Fountain is a must see. Always lots of crowds but you won’t have to queue too long to get a space for a photo as people are always moving in and out. Expect it to be busy and do watch your pockets, but enjoy it, soak up the magnificence and don’t forget to throw in a coin with your right hand over your left shoulder, to ensure that you will return to Rome in the future. It worked for me.
The Altar of The Fatherland
There’s so much splender to see in Rome, it’s unreal! Not far from Trevi Fountain is this imposing, colossal beast of a neoclassical monument, Altare della Patria (The Altar of the Fatherland). You can walk all over it and snap some impressive views of the city. Free to explore!
Pizza
There are so many little Trattorias throughout Rome that we can’t remember what this one was called, and it’s so hard to find them on a map unless you were really paying attention to which street you were on at the time! Pizza is always perfect and you can’t go wrong wherever you get it! Expect to pay approx €8- €15 per pizza. Our four cheese pizza had some blue crumbled onto it and it was the richest, most decedent pizza we’ve had in a long time! SO MUCH CHEESE!
Day 4 – The Pope, St Peter’s and Perfect Pasta
St Peter’s Basilica
St Peter’s Basilica is an empowering Italian Renaissance Church that towers over Rome, higher than any other structure! You can pay €8-€11 to climb the 551 steps (or take an elevator some of the way) to the very top of it and it’s worth every cent and more! Make it to the top and feel like you’re Pope Francis!
When back down on the ground make sure you visit the inside of the Church itself (it’s free to enter). Plan your visit in advance because it’s regularly closed to visitors and on the day we visited it closed at 12:30pm. The queues become unreal as visitors are security-checked before going in.
Underneath the gold sphere at the very top is where we were stood!
Babingtons
Before beginning to pack up and head home, we took one more visit to the Spanish Steps area to have our a coffee and had walked past Babingtons English Team Room a few times and decided we’d dive in. It was so expensive, so when we ordered two coffees on their own, we did feel frowned upon for not at least ordering a cake or afternoon tea to go with it. A pot of tea, although given this is their speciality, would have cost around €11 so we had a latte at a more realistic €5.
Pasta Pastificio
The Spanish Steps area is renowned for being premium and pricy, but we heard of this deli called Pastificio that opens at 1pm, where you can get a bowl of pasta for just €4 and there’s only two types to choose from. In and out… cash only… no messing, but some say it’s the best pasta in Rome! There’s usually a queue outside each lunch time, but it goes down fast so don’t be put off. The signage on the outside looks as though it’s straight out of a Wes Anderson movie. Love it!
Have to confess this isn’t our photo. (The queue was too large to get a good view).
Pic courtesy of https://anamericaninrome.com
Message me (Kerry) if you want to ask anything my trip! Email@cotswoldfoodblog.com or on Insta @cotswoldfoodblog.
Arrivederci!
