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Day
1
(December 17, 2009) Arriving to Rome: Fontana di Trevi
Before
We must be at Girona’s airport with enough time to board into our
flight to Rome scheduled at 8:10 AM. When landing, we will use a bus to
reach the last metro station of the red line: Anagnina; which will
bring us through a long way to Grand Hotel Tiberio.
We will lunch on arrival or in our way and will buy a couple
of Rome Pass cards for using in our city visits.
In the afternoon, we will go for a walk to the
City Center having in mind seeing the Fontana di Trevi, following this
route from “Barberini” metro station:
The spots marked at map are:
1- Barberini Square
2- Fontana di Trevi
3- Castel Sant'Angelo
4- Cavour Square
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After
I know this is not a good beginning for today when
leaving home a few minutes to 6 AM. I’m driving as fast as possible
with the hope of reaching the airport on time, but we’re losing all the
minutes earned with the speed in the traffic jam around Barcelona city.
When we finally reach the airport around 7:30 AM, I leave the car in
front of the door and run to a Ryanair check-in boxes. The woman tells
us the checking is already closed for that flight but we’re still with
a few minutes for boarding on it with a cabin bag. Our printed boarding
passes mark boarding closes at 7:40 AM.
We take just two minutes on putting some chosen
cloths from our big bag to a hand bag I had in the car. We do that in
the street. Eva leaves to the security check while I’m parking the car.
At 7:50 AM we’re in the boarding gate which incredibly we can still see
opened, but the staff make us put our bag in the device they have for
checking the measure of the bags.
As we’ve filled it too much I’m fighting to make
it fit in there and, as it is soft, I keep hitting it desperately to
trying to manage it until one of the women says: “You must check it
in”. What?! Is it just a matter of money? Yes, it is. On  despite it is 8 AM they charge 35€ to our credit
card and take the bag off to the plane. The woman downstairs could tell
us about this as we had saved the entire baggage switch.
I cannot believe it when our plane land
on time in Ciampino airport. At 10 AM we take the bus of Atral company
to Anagnina by 1.20€ per person. Once there we can see the metro
entrance in a sort of courtyard in a level below the street. We go
downstairs and see all this courtyard is bordered by stores and bars
and we get into one of them to take some sandwiches as late breakfast.
There is a Roma Pass stand in the middle of the courtyard where we
purchase a couple of cards by 23€ each.
At 11:15 AM we’re taking our metro tickets by 1€
each and go all through the long red line until only two station rested
to end it: 24 stations from “Anagnina” to “Valle Aurelia”. In this last
one we change metro by train for just one more station to “Appiano
Proba Petronia”, where we finally can find our hotel.
 
We take some rest for a while in our room and get some
goodies from the stores around the hotel, including a cheese with red
spots on it which result to make it on a spicy hot cheese. Delicious!
We do a sort of brunch before leaving our room.
When we’re back in the train after finding out the tickets must be
purchased on the newsstand, as there are no ticket boxes or even
machines, we’re past 4 PM. This time it’s just 6 stations to
“Barberini”, but we’ve taken more than one hour after losing the train
and the change of metro, so it is getting dark when we go out to the
square which is giving its name to the station.
 
This square is a big space with the peculiar Triton
Fountain in the middle. We walk 300 meters down by Via del Tritone
until finding a sign pointing to Fontana di Trevi, which is what we
have come to see.
The street driving to the famous monument is quite narrow and ends in
an opened space where the impressive fountain is incredibly located, as
it has just the room for it and a narrow flagstone road to share by
vehicles and pedestrians. This makes it look crowded, as it can easily
get full.
What has appeared at our right is an
amazing sculpture of Neptune and his acolytes as if wanting to separate
from the building side which supports the whole thing. Water is falling
from the level where the mythological beings are making a short cascade
to the pool taking the most of the space, which is famous because it is
accepting any wish tourists may throw in the form of coins.
We go down to the closest one can be to the fountain to look for better chances of pictures without people.
 
We go on with our walk for the narrow streets randomly,
passing by relevant churches and even by the Pantheon, but we’re taking
no photos as it is dark and we’re going to explore deeply this area in our last day in this city.
When we reach the River Tiber we follow its side until the
bridge in front of Castel Sant’Angelo, which is looking great with the
lights across this bridge full of pertinent angels at both sides.
At our left we can see the Vatican City, with a dynamic crown of birds around the most known dome in the world.
Once in the other side I look at the map for an end to our walk and
find it in “Ottaviano” metro station, only two stations far of “Valle
Aurelia”. In our way we’ve seen Cavour Square and we’ve been able of
doing some shopping in the stores and market of this area. Mainly, we
were looking for men socks as we’ve found out my own were left in the
baggage switch.
It’s some minutes past 8 PM when we reach the hotel.
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