Rome Rome FCO

Rome is a walkable city for sights

a building with columns and a blue sky

Turned out Rome is a far more walkable city than I expected in late June. Temperatures were mostly 28C/82-83F, dry on our first day and more humid with a couple of brief, but heavy afternoon rain showers.

Proximity of so many major city attractions like the Colosseum, Roman Forum ruins, Markets of Trajan, Alter of the Fatherland, the Pantheon and Vatican City and many other attractions along a 3 or 4 mile route make any walk across the city an historical education opportunity.

a white building with columns and statues
Altare della Patria-Alter of the Fatherland (also site of Tomb of Unknown Soldier).

Cheap public transportation at 1.50eur for bus or Metro makes Rome an easy city to travel place to place. Walk or ride to a place you want to visit and then walk or ride towards other attractions along a route back to your hotel.

Walk when the weather is good and pick up public transportation when the weather is not. Jump on the Metro or a bus when you want to be somewhere else or get back to your lodging neighborhood quickly.

a group of people on a train
Metro A line through Central Rome 11:24am Sunday.
a subway train with orange seats
Same train 11:31am Sunday morning after most passengers exited at Ottaviano Metro Station for Vatican City.

Even more surprising about Rome to me is Kelley has said several times over the past two weeks how much she enjoyed being in Rome to finish off our June 2018 Europe trip. Despite the summer heat and summer crowds this trip, she wants to return again to Rome when the weather is cooler.

I want to return to Rome again when World Cup plus heat of day does not have us seeking a bar TV for hours at a time during the day to watch a game, drink a beer or two, while out of the sun, hopefully feeling a cooling air conditioner.

a glass of beer next to a bottle
No AC in this bar, but two Brits Karen and Graham were in Rome to see Pearl Jam. Watched big England win against Panama.

Watching World Cup soccer in Europe was a blast with so many international connections made. In Rome we saw Germany-Sweden World Cup qualifying match played Saturday night in The Good Fellas Pub, where we ate dinner seated adjacent to a couple of German women, both totally stunned by a 95th minute Germany win. On Saturday we spent two hours talking with Karen and Graham during the England game. In Lithuania we talked with a former Russian soldier during the first World Cup match between Russia and Saudi Arabia. In Poland, we watched Nigeria-Iceland while talking travel and politics with a British expat living in Norway.

Baltic Exchange for Rome

I changed our travel itinerary from Tallinn, Estonia to Rome for our last three nights in Europe to allow sightseeing for a couple of days in a city Kelley had never seen. My wife is a reluctant traveler and a cheap airline ticket back to San Francisco departing from Rome FCO was the only way I got her to Rome for this visit after some serious attempts to plan a trip to Italy over the past 20 years.

Pope Francis is an inspirational magnet for her.

Over two days we reached most of the big city sights by foot, even though we used our unlimited Metro 48 hour pass as much as we wanted.

The distance to St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City is about 4.5km from where we stayed at Best Western Hotel Artdeco, about 15 minutes walk from Termini Station, Rome’s main city center transportation hub.

We took the Metro to Vatican City on Sunday morning to see the Pope address the crowd at noon (in Italian) on the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.

Vatican City

a guard in uniform standing in a tunnel
Swiss Guards of Vatican City
a person standing in a window
Pope Francis Vatican City June 24, 2018
a group of people in front of a building
Piazza San Pietro-St. Peter’s Square Vatican City.
a building with a dome
St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City.
a statue in front of a building
St. Peter’s Basilica front

Over the course of seven hours we walked back to the hotel in a southerly route, where we saw Castel Sant Angelo, the Pantheon, Altare della Patria (Alter of the Fatherland), Trajan’s Column and Markets of Trajan, the Roman Forum ruins and the Colosseum. We took the Metro B line from Colosseum Station 3 stops to Castro Pretorio in our hotel area.

a large stone castle with people walking around with Castel Sant'Angelo in the background
Rome – Castle Sant Angelo
Tiber over a river
Tiber River, Rome

The temperature in the low 80s was hot in the sun. Fortunately Rome’s nasoni, 2,500+ public water fountains provided plenty of wet opportunities to soak my cap and cool my head.

a woman pouring water into a fountain
One nasone of the 2,500+ nasoni, Rome’s public drinking water fountains.

