Roma

Roma, our last stop on our 2025 Italy tour. I was worried about this day, travelling from Napoli to Roma. The unions had planned a nationwide transport strike for this day. I’d already booked the train for around noon so that I could conveniently check out of our place in Napoli and into our place in Roma. I booked a cheap bus ticket as a backup plan if the train was cancelled. As we got closer to the day, it looked like it was going to be a transportation nightmare, as the Metros, Trains, Buses and even the motorways were going to be blocked. I resigned myself to the fact we’d probably be stuck in Napoli another night, and we'd get to Rome the next morning. When we checked out of our apartment and walked to the Metro, it looked normal, perhaps running, but reduced service? The Metro came, and soon we were at Centrale looking at the board for our train to Rome. Our train didn’t have a platform number, but others did. There were a few cancellations on the board, but more of the trains appeared to be running. Finally, our train had a platform, and it seemed it would go. I asked, and they told me, maybe the staff will come, maybe they will walk off the job, we don’t know. About a half hour late, the train showed up, and we took our seats, and we waited. Finally, the train started moving, and we were on our way. We pulled into Termini in Rome a few minutes late, and now we just needed one more metro ride to finish our journey. Sure enough, it was running as well and in a total time of two and a half hours, we had made it from our Naples apartment to our new place in Rome!

We stayed near the Vatican this time, and it was quite easy to get around from there. We planned to see part of Rome we hadn’t been to before, however, I hadn’t been inside the Sistine Chapel since 2017, so we did the Vatican tour one morning. On this trip, we’d witnessed the greatness of Michelangelo, Leonardo and Donatello, now it was time to see the work of the final turtle, Rafale. Of course, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel was great, but the papal rooms leading into the Chapel are equally impressive, painted by Rafale.

We returned to one of my favourite restaurants in Trastevere and to one of Nick’s favourites in the near Piazza Navona, for the most part, we managed to avoid the tourist trap places and even found another gem near the Spanish Steps.

Rome was also our final soccer game of the trip, where we watched Napoli beat the hometown AS Roma in front of a packed Stadio Olympico crowd. After the game, there were dozens of water bottles, beer, and other objects thrown into the Napoli fan section while the Napoli fans were getting louder and louder, singing and taunting the Roma fans.

I get why Rome is known as the Eternal City, no matter how many times you visit, you just can’t see it all in a lifetime. There is more to see around every corner, and every time I leave, I see pictures and stories about several places that I’ve never seen before. I’ll spare you the Colosseum, Trevi and Pantheon pics and show some new perspectives of Roma, la città eterna.