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We were not in Rome long enough

What a gorgeous and historic city. We were in Rome for only two and a half weeks and of course we were super busy working and so we didn’t get to see nearly as much as we wanted to see. However, what we did see was historic and a great culmination of all the learning we’ve done around the Roman influence in Europe through the centuries. It’s far reaching and full of technology and intrigue.

Rome was crazy when we first touched down at the airport, we were accosted by taxi vendors and finally picked one who was not above board (he skipped the line of taxi vendors and got a good verbal dressing up from one of the official, licenced cabbies) but was willing to race us to our apartment from the airport at the price we wanted to pay.

One tip – have your taxi plan in place before you leave any airport in Europe (except the UK and Spain, things are pretty mellow in Spain) or you might end up a little worried if you will make it to your destination with all your stuff! We scared the kids a little bit (“mom and dad these guys seem scary” – they just picked up on our lack of confidence in the situation) so we won’t be doing that again. Research the licenced cab companies before you arrive; the internet makes this easy.

But, once we arrived our host in Rome was so nice, so accommodating that it was a refreshing contrast. Our apartment is the site of the first Montesorri school with its own private courtyard – many apartment buildings in Europe feel fortified by New Zealand standards; you can’t get to your apartment without first unlocking the main front door, and then sometimes there’s even another internal door to get through before you unlock your own front door.

The sights of Rome

We saw all the classics, the Colosseum, Piazza di Popolo, and the Vatican, and we took a great free walking tour which showed us the Pantheon and the narrow alleyways on which Rome is built. You can’t build anything without finding something from ancient Rome so it’s difficult to build anything new. Hence why Rome is a gritty mix of old Roman architecture and decaying apartment buildings. And dog poo. Lots of dog poo. Check out the gallery, I left out any poo pics.

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Nathaniel Flick

By: Nathaniel Flick