Roma - the Eternal City

Day 4 (7 May 2025)

Today was Pantheon day. This is one of the oldest intact buildings in the world today, built in 27BC as a temple to pagan gods. It was converted into a Christian church in 609AD when Rome was converted to Christianity, and became a sought after burial ground. Famous artist Raphael was buried here.

 

No words can describe how freakin' amazing the Pantheon is. It's like someone just plonked this ancient building in the middle of a modern day city. I felt like I was in an ancient movie script, or transported back in time, touching those 2,000-year-old walls and pillars.

I managed to get a seat at the fountain in front of the Pantheon to do a quick sketch. 

Also drew some of the interiors but they didn't turn out so well so I'm not posting them. Son fell asleep while waiting for me 😆

But that's not all we did today. We also went to see the Sacred Area of Largo di Torre Argentina which is an ancient ruins site opened to the public only in 2023. It's where Julius Caesar was stabbed to death by members of the Senate who were afraid he was becoming too dangerously powerful. 

Truly, beneath Rome is a whole ancient city just waiting to be discovered!

On the way there, we happened to walk by the Museo del Corso and saw that they were holding a special Picasso exhibition!

I was so excited - I never got to see Picasso's works when I was in Spain in 2019 as that was before I discovered my passion in art. We happened to have time to spare this morning too, so it really felt like God just generously threw that in my path. 

 

The exhibition showed the progress of his works over the years and it was fascinating. Some of his early works, I never would have guessed they were his. He only came into his own later. 

 

 

There were also letters he wrote to his mother, and pencil sketches he did of room interiors. 

 

Son and I had fun trying to dicipher what some of the paintings were and the titles. One we guessed was an emperor of some sort, only to find out it was simply "Man in armchair". The more famous the artist, the less need for clever titles! 

 

 

 

Enjoyed the exhibition very much. Interestingly, a few steps down from the museum, we chanced upon the Church of San Marcello al Corso which was displaying two special artworks in celebration of Easter, organised for the Jubilee - The Disciples Peter and John Running Together to the Tomb of Christ on the Morning of the Resurrection by Eugène Burnand (1898) and The Supper at Emmaus by Rembrandt (1629).

 

I love how there's so much culture here waiting to be discovered, and that's why I love travelling free and easy - to be able to seize the moment.

 

Had a couple of wonderful meals today - a fancier lunch where we tried the specialty oxtail, and a simple dinner of pizza by the slice at the place we stumbled upon near our hotel, Spizzica. One of their flavours has even won an award. Son declared it the best pizza he's ever eaten. 

 

 

Eat Like the Romans Do

Day 3 (6 May 2025)

 

Originally, we had booked a tour of Vatican City for today. But since the Pope passed away on Easter Monday (21 April), the Sistine Chapel is now closed for the conclave (election of the new Pope). Talk about timing! We're hoping this will be concluded by our return leg to Rome. 

 

In its place, we booked a free walking food tour with GuruWalks. Claudio, a local, brought us to all his favourite spots. First, suppli (fried stuffed rice ball) at Supplizio. They were fantastic and a nice change from all the pastas and bread we've been having. 

 

 

 

Next, pasta at Maccarone. The pastas are all freshly made at their own shop and only €9 each, cheaper than at other restaurants in Rome. I loved the Papalina, a fettucine with ham and cream sauce. It was so named because a pope loved it! Though Andre said it's because that sauce is reminiscent of what we get back home. In Italy, the pasta sauces tend to be heavier and more cloying.

 

 

 

 

Then coffee at Sant'Eustachio il Caffe. In Italy, it's not the done thing to have cappuccinos after 11am as it's considered too heavy with meals. They just have espressos in a mini cup or a macchiato which is with milk. If you order a cappuccino after 11am, the waiter will look at you strangely. So I settled for a macchiato but I was really craving a flat white. Small and potent. Andre had some iced coffee concoction which turned out to not be coffee at all, more like a dessert! 

 

We drank it at the bar standing up, like the locals do. If you do so, the coffee is cheap, around €1.30 or thereabouts. If you sit at a table, it's considered service and you're charged 2 or 3x more. 

