this entry is way overdue..so here it is 
hopefully it’ll be useful for you folks who wanted to travel Rome..
Intro
Rome , (or Roma as some people would call it - like Italians in general 
) is the capital for Italy in the region of Lazio.
Legend has it that Rome was founded by the twins Romulus and Remus who were supposedly raised by a wolf.
this is not bestiality okay…just babies sucking on wolfie niples..like the jungle story
By the way that statues exists somewhere in Rome but i could not find
it for some reason (imagine me shouting at my female colleagues whole
day ‘hey enough of shopping! when can we go and see the
wolf-breast-feeding-babies statue!!!!??’) but that’s another story…
back to topic - some people might say ‘yeah you need atleast 4-5
days to see all of Roma has to offer’ but being the optimistic guy who
has time / budget constraint i’ve decided to try finish up Roma in a
weekend with my esteemed colleague from my company ..
The Journey to Rome
Roma has three airports - since the other two is not an
‘international’ airport, i’m just gonna ignore it and tell you about
the other one which is the Fiumicino Airport or Leonarda Da Vinci
International Airport.
Located about 30 mins by train south west of Rome , you can just
hop on the train from the airport which will set you back 11 euros.
my colleague elsie in the train…
The train ride is pretty comfortable - i know for a fact that
taking a cab from Roma to the airport will set you back 40 euros so if
you have 4 people - it is better to take the cab - faster and more
convenient i’d say. But if you wanna see some of the countryside before
arriving in Rome , do take the train.
The train will stop at Rome’s central train station called Termini -
something like KL sentral in Malaysia lah.. Termini is well connected -
you can board the Metro line (underground) and busses from here. We
shall use this Termini as a starting point of our journey - but do
check in to your hotel first 
Let’s start the tour shall we?
Vatican City area , 9am - 1pm
We start our tour by going to the fartherst point from the Termini -
Vatican City and St Peter Basilica. Take the Metro (yellow line) from
Termini to Cipro station (about a 15min ride).
The Metro train are not really as modern as
Malaysia’s LRT - it is more like the New York Subway or some of the old
Tube train of London.
Anyway, from Cipro Station you have to walk for about 5 mins to the
Vatican city area. You can’t really go in the Vatican City itself - I’m
not sure why - but you can always go to Basilica and Sistine Chapel
(these are the main attraction anyway, who wants to see a small country
like Vatican City anyway? just kidding )
In front of the Basilica St Peter - there’s a huge square with a nice fountain - very nice place to take pics as shown below :
You can queue up to go into Basilica and once you’re done with that you can head up to Sistine Chapel (about 10 mins walk)
and go see the wanders of Michael Angelo’s painting (all for about 5 Euros i think - but gate closes around 3.30pm!)
Castel Sant’ Angelo , 2pm-3pm
So once you’ve done all that which should take you maybe 3 hours (
you can actually spend a day in this area alone, but we’re on a time
constraint remember?) let’s head to the Castel S. Angelo (Castle of St
Angelo i think?). It’s about 20 mins walking to the east of the Vatican
City area and located nicely by the Fiume River.
From Wikipedia (too lazy to paraphrase )
"The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as the Castel Sant’Angelo
is a towering cylindrical building in Rome, initially commissioned by
the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family.
The building, located in the rione of Borgo, spent over a thousand
years as a fortress and castle, and is now a museum."
Castel Sant’Angelo
a statue around the castle area
the castle again..
Spanish Steps 3-5pm
From the Castel Sant’Angelo , we walked east crossing the Fiume river to the Spanish Steps.
It’s a good half an hour walk but well worth it since you’ll be seeing
nice river view and lotsa of these small-small piazza. Also as you walk
to the Spanish Steps , you’ll pass by the high street or shopping
center of Rome - something like Oxford St of London , Orchard St of
Singapore or Jalan TAR of KL he he he… you can find plenty of Italian
brand shops like Salvatore , Hermes , Gucci and stuff like that. This
is a shopping haven for ladies or old aunties la - for guys there’s
nothing much here - unless you are very metrosexual LOL…
so back to Spanish Steps - what is this Spanish Steps anyway? it’s definitely not a latest dance craze like Macarena la ..
Let me steal some lines (again) from Wikipedia:
"The Spanish Steps (Italian: Scalinata di Piazza di Spagna) is a
set of stairs in Rome, ramping a steep slope between the Piazza di
Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, with the church under
the patronage of the Bourbon kings of France, Trinità dei Monti,
above."
taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Steps"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Steps
really busy part of Rome especially Saturday night…those are my colleagues by the way..
For those who are lazy to walk or old farts (just kidding
) Spanish Steps and the whole shopping district area is conveniently
located nearby the Spagna Metro Station. So you can either walk from
Castel Sant’Angelo to Spanish Steps or board Metro Yellow line to
Spagna Station.
Oh just a quick info on the Metro line - you pay 4 Euros for whole
day pass or 1 Euros for a all-access ticket that will last you 75
minutes.
Fontana Di Trevi 5-7pm
Once you’re done with Spanish Steps, walk south to Fontana Trevi (about 10 minutes).
Fontana Di Trevi is a very nice fountain where people throw coins over
their left shoulders and make wishes and stuff ( "Please let me get
laid in Roma with hot italian chicks" is not really a wish - tried that
and nothing happened dang wasted $0.20 euros! )
Here comes a wiki!
