Rome II
Friday June 19, 2026
My holiday blogs are always so full of exciting events and I love looking back on fond memories, years after they’re written. I also captured the sad time I had in Rome the last time I was here, due to food poisoning on the first night. Thankfully, many of those memories have been rewritten (or downright erased) and my week has so far been excellent, albeit very hot.
On Monday, I took the metro out east to catch a connecting bus to Tivoli. As you know, “Do as the Romans do”, so I didn’t bother tapping my card when entering the bus as no one else did. Tivoli is an hour east of Rome, nestled in the mountains with the Aniene River flowing through. Its incredible scenery attracted the money of several aristocrats who built lavish villas, the most famous being that of the Este family, Villa d’Este.
The villa didn’t open until 2pm so I had a few hours to kill. I walked around the town center, and stumbled upon Villa Gregoriana, built for the pope who commissioned the water overflow tunnel that prevents flooding of the river. In the 1800s, severe flooding damaged the town due to the river collecting rainwater from all the surrounding mountains. In addition to the beautiful cascade of the Aniene, there’s the grand fall, an 80m high manmade waterfall that takes the water from the tunnels and deposits it into the valley below.
Villa d’Este takes this water concept and expresses it with hundreds of ornate fountains. In addition to the beautiful gardens, there was a Chinese art exhibit on display, showcasing similarities and parallels between the art in China and the ones in the villa.
There were mostly tourists on the bus back, so I went to tap my card and it declined. It suddenly occurred to me that my transit card may not have been valid for this bus since it is such a popular tourist route. Instead, I got off and waited for the next bus, and followed the locals on who didn’t tap their cards. An hour later, I was safely back in Rome.
On Tuesday, I was up early to get to the Colosseum and Palatine Hill. It was relatively quiet, the crowds wouldn’t materialise until opening time at 8.30am. The ticket lady said I had enough time to start with the Mamertine Prison and then go to the Colosseum, and then sassed me when I asked if I could do the Colosseum first. She was right though, my visit took 15 minutes. The Mamertine Prison is where the apostle Paul is said to have been held (and was recently the subject of a sermon by my Italian pastor in Toronto), and all you can really see of this is a typical jail cell which has a hole in the roof where food for the prisoner can be lowered.
I spent the next 90 minutes in the Colosseum, listening to the audioguide talk about the world’s largest amphitheater and one of the Modern Wonders of the World. The Flavian Amphitheatre, as it was known then, remains Italy’s most visited touristic site, its presence and size dominating the Palatine Hill area. While I had visited the Colosseum when I was here in 2017, I barely remember what I saw in the Roman Forum, so I spent a good deal of time wandering around there that day. The ruins are fascinating, and the tales they tell so captivating. The view from the Palatine Hill was awesome too, but I was quickly becoming hungry and tired as the harsh heat had intensified with the sun overhead.
I headed to Largo di Torre Argentina to grab some food from a nearby bakery known for its pizza bianca, then tried to see if I could get into the cat sanctuary. With the heat so strong and no shade, I decided to return the next day, and instead headed home to rest until the evening. Closer to 7pm, I took the bus to the Aventine Hill to watch the sunset and had dinner in Travestere before heading back. On the way, I stopped by the “Gay Street” near the Colosseum where a crowd had gathered to watch a drag show outdoors. I stayed long enough to sing along to Huntrix’s Golden, and then caught the last metro train home.
By Wednesday I could feel myself running out of steam for doing long distances by foot, so it was a very slow Wednesday. I wandered by the Tiber River from Castel Sant’Angelo to the Vatican, just seeing if I could step foot momentarily in a different country. Alas, the crowd to go through the security screening was too large so I abandoned the idea, instead just admiring St Peter’s Basilica from the Via Della Conciliazione. Around noon, I returned to the Largo Di Torre Argentina cat sanctuary to meet the felines. They house nearly 80 cats, most of them permanently quarantined indoors due to disease and disability. On a blisteringly hot day like this, the cats out in the ruins will usually only be active in the cooler times around dusk and dawn, but there were two hanging around that I got to pet. The rest of the afternoon was spent napping like the cats I’d just seen, but when I woke up, there was a massive downpour and thunderstorm. Thankfully it only lasted less than 15 mins, but it made the city very muggy instead of cooling it down.