 

 

Finally, gelato at Ciampini. It's typical to see gelato shops with bright neon coloured gelatos in huge fluffy mountains. Do know that those are tourist traps. Quality gelato comes in muted colours cos of the natural ingredients, and often come in covered pots, without air whipped into them to make them rise. 

 
We had chestnut and sour cherry, and coffee and Grandma's cream. All were delicious. The locals know where the quality ones are sold 😋. 

 

After that, we strolled around the city for a bit. Came by the famous Spanish Steps but it was mad crowded so we didn't linger too long. 

 

 

 

Andre also insisted on stepping into a McDonald's which claims to be one of the most unique Macs in the world. It has a Roman statue and marble banisters inside! You need to pay to visit the toilet though, something I've not seen at any other McDonald's. There's a guy with a cash register right outside the toilet collecting an entrance fee 😮

 

 

Also saw the Fabriano Boutique (Italian art brand). Pretty displays but eye-watering price tags 🤑). 

 

On Claudio's recommended, we visited Via Margutta which is near the Spanish Steps but like another world - so quiet and pretty. It was home to artists like Picasso and featured in the movie Roman Holiday. Many art shops are here.
 

 

My thoughts so far: Rome is a very enjoyable city to walk around (though you've gotta really watch where you're walking cos many of the roads are uneven cobblestones which will test any ankle). You can walk everywhere but share roads with cars, scooters, bikes. Cars here are teeny so they can zip along the narrow alleyways. I've never seen cars this small - it's common to see a huge man hunched over a tiny two-seater vehicle rolling down a cobblestone alley!

I find Rome super clean (there are bins everywhere!) and though people warned us about theft, I feel safer here than in Madrid or Paris. There's a strong police presence, not sure if it's due to the Jubilee year, but I suspect that contributes to the lack of touts that throng other cities. The crowds are also not too crazy. Claudio said all the warnings not to visit Rome this year during the Jubilee seem to have worked as he hasn't experienced the chaos yet.

Love this free and easy style of holiday. Didn't manage to draw today but I did finish my painting of the Colosseum. Happy that my random blobs looked like people! 

 

 

 

Colossal Colosseum

Day 2 (5 May 2025)

Today was one of those days where my brain felt like it hit its quota of awe and couldn't process any more. We visited the Colosseum and it's hard to imagine this massive amphitheatre was built almost 2,000 years ago. It had 80,000 seats, larger than the current Rome Olympic stadium! It's the largest amphitheatre in the world today (in fact, it was named Colosseo meaning "giant"). The south side was damaged due to a great earthquake in 1349.

 

The Colosseum was completed by Emperor Titus to provide free entertainment for everyone, even slaves, to try and keep the populace happy and maintain peace in the land. It's hard to imagine but the lower three level seats for nobility, the rich and the well-to-do were made entirely from marble. Seats at the top two levels for the poor and slaves were wooden. 

 

There were gladiator fights (thought the Hollywood portrayal of gladiators fighting to their death was unlikely to be true as these gladiators took years to train and were considered valuable). Exotic animals like giraffes, crocodiles, rhinos, hippos, elephants, ostriches, bears, lions and tigers were brought in and elaborate sets were staged. Unfortunately this revolutionary idea had a dark side. Millions of people and animals were killed in the arena in the name of sport and early Christians were martyred here (sand was used as the surface so it could soak up blood).

 

The Colosseum was also built using the gold and silver items raided from the Holy Temple in Jerusalem when Titus conquered Judea (modern day Israel), razed it to the ground. This event showing the stealing of Jewish items was carved onto his victory arch.
 

After the tour, I had some time so I sat in front of the Colosseum and sketched it. My first real urban sketch and it was of the Colosseum no less! Felt so epic 😍 No pencil sketch first so some errors in proportion.

We also visited the Roman Forum, which is the ancient equivalent of the city centre. This housed the senate, temples, marketplace, arenas where people met. It's crazy to think that this vast area was all underground. Some of the original roads still exist.

 

In the past, emperors would just build on top of the existing city, which meant that cities were built upon cities. Rome is like lasagne - you peel off one layer, you'll find another. As our guide said, wherever you dig in Rome, you'll find something! If you see the photo below of a temple, the steps used to be completely buried. 

 

We went up Palatine Hill which was where the emperor lived. Amazing bird's eye view.
 

