Plan your own tripTravel Log
by Vandra QuestCold, bright, and nearly empty — a guide told us the same tour in July is shoulder to shoulder. Walked the arena floor and then the Forum, which is just a field of broken columns until someone explains it and it turns into a city.
Kilometres of corridor before you get anywhere near the Sistine Chapel, and by then you've already seen enough to justify the ticket. In the chapel itself everyone whispers, everyone looks up, and a guard says silenzio every ninety seconds.
Made cacio e pepe and was told, kindly, that I was doing all of it wrong. It's pasta water and pecorino and timing and nothing else. Got it right on the second go and understood why Romans get annoyed about cream.
Cobbles, ivy, laundry overhead, and a food walk that turned into six stops. Supplì standing on a corner, carciofi alla giudia, then a wine bar with no sign on the door. The neighbourhood gets loud after nine in the best way.
Detoured on the walk back on the theory that it might be quiet, and it very nearly was — a dozen people instead of a thousand. Lit up, enormous, and much louder than you expect. Threw the coin over the shoulder, obviously.