travel

I recently spent a long weekend in Rome with Dr B.

We left on Thursday morning very early, took a taxi to the hotel (guide books and even a sign at the airport say that it is a fixed price, but Roman acquaintances told us 'Good luck with that!').

The Hilton Cavalieri is an impressive hotel, and I am so grateful that Dr B. still had some points left over from when he was working away and staying at the Hilton in Swindon (sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it?). These points meant that with a very small contribution we could use a 860 Euro per night room.

We got out straight away and I showed Dr B. the place where I got cruised for the very first time in my life. I was eighteen, sitting on the edge of the fountain at Piazza di Spagna, and this curly blond guy my age in a tracksuit asked me to go home with him. I thought it was well dodgy and didn't – but kept his number for days.

We met Ugo, went for a drink and a chat, he is adorable and speaks English fluently (considering he has never travelled to an English-speaking country, he said). Definitely a clever chap. We talked about going out that night to the opening of Muccassassina but we never made it as we got back to the hotel soaking wet and tired from the early start. Ugo, being much younger, partied the night away.

The following day we went to the Vatican. The queue for the museums was ridiculously winding around the building, so we tried the cathedral, which had a very long queue too. The square? All cordoned off because apparently the Pope was out running errands ('Gut morning. Let's zee. One loaf bread, one litre milch, one pair of Prada slippers…'). We hung around until his popeness came back. I filmed him but the movie did not come out, unsurprisingly as he is the spawn of Satan. Just kidding.

And then the great adventure commenced. Either a dodgy pizza the night before, or a dodgy pizza that lunchtime, made us start a tour of Rome's cafes and we spent the rest of the weekend from toilet to toilet. I seem to get that a lot when I travel, and have now a collection of anti-diarrhoea tablets from three different countries (Sweden, Spain and now Italy). First thing I did as I got back to London was to put some in the washbag for future trips.

Fortunately, by Monday morning we were alright, which meant that we could visit the Vatican Museums without too many calls of nature, and then meet an old friend of mine who moved to Rome a few years ago.

We saw most of what there was to see, thanks to:

• Eyewitness travel Rome pocket map & guide: so tiny it fits in your front pocket, yet complete for a four-day trip;
• Eyewitness full-size Rome travel guide: Italian version, borrowed from my brother, not much use for Dr B. but it gave me further information that I could then share;
• My brother's tips and advice. He's a Catholic priest, so I guess he knew what he was talking about. He knew I'm not keen on religious art (I break out in hives) and suggested I might want to skip the Vatican Museums. I am glad we visited them anyway, because they are spectacular. And to think we only went because Dr B. wanted to add a picture to his collection of photos of Pomodoro's spheres from around the world.
• Advice from a friend's friend: 'Go to Coming Out cafe and get leaflets and free press on what to do in Rome'. We went, we found a booklet, it only listed the one night I had heard about. Only when I checked online did I find out that there isn't much else in terms of gay life in Rome. Maybe only the locals know. Honestly, we did not miss it at all.
• Dr B.'s Windows mobile phone with Tom Tom satnav, and my iPhone, which I did not hesitate to whip out every time I wanted quick directions – and then got a not entirely unexpected 100 pounds phone bill for data roaming.
• Frommer's suggested itineraries (Rome in one, two and three days): online tours and maps (very good and handy, used them in Madrid too (the Madrid version, obviously), just print them out from the website and fold away in a pocket.

A few tips:

• You will probably want to walk everywhere, as there is a lot to see outside, and Rome is not that big. Get individual underground tickets for one Euro each, there are only two lines and you can also use them on buses. Tickets are valid 75 minutes and entitle you to one underground trip and unlimited bus trips during that period.
• Visit the Vatican Museums on a Monday afternoon when it does not rain: we entered at around 2.30 and there was no queue. By 4.30pm, the museums were almost empty and we did another tour of the highlights.
• The ticket to the Forum includes a visit to the Colosseum. Had we known, we would have combined the two, which we saw instead on consecutive days.
• Must see: the Pantheon.

And a few photos:

• My Rome photoset on Flickr;
• Dr B.s Rome panoramas on Flickr;
• A photo of us just moment before being struck down with lightning in St Peter's square ;-)