 

It was only our first real day in Rome and it felt like we'd seen so much. Near our hotel, within a 100m stretch, we saw at least three random churches filled with beautiful frescos and marble statues. I guess unfortunately since they're in Rome, they're considered "ordinary" 😅

 

 

 

 

We also walked by the Vittoriano, a monument to Victor Emmanuelle II who was the first king of modern unified Italy. The scale of the monument is crazy. Everything is OTT in Rome! 

We then walked to the gorgeous Trastevere neighbourhood for dinner.

 

 

We were a little early so we had drinks first (seated right by the road where cars and horses squeeze by alongside pedestrians!) 

 

Dinner was at the highly rated Cecilia Santa Cucina. We tried their carbonara, risotto and grilled artichokes. I have to say, I thought I knew Italian food since we eat a lot of pasta back home. But the flavours here are unfamiliar. In Italy, carbonara is made with egg yolks, not cream. And the risotto was made using lemon. 

What an eventful day! Actually, I didn't mention that we faced a hiccup today. We were waiting for our Colosseum tour at the wrong place and didn't know until 5 minutes before when someone came to tell us. The correct spot was quite a ways away and the thought flashed across my mind that it was inconceivable we would miss the very first tour we signed up for. Cue major panicking, a lot of running, bearing in mind that I haven't run in decades. At one point, it felt like my legs were spinning out of my control, it's a miracle I didn't collapse in a heap. "Though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand." - Psalm 37:24. Yeah, God was holding me up for sure.

Thankfully nowadays we are all contactable via WA and the guide called me, we made it to the meeting point somehow and continued the tour, albeit with jelly legs. 

All in all, it was a great day. and we had fantastic weather throughout, despite thunderstorms being forecast. Thank you God 💜

 

Buongiorno Italia!

Day 1 (4 May 2025)

Travel hasn't been on my itinerary for 6 years. First there was the COVID outbreak, then I went through a  tumultuous period of family events the years after. So this trip to Italy is quite momentous - Andre and I felt we deserved a celebratory break plus it's his graduation trip (and he secured his dream job which will be waiting for him when he returns!) 

Incidentally, the day before we left (4 May) was polling day in Singapore. There's no way we could have predicted this when we booked the tickets last year. It allowed us to vote before we embarked on our holiday so we wouldn't be struck off the register. God is so good.

I decided this occasion was worth splurging on so I bought business class tickets on Qatar and it's so luxe it's alien to us, we were gushing over everything! We didn't have to queue in lines for anything, we could sleep flat in our own pods and the food was spectacular (lobster! 😲) Although I have to say, I'm not used to being so attended to, I felt quite paiseh when the flight attendant came to make up the mattress 😅

 

We reached Rome at About 2pm and were out of the airport in less than an hour. Taxis into the city are a fixed rate of €55. We're already learning that cabs aren't cheap here.

 

The drive to our hotel felt surreal. One minute we're seeing regular old buildings, another minute we're passing the city's ancient walls and the Colosseum. It's one thing to have buildings that are hundreds of years old but another to have architecture from BC and early AD period. Rome was an empire until 476 AD and it boggles my mind to think that some of these roads and buildings existed when Jesus was alive! 

 

We checked into our hotel Parlamento Boutique Hotel which I chose because it's close to all the main attractions. The room is small and basic but in comparison, the bathroom is huge (we discovered it's the same throughout Italy cos they always have a bidet in their bathrooms).

We walked to the iconic Trevi Fountain near our hotel and I can't even describe how mad amazing it is. I've seen pictures of it but you can't experience the scale except in person. I kept saying, "They call this a fountain??" It was built in the 18th century and is almost 50m wide. It's one of the aqueducts of Rome that supplied drinking water to the city.

The Romans had aqueducts as far back as more than 2,000 years ago and even today, you can still drink from their cisterns that are available everywhere in the city. The water tastes wonderfully refreshing. There's an app you can download which shows you where all the fountains are and Andre and I even made a note of which ones had better tasting water! Here I am fill my bottle from one. 

 

Our first dinner in Italy was at a little pizzeria nearby (cars drove right behind where we were sitting on a one-lane road). Those pizzas were stupendous! Delicious crust and one of them had the crispiest porchetta ever. We're going to get so fat 😋