Pantheon Rome

Pantheon Rome is a Roman temple built 113-125AD. The space is now a church and freely accessible to the public. The Pantheon receives over 6 million visitors annually. So many people were inside the space during our visit that a woman over a loudspeaker told visitors to quiet down and reminded us the space is a church.

a ceiling with a round light
The Pantheon
a large stone building with a dome ceiling
Pantheon Rome has been used as a church dedicated to St. Mary and the Martyrs since 7th c.
a low angle view of a building with pillars
Pantheon Rome Corinthian Columns and pediment.
a group of people sitting on a ledge
Afternoon prime shade space of Pantheon.

Altare della Patria – Alter of the Fatherland – Il Vittoriano

Altare della Patria (1885-1925) is a monument to modern Italy’s first king Vittorio Emanuele II – Victor Emmanuel II. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was placed here in 1921 with an eternal flame.

a white building with statues on the top
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Altare della Patria, Rome.
a white building with a statue of a man on top
Altare della Patria – Alter of the Fatherland

Trajan Forum

Walking around Rome I simply took photos of old stuff without necessarily knowing the significance of what I was seeing. Adjacent to Altare della Patria is a large excavated area with a tall 98 ft. column.

Trajan’s Column in the Forum of Trajan is an example of a space I walked by and snapped a few photos of objects that appeared to be old Roman Rome. Trajan’s Column has a 190 meter spiral bas relief depicting scenes from the Roman victory in the Dacian Wars (101-106AD) in present day Romania.

Roman Emperor Trajan (98-117AD) reigned over the Roman Empire at the time of its greatest territorial control.

a stone ruins with columns
Trajan’s Column AD 113.
a tall tower in front of a building
Trajan’s Column (lean in my photo is optical illusion or a foreboding sign).

Markets of Trajan

The Markets of Trajan (113 AD) were the Roman era version of a mega-mall.

a group of people walking in front of a building
Markets of Trajan

Roman Forum – Forum Romanum

a stone ruins with pillars

The Roman Forum is architectural park land with many of the most important structures of ancient Rome situated along the 1km stretch between Altare della Patria and the Colosseum.

a ruins of a city
Forum Romanum ruins

Colosseum

Admission to the Coloseum is 5eur and 1eur for an audio guide.

The Colosseum was built in 70-80 AD and is the largest amphitheater ever built.

a large circular building with many arches with Colosseum in the background
Colosseum Rome in morning.
a close-up of a stone building with Colosseum in the background
Colosseum of Rome in late afternoon June.
a group of people standing outside of a building
Colosseum view from opposite side, away from Metro station.

Arch of Constantine 

Standing beside the Colosseum is the Arch of Constantine (312-315 AD), the largest Roman triumphal arch commemorating Emperor Constantine. Under Constantine, the Edict of Milan in 313 made Christianity an officially tolerated religion in the Roman Empire.

a stone arch with carvings
Arch of Constantine
a stone arch with carvings
Arch of Constantine

All these sites were visited in an afternoon walk from St. Peter’s Square to the Colosseum, mostly without use of a map, except to find the Pantheon. Another path could have meant another walk through different points of Rome and Roman history. We only had one more day to sightseee and decided to make an effort to visit some popular sights we saw on postcards in the tourist shops like Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

Rome is a grand city to walk around and feel its history.

a building with a statue in the background
Peering into a gated courtyard of Rome

Google Maps shows a walk between these points in Rome as 5.4km, but we did not walk the shortest route between most of these points.

a map of a city
Rome June 24 walk 5.4km

3 Comments

  • Kalboz July 10, 2018

    Did you have a chance to visit Ara Pacis Augustae which is about 15-minute walk from Castello Sant’Angelo? Located on the opposite side of the Tiber from the castle heading north and adjacent to Mausoleo di Augusto. Worth a visit, it is an altar dedicated to Pax, the Roman goddess of Peace built in the year 9 BC. Saw the place when it had a Fascist-style building surrounding the Altar. This was pulled down in 2006, and replaced by a modern style glass and steel structure designed by architect Richard Meier (the same designer of the Getty Center).

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