Travelling Solo to Rome! | Part 2

Click here to read Part 1

Sunday, 5 April 2015

It was raining all day long but we decided to go to the Colosseo. 

Tip!!! | Remember to check the weather reading. If you know it is going to rain, bring an umbrella with you. At least you know what to expect.

Had cheese noodles at La Taverna Dei Quaranta

And again, I travelled solo because I had to take lunch while the others said they will only have small snacks. I can't go on without solid food. No wonder the other girls were so skinny. Hahaha. We did plan to meet up at the entrance but I think we got lost and we didn't have any mean of communication so alone again, I was.

Entrance of The Palatine

Tip!!! | The Colosseo have long lines constantly. It's best if you go to the Palatine Hill entrance to buy your ticket because there's not much people there. The ticket is like a three in one package, so with the same ticket you can go to Palatine Hill, Roman Forum and also the Colosseo.

Free entry on first Sunday of the month!

Starting my walk in Palatine Hill. I easily spent like 2 hours here because there's no "route" you can take to have a whole tour of the place, therefore I got lost and I keep finding myself walking at same place over and over again. It reminds me of life some how. Deep.

Oh, the story behind the Palatine Hill was quite interesting. I only knew about it when I googled them just now. *shameful laugh*. According to ancient mythology, Palatine Hill was once a cave and it was where a she-wolf (lupa) saved Romulus and Remus (the twin brothers with royal blood in them). How Rome was named came from the story of these two brothers. Well, I just understand there's a lot of assassination. So, yeah...   

Then I went into Museo Palatino

I was genuinely fascinated because in my brain, I had so many questions. How did they do this? Where did they get these marble materials? Gosh, those details. Do they really look like that back in the days? How did they pin-point the details, I mean it's fine work. I want to learn sculpturing. When I get old, I'm going to make a human-sized marble sculpture and put it in my future home, maybe in the garden or something. 

I noticed that most of the sculptures are missing their noses. Why is that? What does that mean?

Miniatures!!

Going into the Roman Forum

There's tap water for drinking there but they taste like metal. Better stick to bottled mineral water.

When I thought everyone in the world knows how to take a picture, there's people who are constantly proving to me that I'm wrong. Sigh, I expect too much. Well, at least my face is in it and a part of the background is too.

Tip!!! | You can skip the line to get into the Colosseo if you already have the ticket. Ignore the line, most of them are lining up to get the ticket. Just follow left. 

I know you will think that it is rude to cut into the line even though there are many people lining up at the entrance but the fact is, I already have my ticket so actually, I don't have to line up for anything. Except I have to, because the entrance is so damn narrow. The staff didn't prove to be useful either but I bet they dealt with many stupid tourists who are asking the same stupid questions again and again that they don't even bother listening to your questions anymore and just said "Go to the entrance" which is an obvious thing to do. Of course, why didn't I thought of that? Well, yeah. You know what I did? I locate where the main entrance was, I didn't line up for it, I went straight to the front. Just go on in, nobody actually cares if you were lining up or cutting the line. Just make sure you look like you know what you're doing instead of looking all confused. I even asked the other people who were lining up in front, and the family was like "We don't know either, but it's okay, just squeeze in". 

Got the audio and video guide because I just thought it would be interesting to learn the stories of the Colosseo. Turns out, I did enjoyed them. I learnt some interesting facts about the place and something funny too. 

Tip!!! | If you want more out of your visits instead of just being there and taking pictures. I advise you to get a tour guide or better, get an audio tour (you can walk at your own pace and you don't have to squeeze in with the other tourists). Just so that you can learn more about the place that you're standing on. Knowledge is power and it wouldn't hurt to know more right? 

Did you know, there were actually fan clubs (which of course consist of girls) for the warriors and gladiators in the past? Everyone was into blood and violence those days, it is the main source of entertainment for them (the poor and the rich alikes), they even bet their money on fights. In fact, there are two main teams that people can bet on, the round shields or the rectangular shields. People aspire to be warriors to fight in the Colosseo even though they know somehow, some day, they are going to die in a horrible way (like getting beat up by some guy or getting their head bitten off by a tiger or something). Oh, thumbs up if you want to save the gladiator from dying or thumbs down if you want him to die. Random, I know. But whatever.

And now, I'm gonna spam you with a lot of pictures which almost looks the same. 

Standing on where the middle-class people used to stand way back then.

You can easily spend half a day in these three POIs. If it was sunny day, I would spend a longer time in there. Plus, I was worried about my bags which I left at some other hostel who charged us for putting our bags there and I need to check-in into my hostel. I could have checked in at 12am, it wouldn't even matter because I'm a worried worm, so at 5pm, I checked-in.

And you know what, I had Indian food at Kathmandu Restaurant, which was near my hostel. At first I was going to this Italian pizza place but it was closed, most probably because it was Easter day. So, I settled for curry. I didn't regret it. I miss having curry and rice! It was actually one of the best food I've had in Rome. 

drooling

Surprisingly, there were a lot of Korean there.

