Tag: solo traveller

Dy 1694 Ayrshire to Edinburgh Airport 🚙 and flight to Rome Ciampino 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿✈️🇮🇹

Once again I appear unable to sleep on a flight. I am exhausted but there’s too much else going on and it’s freezing. I should have remembered from my flights to Milan. if I’m cold the Italians on this flight must be freezing.

So everything went well again so far!

Bed at 7.30, woke just after 9pm and again a few times and up with the alarm at 2am.

I was showered, hair washed and ready to to go so only had to get changed and close up my bags. Craig got up with me, bless him, it was lovely to have the company.

I left the house about 2.35am and drove over to Edinburgh Airport. That took about an hour at 10 minutes at that time of day. I thought the roads were surprisingly busy.

The only hiccup is that I think I may be in an NCP car park that’s payable on departure. I’ve pre-paid but they made me take a ticket and my gut tells me I’m in the wrong one. It might be fine. Guess I’ll find out on Tuesday morning after midnight when I land 😆

I chose a seat on the LHS of the plane so I could get to see sunrise.

I am soooo tired. I’m going to try and sleep again.

Claire sent me this after I’d gone to bed last night… I sent her this a while back and it still makes me laugh out loud!

Assume this is us over the Alps

So I landed just before 10am and managed to get on the bus to Rome Termini at 10.30.

This got me into Rome at 11.30 and it took me about 20 minutes to find the bus stop I needed.

Not surprisingly everything is in Italian and the local buses don’t have English at all.

I got out the City Mapper app to try to plan my journey.

It’s a strike in Rome today and everyone said the bus might not come.

So I got a bit frustrated trying to find the bus but actually it was all good. I just need to trust that I can find my way and I’m fine. Breathe through when I think I might start to get anxious. Someone will speak English eventually!

This is where I’ve travelled today.

Once you’ve done it once… it’s so much easier. Once you get into the routine of transport abroad, it’s just like public transport back home. You just have to trust that it will work out.

Melanie met me at the bus stop near her apartment and took me to her home.

It’s beautiful and so special for me to be saying in an Italian home.

She had made a lovely pot of homemade soup. We had lunch and a coffee. It’s great to catch up but I am tired.

It took everything in me to get back up and head back out. My body is screaming for sleep but I can’t waste a second now that I’m here.

I’m here for Melanie’s Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow so I’m currently on the number 8 bus heading back into Rome. I’m multitasking as I’m standing on a bus AND writing this AND trying to stay on top of my stops 😆

Now that I’m out, I’m so glad I have done it. It would have been so easy to stay in the house and sleep. Life is too short.

I’m passing through Trasstevere which seems to be pronounced Trast-avery which makes me smile every time they say it!!

I’m headed for Piazza Navona.

The fountain is being refurbished for Rome 2025. There is a lot of work underway for Rome’s Centenary celebrations. I went to look at the other foundation in Piazza Navona instead.

This city is full of history! I love it!

I then made my way round to the Pantheon.

It was too busy the last time I was here… but today I’m going in!

It’s only €5 entry and you have to wait in a big queue until they let you in.

It is breathtaking. I’m so glad I got to come in here. I’m writing this real time so I’m sitting right here just now.

This is the fountain outside the Pantheon.

I decided to walk back to Melanie’s… it was just starting to get dark.

I spotted the Vatican off in the distance.

I have had the best day. I’m so proud of myself for going out again this afternoon. I feel like I have this solo thing back under control after a couple of wobbles.

Happy weekend!

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

Day 1457 trip to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill 🏛️🇮🇹🍕🍝

Ok so the Star Wars observant among you will soooooo know it typed Palpatine Hill to start with….. I am my husband’s wife 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

Another amazing day and my last full day in Rome. I will sleep for a fortnight when this is over.

Today I had booked with Crown Tours for the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. The tour lasted 3 hours but they left us in the Colosseum to wander for the rest of the day if we wanted.

It was such contrast to yesterday but only because it was all in ruins…. This ancient area of Rome was as beautiful in its day, if not more so than the Vatican.

