Rome, Italy - last minute Easter break - 3-6th April, 2015

Next stop on BeanAboutTheWorld is an impromptu visit to Rome. Given we had four days off for Easter and no one seemed to be around we decided to have a look for a last minute deal and managed to find a great one for three nights in Rome with BA. Three days later and we were off, which was quite surreal, but soon to be out done by the sight of Ian Dowie in the BA lounge walking around singing 'you give me the sweetest taboo' by Sade. Very random! 

We arrive at around midnight (the one draw back off a last minute deal - not great flight times) and retire for the night. The next morning we head straight to the Vatican given that it is probably going to be pretty busy / closed tomorrow due to it being Easter. 

We buy jump the queue + guided tour tickets from Get Your Guide for about £30 each and they turn out to be the best buy ever. I have no idea why people don't do this as the queue was probably the most ridiculous queue I have ever seen. It was huge and almost stretched down one whole side of the Vatican which is a heck of a long way. 

After we spent about 10 mins walking past the long line of people we slip in the front and start the tour. 

The courtyard in the Vatican museum.

Next we stop at some pictures of inside the Sistine Chapel so our tour guide can explain the meaning of all the paintings in their ahead of us going in. The ceiling always gets the majority of the praise but I absolutely love Michelangelo's Last Judgement painting on the back wall. Particularly the dude in the bottom right hand corner who has a snake biting his manhood whilst naked as Michelangelo's punishment for him complaining that everyone was in fact naked in the picture. 

We then head into one of the inner courtyards and see some fantastic sculptures of some fine six packs and tiny willys. 

Love this one. 

This statue was one a muse of Michelangelo's - the torso of Titus who he thought was the perfect definition of a torso. Can't really argue with him. 

Not sure who this fella is but he looks jealous of Titus' torso. 

This room is amazing - the ceiling is actually painted but it looks as if it is 3D. 

A tapestry of the Pope being chosen. 

The gallery of the maps - once again has an epic ceiling. Most people think they have arrived at the Sistine Chapel upon entering this room yet it is merely the corridor leading to it. 

We were then shuffled like cattle through the Raphael rooms which were pretty impressive despite this. Raphael worked on the pretty mesmerizing frescoes in these four big rooms whilst Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel. The paintings include several significant scenes from Christian history. The most famous room of all is the Room of the Segnatura, in which Raphael painted The School of Athens which shows Plato and Aristotle standing in the centre. He also added paintings of his rivals such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

After here it was time for the main event (for me at least)...the Sistine Chapel. We were here nearly 10 years ago with Karl and Gem (can't believe how time flies) and I remember it being one of the most amazing and impressive things I have ever seen. It didn't disappoint again this time but the experience was somewhat tainted by the sheer amount of people in there and the noise they were making. It was literally like standing watching a gig with not one piece of floor space. They really do need to cut back on the numbers they let in. 

Also annoyingly you are not allowed to take pictures in there. This is purely down to a Japanese company (who actually paid for its restoration) now owning the rights to the images. So if you ask me, snap away and don't worry about any adverse effects on the paintings - it is purely commercial reasons why they don't let you take pictures in there. 

So I took a sneaky one of the most famous part of the epic ceiling painting - the creation of man. 

After we slowly made our way out of the Sistine Chapel we walked around the corner to St Peter's Basilica. Nat had to take over the tour group for a bit whilst the tour guide went to the loo! God help us! 

St Peter's Basilica in all its glory. 

 

Phenomenal building but yet again absolutely rammed. 

The square was getting set up for the Easter service the next day.

Just one small part of the mile long queue - again not sure why people don't buy the jump the queue tickets and save themselves 3-4 hours of queuing. 

By this time it is well and truly beer o'clock. 

We head back over the river from the Vatican into town. It's actually turning into a nice day now despite the forecast of heavy rain all weekend. 

Sitting in Piazza Navona watching the world go but with a stein of Peroni. Can't be bad. 

We then found a wonderful little bar just off the Piazza for a few more just as the heavens started to open. 

As always in Rome, you can't help but turning a corner to find yet another amazing ruin of some sort. 

We meandered through the back streets to the Trevi Fountain which ended up being a massive disappointment as it was being renovated and almost completely covered. 

Another amazing sculpture in some random back street. This place really is overflowing with history. 

That evening we take the Wallpaper Guide's advice and head to a restaurant called Primo in the cool Pigneto district (apparently the Shoreditch of Rome). 

http://www.primoalpigneto.it/en/

The resturant was lovely with great service. We then explored a few bars around the area including the one below and a little cocktail bar before calling it a night. 

Day 2 and the rain has arrived properly. It is tipping it down all morning until, naturally, the moment I buy an umbrella and it then suddenly stops. This turns out to be great timing as we are off to the Coliseum first. 

Looking spectacular as always...

Once again we strike gold by finding a tour guide and paying to join his group and skip the line. Why don't people do it? Once again we saved ourselves 2-3 hours of queueing and went straight in. The tour was great as well.  

Our genius guide. Hilarious fellow. Not one for the feminists though. 

After we have toured the Colisuem it is time for part two of our tour with another tour guide. This time we are heading to Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. At this point our luck runs out with the weather and the heavens open again. 

After a walk up Palantine Hill we stand over the Forum with our guide explaining it all to us in the pouring rain and then head down for an explore. 

Definitely the most epic building in Rome. 

We then head to the Pantheon which is actually the best place to go in Rome when it is raining due to the huge hole in the ceiling to let the rain in. 

Gorgeous ceiling. 

There is a fair amount of water on the floor today...

Next we stopped for lunch at an absolutely gorgeous little place called Cul De Sac on the bottom left corner just being Piazza Navona. 

http://www.enotecaculdesacroma.it/en/

This place had so much wine. It was like sitting in a cellar. 

After a nice bottle of red we decide to head back towards the hotel. 

The best iPhone dock ever. No technology needed. Just a giant conch. I bet the sound is amazing if putting your iphone in a pint glass is anything to go by. 

A very rainy Spanish steps. 

And as we were in the area, it had to be done... It was on the walk back to the hotel!! No new glass though as I already had it from the last time I was here. 

Gorgeous oranges on the trees. 

Heading to dinner past the Coliseum lit up at night. 

The venue for dinner tonight was the excellent (and very reasonable) Michelin star restaurant called Stazione do Posta which was set in an old slaughter house. It took a little bit of effort to find and the host needed up coming to find us as it was set way off the back streets. Now that is service!

The food was phenomenal and very theatrical in how it was presented. Particularly the amuse bouche and the pre dessert plates that came with trees with pieces of food hanging on it and all sorts. 

http://www.stazionediposta.eu/campoboario/?lang=en

And that was a fitting end to a wonderful three nights in Rome.