Of course, my day wouldn't be complete without having Gelato! This place was just around the block from the place where I was staying and it was super cheap. It only costed me 2 Euro for 3 scoops. The cream was abit too much for me though but the gelato, it's super. I even had this cute waiter to choose the flavor for me. He recommended rice and pistachio which I both liked. :D 

I booked two nights at Ciak Hostel female dormitories (because I don't want any more surprised. No mixed dorms for me). I really recommend this place as well.. as you can see in the pictures, the place looks amazing and it was super comfortable and clean! I was staying at the Secret Garden dorm and the room has two beds and also a bunk bed as you can see. They even have a mini fridge in there and we have our own toilet for the four of us. Heater, air-cond, and even a hair-dryer too. It costed me 60+ Euro for two nights which was actually quite reasonable considering it was Easter and also the condition of the room is just out of my expectation. I can't stop singing praises for this place. 

Girls, you know where you can definitely stay now, you don't need to browse any further for available hostels. 

Okay, back to my story. Haha. I've got back into the hostel quite early, I think around 8pm or so. I didn't want to walk anymore so I decided to just chill in the room. Then, I met two really nice girls, Vivian and Cynthia from HK who were doing student exchange programs like me too! I also met their friend, Derrick who is also from HK. We talked a lot and we didn't even notice how quickly the time passed. Now, I have 3 friends from HK! The joy of travelling and meeting new people.

Monday, 6 April 2015

And of course, free breakfast too. Really appreciate the microwave.

Our little breakfast dining area.

It was considered my last day in Rome, so I planned to go to areas which are farther away from the center. I was travelling together with Vivian, Cynthia and Derrick and I was the tour guide of the day. They are so easy-going and I am really lucky to met them, finally, I have companions for the days. Haha!

First stop, Villa Borghese garden. And I quote from the English people - "It's like I'm back in London".

There's a zoo there too! But of course, we did not go in.

A lake in the middle of the park.

Lunch at Pastifico

Cheap 4 Euro Pasta

Pastifico, I think is some kind of fast food pasta shop. Because there's no place for you to sit and eat. They only sell two kinds of pasta when we were there and they only open from 1pm to 2pm for lunch. Yes, only an hour. Many people were lining up actually but for me, it's.. well.. the food is not really that great. The pasta was undercooked but what do you expect for a 4 Euro meal aye?

Then, we found a random place where the stray cats go to and you can even adopt them. I was kind of amused when I saw the old lady who was taking care of the cats was asked a question by a tourist "Are these cats for sale?", then she was like "OH FOR GOD'S SAKE, NOOOOOOOOOOO. The cats here are not for sale. You can adopt them but you don't buy them. Dear lord. We're doing this for the cats' sake and not for profit". Some how I sense that she was offended by the number of times she calls for God. 

It was pretty interesting too because the cats actually goes to this shelter willingly because they know they can find food here so they don't wander around the streets. So, it's actually like a community home for the cats. And there were plenty of them there. 

Pyramid of Cestius

Apparently, this pyramid is a tomb for someone... I don't know who but you get my point.

On the Metro ride to EUR Palasport

The EUR Palasport is not very well-known to the typical tourist... I think. It's just a lake and it's mostly locals who goes there.......... I think (again).

A lot of people on the grass, just chilling, napping, and being all lovey dovey with their loved ones. 

Group selfie!

I love this view

Our next destination, Parco degli Acquedotti! We were even more surprised when we got here because there's a lot more people there too. People were again picnic-ing, chilling on the grass, even barbeque-ing, playing football and all that stuff. It was a very windy evening and it was very cold even though it was sunny. We planned to watch the sunset there but it got too cold, so we didn't wait for that to happen. 

Now, back to the city center for dinner! I brought our group to Taverna del Seminario (again). Some how the dinner wasn't as good as the lunch that I had there once. The portion was much smaller too. Wonder if they changed the cook or something for different time of the day.

Fried appetizer

Tried Suppli the first time. It's fried rice with cheese and tomato sauce. I liked it very much! Basically, I like anything with rice. Haha

Lamb with potatoes

Pizza

And ravioli which I didn't like. 

Oh, another con about travelling alone is that, you only can order a limited amount of food because there's nobody to share it with. *Cries* But not that night, we shared our food the Asian way so we tried all the foods! YAAAAAY! If you don't know yet, I'm a big foodie.

Night view of Piazza Navona

We also walked around to take pictures of the night sceneries around the city center. Seriously, this is one of the must thing to do. To experience Rome at night when there is no crowd and you can actually see the whole place. Better when it is empty! As you can see, I'm not a people person.

Tuesday, 7 April 2015

Time to go back

Didn't really do much that day because I didn't have time to go anywhere. I just wasted my time in lining up for the bus ticket and then just randomly find some snacks to eat before the bus came. Supplì supplì supplì supplì supplì~~~

Bought liquor for the first time at the airport. I don't really drink but I heard Limoncello is very famous is Italy so I figured I'll buy one back. Thanks to Derrick for saying something about this, else I wouldn't be buying it. I got to try out the drink too, it was okay I guess. It only cost me 12 Euro, so I figured "why not?".

 

Fin.

And yes, the abrupt ending. That's my style.