This morning was another early start. We had packed everything the night before and made sure to clean up anything we needed to before leaving the apartment. It was really sad to say goodbye to the place that we stayed at. It was spacious, centrally located, and extremely comfortable. We would both stay there again. Once we had all the luggage downstairs, we started the walk we knew by heart to the train station. Since we had the luggage with us and plenty of time, we didn’t rush. It was the last time we would be seeing Florence, and we didn’t know if we would come back some day. We spent the journey just taking in the scenery around us. It was early morning, so most places were not open and there were few people on the streets.
The train station came into view and by this time, we knew exactly where we needed to go and how to go about finding our train. There was a little time before we could board, so we picked up a few snacks. Once on the train, it was a bit sad. We’d come to love Florence from the first day we arrived. The feeling of going out that first evening isn’t something I can describe, and isn’t something I think I will ever feel again. It does however make me want to go back to Florence. I knew we were going to be seeing and doing some amazing things in Rome, so I tried to focus on what was ahead and not on what we were leaving behind.
Fortunately, the high speed train to Rome is only an hour and a half, so when we arrived it was still early in the day. It was still too early to go check-in to our apartment and we had our luggage with us. The area around the train station (termini) isn’t the greatest and there were a lot of homeless, but there was also a police presence, which helped ease our concerns a bit. We found a place to store our luggage just outside of the train station. While there, we say that we could book the hop-on hop-off bus to take us around Rome. We’ve done buses like this when in other cities and they are always pretty helpful in getting around and giving us a good idea as to where things are. It was decided that we would purchase a two day pass as the next day we had plans to go see things right along the stops.
Mike wasn’t feeling the greatest, but we couldn’t check-in and we had purchased tickets to the Borghese Gallery, so we made our way to the hop-on hop-off bus stop. The bus was starting to fill up with people. Once we were on, we made our way to the top and sat back and relaxed as places of interest were pointed out along the route. While doing research for the trip and planning the itinerary, I’d seen many places that would be fun to visit, but that we just didn’t have time to fit in. Taking the bus made me want to visit even more places, but we had less than a week in Rome, so we were just happy to be there.
Once the bus was near where we needed to be, we hopped off and started to walk towards the Borghese Gallery. As we headed towards the vast park, we came across the Roman walls that you still see in various parts of the city. The walls are thick and very tall. The fact that portions of the walls are still standing is very impressive. We continued to walk and came across the Casa del Cinema. This is a theater that has a café. In the summertime, they show movies outside in the garden. We stopped at the café and got a snack and something to drink. The tables on the patio were a nice place to relax and take in the scenery. After using the restroom, we started to walk around the park. After a bit of walking, we sat down in an area with a fountain. The weather was slightly overcast, so it wasn’t too hot or too cold. The Borghese Gallery wasn’t far from where we were, so we decided to just relax for a bit.
As the time for our entry grew closer, we made our way to the Borghese Gallery. The building houses part of the Borghese Collection of paintings, sculptures, and antiquities. This collection was started by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V. Tickets for the Borghese Gallery have to be booked in advance if you want to be able to visit. These tickets can go quickly, especially during the peak season. We were fortunate that we were able to get tickets just a few days before. It wasn’t on the list of must see places to visit, but since we had time before we could check-in, we decided to take advantage.
About fifteen minutes before our ticket time, we made our way to the entrance. Going through security was like the other times we had done it since we arrived in Italy. After getting through security, we had to pick up our tickets. Since we booked online, we had to exchange the voucher for the tickets. That meant standing in another line to get the tickets. Once we had those, we went to the line to finally enter, however, when we got to the front, they said my bag was too large and had to be checked. It wasn’t a backpack, but it was a decent size shoulder bag. That meant we had to get out of line and head back to the front near security where the bag check is. It would’ve made things a bit easier if someone at security or even the ticket desk had told us that I would have to do that. It was pretty frustrating, since it meant that we would have to go back to stand in line for entrance again.
Finally, we took care of the bag and made our way to the line for the second time. This time we were able to get through without any issues. I will say, having been in my share of museums during this trip, that the Borghese doesn’t look very large on the outside, but inside it has multiple rooms on multiple levels filled with all kinds of items from artwork to even furniture. Some rooms were opulently decorated from the floor to the ceiling. We made our way through each room, admiring works of art by Caravaggio, Raphael, and Bernini. There were several tour groups, which made the rooms a bit crowded at times.
The Borghese is a great place to visit to see some amazing art, but it is definitely something I wish I’d been more prepared for. I do think that having an audio guide would’ve been helpful. Sometimes it was hard to see the plaque that mentioned what the piece was you were looking at due to the amount of people in the room. It was pretty busy, even with them limiting how many people they allow in at a time. There are works of art that I’d seen in books, but never thought I would have the opportunity to see in person. While it was an amazing experience, I’m not sure I would go back.
After we made it through the rooms, we browsed around the gift shop, picking up a few more items to take home with us. Mike wasn’t feeling too great and it was still too early for us to check in. We decided to take the hop-on hop-off bus back to the train station, which would also allow us to see more of Rome. The bus took us past Castelo St. Angelo and the river. It was nice to relax and listen to different sites being pointed out. There were things they pointed out that we’d heard of before, but never would’ve realized that we were right next to. When we made it back to the starting point, we decided to head back inside the train station and look around. It was lunch time and we were both in need of something to eat. We found a nice little restaurant and ended up enjoying a pretty good meal of pasta, pizza, and calzone.
As it had been a very early morning and we’d already explored much of Rome, we decided to collect our luggage from the storage facility and get a taxi to take us to the apartment we would be staying in. There were several taxis in front of the train station waiting to take people to where they needed to go. Even though the apartment wasn’t too far, we had too much luggage to walk the distance. I will say that taking a taxi in Rome is much different than the taxis I’ve been in in London and Dublin. The driver quickly got us to the destination and unloaded our luggage.
It took a few minutes to get in touch with the person we reserved the apartment with, but soon the door opened and we were taking our luggage up several flights of stairs to the apartment. Once we reached the floor we needed to be on, we were relieved. Carrying two large pieces of luggage, two carry-ons, a backpack, and my purse between the two of us was a bit of a challenge. I got the key from the lockbox and we entered the apartment. It was very hot when we entered. It took a bit for us to figure out how to work the air conditioning, but we eventually got it to cool down so we could relax. I was a bit irritated with whoever cleaned the apartment as they had left a huge load in the dryer that was still soaking wet when we arrived. I ended up having to run the dryer three more times before it was finally dry.
Since Mike wasn’t feeling well, we settled into the apartment and relaxed. After a bit, we were both getting thirsty and a bit hungry. Mike really was feeling miserable with a cough and congestion, so I told him I’d head out and find something for him. A quick search on my phone showed there was a pharmacy just around the corner from our building. I grabbed my bag and the key and made my first venture alone out into the streets of Rome. As it was later in the day, the trash was starting to accumulate around the city. I went into the pharmacy and picked up a few things I thought would help before venturing into the small grocery store to stock up on bottled water.
I made it safely back to the apartment, which made Mike happy. He didn’t feel up to doing much of anything and was really not looking too well. After making him eat, drink and take some medicine, we spent the rest of the day just relaxing and happy to have made it to Rome. We were both excited to be there and looking forward to the days ahead. What we didn’t know at this point was that the next few days, well they wouldn’t be going as planned.