I did something wild on Thursday. I took a bus to a tiny town called Rocca Di Papa and hiked up the nearby mountain, Monte Cavo. This time, I was more prepared with the ticketing, and bought one from the ticket office for €1.30 (this is absurdly cheap when you look at how expensive it is in Toronto). The bus took us south for an hour and dropped us at the central plaza, with views of the lake and towns below. I started hiking up the steep, narrow streets, grateful for the shade of the buildings, eventually reaching the path leading to the top of Monte Cavo.
Each step I took sent some lizards scrambling for safety into the nearest rock crevice; meanwhile a myriad of colourful butterflies fluttered aimlessly around me. I reached the first landmark on the trail, some iron-cut silhouettes of animals, presumably ones you can find in the area. Among them were owls, hedgehogs, foxes, wild boar and wolves, which made me slightly nervous. There were a handful of others that I passed by on the trail. I continued to a viewpoint overlooking both lakes, Albano and Nemi, and then to the summit, but there was not much there.
I started back down, reaching the public road going back to Lake Albano, but it seemed too dangerous to walk with no footpath, so I sought an alternative route through the forest. Eventually I managed to cross into the volcanic rim route, which would lead me back to the train station at Castel Gandolfo. This hike was much more rugged, with sheer cliff drops to my left and right. At one point in time, I saw two wild boar on the ledge below, who bolted as soon as they heard me. There was also a wild cat who hopped into the tall grass as I approached. But it felt like the most dangerous points were back on the road after the trail had finished. Weirdly enough, the best views of the lake were from car parks or terraces where the trees had been cleared out. The lake is incredibly scenic, vividly blue with green hues so typical of the Mediterranean. After almost four hours on one hell of a walk, I successfully made it to the train station. It would have been nice to go down to the lakeside to soak my feet in the water, but the next train was in 20 minutes, so I just waited at the station and caught the train back to Roma Termini.
As my time in Rome draws to an end, I feel like I’ve done the Eternal City justice. Not having to bother with all the main tourist sites was a bonus, since I’d done them all before, but it was still nice to revisit the Colosseum, and especially absorb the atmosphere and party vibe around that area. Food was excellent, a huge step up from the last time. Well satisfied with pizza and pasta for a while, but I won’t say no to another gelato and tiramisu!
Posted by Jeremy at 8:43am on Friday June 19, 2026 :: 0 comments :: 
ANZAC Weekend
Monday April 27, 2015
Whew.
I've been on the flat hunt for a while, but have finally signed the tenancy for a studio apartment just around the corner from my current place. More than anything, it's the relief of having accommodation and knowing that it's all sorted. Flat hunting sucks. There are so many overpriced places out there, really looking to screw over potential tenants. This place is going to cost me twice what I'm currently paying, but it comes with a carpark and is in a good area of town, so I'm happy to go with it for the time being.
Jono and Charlotte have been in the country and visited Wellington this weekend. It's been awesome catching up with them at all the various good food places around Wellington - brunch at Spruce Goose, yum char at Majestic Cuisine, lunch at Fisherman's Plate, dinner at El Matador ($80 worth of lamb!), pastries from Louis Sergeant and ice cream from Kaffee Eis. We celebrated Andrew's birthday at Heaven's Pizza and then had karaoke at K Zone. We played a few games of Love Letters, messed around with the foosball table and table tennis table at work, and played some Sega Mega Drive too. It's been an action-packed weekend with lots of social interaction and I'm pretty exhausted from it all - but so worth it!
I went to the dawn parade on Saturday morning too. They estimated 40,000 people had turned up at 5.30am at the newly renovated Pukeahu National War Memorial to pay their tributes and to remember the tragedies that had occurred 100 years ago to the date. It was an emotional, poignant service, with a great sense of unity and respect. It was awesome to sing the national anthem with so many others in honour of those who had died at Gallipoli.
Work-wise, we had a pretty informative Tech Day last Friday where I gave a presentation of how my project had been going, as a follow up to the presentation I did earlier in the year on how I intended to plan the project. We had a good product review last Thursday and we're hitting alpha this Thursday, so things will be busy in the coming week!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:19am on Monday April 27, 2015 :: 0 comments ::