"The Trevi Fountain (Italian: Fontana di Trevi) is the largest —
standing 25.9 meters (85 feet) high and 19.8 meters (65 feet) wide —
and most ambitious of the Baroque fountains of Rome. It is located in
the rione of Trevi."
taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontana_di_Trevi"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontana_di_Trevi
Since 5pm in late fall seasion time is quite dark already (sunset
usually around 4 pm) this is where we can take picture of your typical
silky2 water with 1/8 sec shutter speed stuff. Bring a tripod guys!
Conveniently located in the same vicinity of the fountain is Gelato
Bar! wee hee..there’s plenty of Gelato ice cream parlor in Roma - I’ve
been to two places so far Gelataria Bar and Giolitti - you can
definitely forget about your local Malaysian Gelato place called
Lecka-Lecka.
If you’re one of the folks who thinks LeckaLecka invented Gelato then read this on please:
From Wiki:
"Gelato or Gelati is an Italian frozen dessert made from milk and
sugar, combined with other flavourings. The gelato ingredients (after
an optional pasteurization) are super-cooled while stirring to break up
ice crystals as they form. Like high end ice cream, gelato generally
has less than 35% air - resulting in a dense and extremely flavoursome
product."
basically you what you’d get is an ice cream which is more creamier
and oh so yummy - these are usually hand made at the back of the store
instead of like Lecka2 where they processed it in some Kilang in Sg
Buloh and shipped it over to KLCC and Bukit Bintang all hard and
frozen…
go to this place - Giolitti - ask the locals where it is - ask for gelato served with whipped cream ..yummy..
what lecka lecka?
Piazza Navona and Pantheon 7-9pm
From Fontana Di Trevi , walk westwards for about 15 mins and you’ll
reach Piaza Navona. It is the largest square in Rome and truly a sight
to be seen.
I did not take much picture here since there was fun fair going on so you can’t really see the size of the square itself.
More info can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_Navona"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_Navona
*nerd talk* according to wikipedia , this piazza was featured in
Dan Brown’s book - Angel and Demons - as one of the Altars of Science.
*end of nerd talk*
merry go round @ Piazza Navona
inside one of the churches around the piazza navona
errrrr…
This is a good place to have dinner - plenty of Italian Restaurants
around here - do try Cafe Bernini at the northern end of the piazza.
after the dinner - time to relax and play some games to loosened up that stomach a bit hehe..
next stop - Pantheon
About 3 minutes walk east of that piazza is the great Pantheon - the great Temple of the Gods!
wiki wiki - "The Pantheon (Latin Pantheon[1], from Greek Πάνθεον
Pantheon, meaning "Temple of all the Gods") is a building in Rome which
was originally built as a temple to the seven deities of the seven
planets in the state religion of Ancient Rome, but which has been a
Christian church since the 7th century".
plagiarized from here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon%2C_Rome"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon%2C_Rome
I think in addition to the Colosseum, this is one of those
architectural marvels you’ve gotta see with nice dome ceiling with one
big hole that lit up the whole place.
This place closes around 8.30 but it’s best to go there during
there to see how the sunlight comes in and lights up the whole
building.
front entrance of the Pantheon
inside the Pantheon
Priest inside the Pantheon…
Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II and Colloseum 9-11 pm
Once we’re done with Pantheon , we head south east about 20 mins walk to Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II.
This huge monument was build entirely with white marble which contrast with most of the brownish colored buildings in Rome.
It also has tall Corinthian columns, fountains, a huge equestrian
statue of Victor Emmanuel and two statues of goddess Victoria riding on
quadrigas.
next stop - Colloseum!
Colloseum
this shall be your last place to visit for the night..what’s
better than spending some time during the night admiring the real
reason people flock to Rome - the Colloseum…
to go to Colloseum from the Monument Victoria - just head down
south - you can basically see Colloseum from the Monument itself , it
is about 200m away. On the way to the Colloseum , you can see ancient
ruins left by the Romans - which are gazzeted as historical site.
if you need a tripod for night shooting , worry not cos there’s
plenty of enterprising pakistanis / indians who sells cheapo tripod for
you to use..
well that’s basically the travel guide for the whole Saturday - it
should be around 10-11pm right now..good time to go back to the hotel
and get a good night sleep.
Sunday - Whole day
Basically for the following day on Sunday - you can opt to go back
to all the places you’ve been to on Saturday so that you can see how
different it’ll look like during the day. In the morning , you can go
to the Colloseum for the tour inside of the building, this will set you
back 11 euros. You can also get an audio guide for 4.50 euros.
woo dizzy..
as you can see , there’s really no sand field where they have the
gladiator fights and stuff. Those are actually platforms filled on top
with sands and underneath is a basement area where they keep all the
animals , armour and also VIP lounge for the Gladiators.
After checking out Colloseum - I’d suggest you take the Metro line
(there’s a nearby Metro line) to check out Spanish Steps, Fontana Di
Trevi and and Pantheon.
Piazza Rotunda - in front of the Pantheon
Well guys, I hope you guys would find these slightly too-detailed
travel guide helpful in the near future when you visit Rome..if there’s
one place you gotta visit in whole of Europe - make sure it is Rome -
my colleagues went to Barcelona and other cities after that - they say
it’s not as fun as Rome where Rome basically provide tons of tourist
attraction in one central place and the culture/historical values of
the Baroque and Roman times are still well preserved until today.
