Italy - Rome, Florence, Bologna, San Marino and Venice

[hangchoi]

This Easter we went to Italy. I had been in Rome, Florence and Venice for a few days in 2006. There is a legend that if you throw a coin in the Fontana di Trevi, you will be back to Rome one day. My wife did that in 2006 and hence, she maybe made the legend happened this time.

Our route was to enter Italy at Rome, travel northward, and leave Italy at Venice. We took Qatar Airways and it is almost a must that we had to transit at Doha airport, which is good for us because we have not been in Doha before and we are happy to have a break in between a long flight. Later we found that if you have a long transit time in Doha, you can book their city tour free of charge and they will take you out to the Doha city to have a tour. What you need to do is to go to their customer desk and make the booking, and as long as you inform them your flight time, they will bring you back to airport. We should really give it a go next time.

[hangchoi]

Doha air port is huge and beautiful. Big arrival and departure halls, it is so big that they build a monorail inside the terminal. It operates 24 hours a day with good hang-out areas, accessible food and beverage counters, big duty free shops with lots of wine, spirits and cigars.

[hangchoi]

There are 3 landmarks for this airport which are good meeting points for groups. We just found 2 of them as our transit time was only about 2 hours. The first landmark is a bear lamp and the second one is a metal robot for kids. You can see how big they are.

[hangchoi]

We arrived Roma at the Leonardo da Vinci Airport. The most convenient way to go to Rome is by express train. The name of the train is called "Leonardo Express". It took about 35 minutes from airport to the main transportation hub of Rome, the Roma Termini station.

I strongly recommend that you stay close to Roma Termini if your trip will go to more than 1 cities of Italy. Roma Termini is the main train station of Rome, it is also the transit station of metro of Rome and it has a large bus terminal too. You can go to any tour spots by a single traffic here.

[hangchoi]

We took an evening flight and arrived at Rome in the morning. We dropped our bags at the hotel, which was close to Roma Termini, and started our journey.

Over 75% of the tour spots in Rome are confined between the east side of the Tiber river and Roma Termini, all in walking distance too.

We walked toward the Colosseo area and our route passed by the Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli. People go to Rome and rush to St. Peter Church to see the Pieta made by Michelangelo. But the fact is that sculptures made by Michelangelo can easily be seen in many places. We went to Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli because it has a huge sculpture by Michelangelo. This church opens one hour earlier than the Colosseo, hence you can fit it into your schedule without affecting your schedule to the Colosseo (you will know why you should go to Colosseo at the earliest possible later)

[hangchoi]

About 15 minute walk from Roma Termini, we arrived at the Colosseo area. This area contains 3 parts: the Colosseo itself (together with the Arch of Constantine), the Roman Forum and the Palatino.

This spot may be the hottest tour spot, only Vatican Museum may be comparable with. Every year over 40 million visitors come to this place. Crowd control applies during peak hour. Therefore, you may see people lining up for tickets an hour before it is open.

[hangchoi]

To save time for queuing up, you may reserve your ticket on internet by paying a few Euros more for each ticket, Or you may join a group tour so that you need not to buy ticket. Now I tell you a special way not only to save a few Euros for reservation, but also need not to queue for ticket.

First, you can buy a ticket for the Colosseo only or you can buy a ticket for all 3 parts. The difference is just a few Euros more. If you will visit all 3 parts within 2 days (yes, the ticket has 2 day duration for you to visit all 3 parts), you should better buy a full ticket.

Now the trick is this, DON"T line up at the Colosseo ticket center to buy ticket. Just go to the entrance of the Roman Forum and buy a full ticket by paying ordinary price, there is no one lining up there. Then visit the Roman Forum and the Palatino first. In that case, you can save the reservation fee and the queuing time. The only drawback is that you will visit the Colosseo later on the day. Crowd control rarely limit the visitors having ticket, it only stops selling tickets to the new visitors.

After visiting the Roman Forum and the Palatino, you can hold your ticket to enter the Colosseo directly, skipping the long line in ticket office.

[hangchoi]

Rome is built on seven hills. People lived in different villages on these hills, one of them was Palatino. The foothill was where people met for trading or gathering. That was how the Roman Forum appeared. Now this forum is more like a ruin after long years of history with different disasters and destruction.  Some of them are still intact tho.

[hangchoi]

This building is worth to mention. Not only that the bronze door was original one, the hinge of this door was original at Roman time and it is still working. A door hinge more than 2000 years.  

[hangchoi]

Palatino is a village on the hill, so you have to walk up to see the old residential buildings and the scene. The first one is a flat of a wealthy Roman and the second one is the view from that flat.