I’m not even going to remotely try and regale you with the history of the area. A tour is an explosion of information, while trying to get sunglasses on and glasses safely put in the bag, then glasses on and sunglasses put safely in the bag… while trying to listen and take photos…. you get the gist.

When you travel alone there is no one to hold anything. You just have to try to manage everything as best you can… while ensuring pickpockets don’t see you as fair game.

Palatine Hill is seen as the birthplace of the City of Rome around 1000 BC. It’s where all the upper class lived and all the imperial palaces were built. It had stunning views.

Everything was marble and decorated, even the servant quarters although not to the same extent and the imperial rooms.

The Roman Forum is in the low lying area between the hills and this is where everyone gathered for open air meetings from around 500 BC.

Before the Roman Forum and Colosseum were built, the whole area used to be marshland it was drained around 620BC due to constant flooding. That drainage system is still in use today.

The Roman Forum housed some of the most majestic temples and monuments.

The Colosseum was obviously where all the blood sports took place…. Animal against animal, animal against criminal, criminal against criminal and obviously the gladiators, some of whom became as famous as current footballers would do. Some 450,000 people were killed in the Colosseum in its day…. That’s a sobering thought as you stand inside it. that was all stopped by the Christians in the 6th Century.

The Forum was abandoned in the 7th century for the river area. A huge earthquake in the 9th century toppled many of the buildings and by the Middle Ages it had all been built over. Hence the ruins.

In true Julie fashion I got there early as this was by far the biggest distance I had to travel this weekend.

So many people told me that everything was within walking distance…. But it’s not when you don’t book the correct hotel and you have 45 minutes worth of train journey to get there.

I boarded the train at Balduina and had to take 6 stops to Roma Ortiense.

I chose to wear my short shorts this morning. Until now I’ve been blending in with the Italians wearing long trousers, they also have long tops and jackets with scarves. That’s a generalisation but there are a lot of them dressed for Scottish winter!

Today I stuck out like a sore thumb and I had the only visible legs on the first train!!!

I had to change at Ortiense onto the Metro and it was a good 6 minute walk with my legs on show through Italian suburbia. I only relaxed when I saw other tourists, once I got to the Colosseum. It shouldn’t matter what we wear and I tried to tell myself that the whole way there!

I got to the Colosseum for 8.30am and my tour was at 10. This gave me time to get some photos. The queues were already massive!

I found a nice wee cafe on Via Poliveria (reminded me of my friend Alice as it’s nearly her surname!!) and had a decaf espresso…. Yup I know…. 😂😂…. And a lovely pistachio filled croissant. It was so good.

Our tour started at the Roman Forum.

This old church was only opened in October having been closed for 50 years… they have managed to clean some of the art on the walls.

You can see Jesus in this one.

We are starting to climb up Palatine Hill now.

Looking down to the Colosseum.

I honestly have so many photos I don’t know where to start. I also don’t know that they all load up properly when I publish the blog. I’ll do a minimum for now.

That green door is the one of oldest doors in Rome… believed to date back to 300 BC.

We headed down into the Colosseum.

This was also incredibly busy. Thousands of people wandering around…. Just to give you some perspective.

My tour was the Arena Tour so you get right out into the main arena.

I finally left the Colosseum about 2.30pm… and was ravenous. I tied to go to a recommended restaurant but it was queued out… so I just pick a random roadside eatery and had some garlic bread and another veggie pizza….

I’ve already warned Craig that the garlic from the garlic bread will still be there when I get home tomorrow!!! It was soooo strong.

I didn’t have any plans for the afternoon so just wandered aimlessly, with a metro station always in mind.

I found some really lovely buildings and fountains.

I’m sitting on a comfy seat in the hotel gardens writing this…. As the pool is not open yet…. But I’ll head up soon and that will be me for the night. Pick up is at 9am tomorrow so I’ll get a lie in!!

I’ll be bombarding you with videos and photos when I get back. I’ve been so lucky with the weather. Not a cloud in the sky.

Stay safe everyone ☀️☀️☀️