Like Museums, Landmarks and beaches? Go to Rome now!
Talk about museums… Talk about landmarks… Talk about Rome! Rome is in fact one of the best, if not the best city in the world to visit museums and see astonishingly relevant and impressive landmarks. I am taking a class called “Rome and its Monuments”, which consists of the professor taking us around Rome and showing us ancient monuments onsite. It is a fascinating way to learn that I am finding to be very effective. I can’t wait to bring my family and friends to Rome and explain the history and purpose behind every ancient monument here!
Given that I have been to so many different places both with my class and by myself, it is literally impossible to choose one place, landmark or museum as a favorite, so I will not be doing that in this blog post! Instead, I will be talking about some of my best experiences and why that is so.
I will start with the places in nature I most appreciated. I went by myself to the Botanical Garden in Rome, and I highly recommend it. There you can find plants from everywhere in the planet as well as greenhouses and even a beautiful Japanese garden. Make sure to bring a book and simply lay down for hours between the trees as the crickets and birds make musical sounds all around you. I went to the Orange Garden with a friend during sunset and it was magical! What a beautiful place! And while you are there make sure to also visit “the keyhole” located right next to it, which gives you a one of a kind look at Rome from a very well placed keyhole. Those two places are walking distance from John Cabot University.
As for beaches, I would recommend Santa Marinella as a first choice and Anzio as a second choice (because I think Santa Marinella is prettier). They are the both the perfect combination of beautiful and convenient. They are reachable by taking a train from Termini (the largest train station in Rome) to Santa Marinella and Anzio station, respectively, and are both about an hour away. Make sure to buy an umbrella at Conad (grocery store near the campus) and go to the free beach sections with it, otherwise you will have to pay about ten Euros or often more to rent an umbrella for a few hours. I don’t use umbrellas, so I just lay down my towel on the sand of the first free beach section I see and run to the ocean immediately. But some people like shade sometimes. If you are one of them, prepare yourself!
As for monuments, please do not miss the Forum Romano. It is literally the most important monument of the Western world, because that is where most of our Western civilization principles were born. However, if you do not go with a professor that explains everything like I am doing, please go with a tour guide. Otherwise, all of those incredible sites you will be witnessing will look like a pile of rocks and you will feel like you wasted your time. While you are there, make sure to take a peek at the Capitoline Museum as well. There you will be able to see the original statue of the famous She Wolf feeding Romulus and Remus, as well as other impressive Roman art.
Go to the Coliseum and to the square Coliseum (there is such a thing), the Circus Maximus, the Trevi Fountain at night, the Pantheon, the Theater of Marcellus, the Temple of Apollo, the Temple of Hercules, the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, and the pyramid of Rome (there is one!), among many other sites.
There is no way I would be able to cover everything you need to see in Rome in one blog post. I recommend lengthily searching for places to go online, and take an onsite classes that guides you around Rome. It’s fantastic!
