Rome & NYE2018

w Year's Eve and planning it to make it 'unforgettable' begins to feel tiring after a couple of years. Setting up a location, inviting friends, making sure to go to the hottest party of the year, blabla,... We had enough of it so we decided to travel during the last couple of days of the year!

Rome it was!

We booked the Piccolotel Hotel in Trastevere. A kind of AirBnB hosted by the superfriendly Alex. We encountered a lot of difficulties setting our booking up but Alex made sure everything worked out. The hotel is kinda cool:

Nearing the building we had to call Alex, that way Alex buzzed us in through the security gate. When arriving at the destination room, we had to text him and Alex let us in while he was in Naples with his family. When we were in the BnB he texted us which room we had and again, you guessed it, he buzzed us in. After I connected to the Wi-Fi I had to call him via WhatsApp and he gave me a half-hour explanation how everything worked and how we should navigate through the city.

Superhelpfull, the only problem was that it was 10:30PM and we we hadn't eaten a thing so I was eager to finish the conversation and find something to eat!

DAY 1.

Using Alex's tips we used public transport to go to the city center. Quick bus ride and we arrived at the Big Wedding Cake. If you think it looks big, try bigger. The building is humongous and it smashes you in the face how big it is. During a visit to Rome you're probably going to pass it a time or two and everytime you stop and stare.

When you enter it, make sure to don't act like a clown. There's people walking around telling idiots to show respect to the monument as it was build to honor the unification of Italy.

First things first, The Colosseum! If there's one thing you're dreaming to see if you're going to Rome. It's got to be the Colosseum right?

The Colosseum is just a ten to fifteen minute walk from the Big Wedding Cake and during that walk you pass the Forum Romanum; probably the biggest open-air museum I've ever seen. Actually Rome is like a huuuge open-air museum in total. It's madness.

We had a quick walk around the Colosseum and soaked in the history of the city. The amount of people who are in Rome during the Holidays is crazy! If you don't like huge crowds, I advise you to stay away from Rome. After a quick coffee we decided to find a hugely popular sandwich bar which was advised to us by someone who I train.

Pane Salame

A huge waiting lign had created itself before the opening hours of Noon... Or 12:30 because Italians are not so fond of punctuality. We waited our turn but when we got inside it was clearly obvious the staff were moody and weren't having it. We couldn't be seated and we weren't waiting outside for more than an hour to be seated so we left anyway.

We roamed the streets of Rome and we fled the big tourist crowds, that way we ended up in a very Italian coffeeshop and had the best Amaretto Cappuccino ever. We stayed there for an hour and drank way too much coffee :D

My girlfriend's job had ties with Milan and she asked for advice on where to eat and they gave us an address somewhere in Trastevere. We booked at 7.30PM and if you've ever been to Italy, you already know that's ridiculously early. We arrived at the restaurant and the staff was shocked they had customers this early.

In short; It was the best steak I've ever eaten in my life. Every bite I took gave me goosebumps. The prices in Rome should not be expensive. Just make sure you eat a ten minute walk from all the touristy attractions. (As you should do in every major city)

DAY 2.

We woke up a little bit earlier to make sure we had a chance to visit the Colosseum inside. Sadly enough the waiting cue was already endless. A good tip would be to order your ticket in advance online. That way you can cue up in another line that goes three times as fast.

After buying your ticket, you still have to cue up in front of the Colosseum to enter it as well. It's no cake walk. The crowds are huge in- and outside of the Colosseum, so quietly enjoying history isn't party of your stay there.

After the Colosseum we had a walk through the giant Forum Romanum. We were lucky as the sun decided to make her way through the clouds when we had our look out on Circus Maximus. Just imagine being a part of a spectactle in that age! You can't help but stay there and gaze out on that surface and fantasize what kind of things happened there.

Our stay at the Forum lasted a little bit longer than we've expected but we didn't feel really sorry about it either. When you're planning your visit to the Forum, remind yourself that it's huge! You can get lost there, for real.

Afterwards we wanted to get another cappuccino with Amaretto but we got lost wandering in the Rome streets and ended up with a Pantheon visit. As cool as the building is on the outside, it's even more remarkable on the inside. The perfect geometry and the huge circle above your head is something you should definitely see when you're paying Rome a visit.

Remind yourself to look up ;-)

We didn't book anything in advance to have dinner on the 31st of December. So we started having little panick attacks about what we had to do. We arrived in our hotel at 7PM and we just started calling various restaurants in the area asking them if they still had any room for two lost tourists.

After two or three phone calls my girlfriend won the jackpot. Tutto Qua! had room left for two and we were on our way finding the restaurant. Tutto Qua! was filled with Italians from in the neighborhood and we were warmly welcomed by the host.

Our first impression was positive and we were just lucky we still found a restaurant. Take a look below at the pictures what we had for dinner:

Appetizer

First course

Second course

Main Course

Main Course 2

Dessert

KilledThatOneTooFast.jpg

Safe to say that we were satisfied by our late find :-)

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