Europe - Flying to Rome via Doha

Day 1 - 1 Oct 19

It’s our honeymoon again! We decided to take this Europe trip now, at this moment of time, while we still have the energy to travel from place to place every couple of days. We exchanged $3.5k of Euros and $1.5k of Swiss Francs in total for 2 pax for 18 days. And I tell you, with the exchange rate, it seems so little for 18 days!

Before all the European food indulgence, my body craved for some good Chinese congee. And I was craving for the same thing when I got back.

Flying with Qatar for the first time 

We sure wanted to fly with Singapore Airlines on a 14 hours kind of flight, but $500 per pax extra could be used to spend on other things during the stay. So we went with Qatar at around $1k per pax, with transit at Doha. In a way, it was good for our aching butts to come down and stretch. We didn’t need to worry about the luggage since it was transferred to the next plane.

I would say the plane we took was pretty good. The leg space seems to be more spacious. Pity I did not utilize much of the entertainment system due to sleepiness. Only managed to complete Dumbo and part of Men in Black 4. The food was quite okay. Pretty good curry fish and I love the warm plain bread with butter.

Doha airport is quite nice with many shops to explore. It does take a bit of time to get to your next boarding gate since they may be quite far apart. We had a 1 hr 45 minutes transit time which was kind of perfect for us given that you are not shopping around, and that there is no delays from the previous flight.

The airplane to Rome seems smaller and the darkness once again made it hard to watch my movie productively. Somehow, they do not seem to have the food they display on the menu as they were out of stock. There was no chicken and no pasta on the first flight, and then there was no more pancake the second time. So both of us ended up eating the same choice of food, which is something we don’t do since we want to try a variety. Their service was okay but definitely not impressive for a world’s best airline.

Arrival at Fiumicino Airport 

You know how they say we have to be careful in Europe? Once we were outside, there was already 2 suspicious men trying to talk to us. We ignored them and walked away pretending not to hear. At the second level, we sat down and had some croissants, orange juice and coffee. The orange juice is so sour that it made my heart cringe. The husband bought 2 croissants based on the colour I think, and one turns out to be pistachio, a flavour that is not very common to us. It is pretty delicious and fragrant.

Taking the Leonardo Express 

Leonardo Express is a quick option to get to central Rome - Roma Termini Station. We bought our tickets at the machine for 14 euro each. And the next thing we do is to observe what people are doing. If you read online, you would read about validating your train tickets before you board. I believe the purpose is to stamp in the time you were going to board the train so that you can only use it once. 

We saw someone putting the ticket in horizontally, and it dropped inside! Gosh. Actually, quite a number of people were also figuring out how to use the machine. Here's how you do it - Place it to the end on the right and swipe to the left. You will hear a "cut" sound and there will be a timestamp when it is taken out.

Ecce Roma Suites

We were walking back and forth looking at the map for our apartment place. It clearly shows on the map but we could not find it. One of the restaurant staff then assisted us and told us it was behind the big green gate, and then we saw the small names of different suites reflected on the side of the gate. Coincidentally, some guests came out at that time and we could go in without the passcode.

We arrived at a small and manual kind of lift which can only fit 2 people and 2 luggage. It is quite interesting to see this kind of lift. Reception is on the 2nd floor and we managed to check in earlier. We got one passcode for our internal door, and one passcode for the main gate. There is also a pantry area in which is shared among the 3 rooms. Ours is a room called Silver. Other than the very creaky bed, and the thin sheet which cannot be considered as a blanket (there’s an Ikea blanket which is like for kids and so thin as well), I guess this suite has all the basic things for the cheaper price we paid - around S$175 per night.

Lunch/Tea at La Muccu Biricchina

This is where we had our first Italian coffee, the espresso, which was gone in just one mouthful. The pizza is delicious for the starving-me. The carbonara is interesting and different from what we are used to. It seems creamier but yet not too overwhelming. Spaghetti is also thicker. Overall, it was quite a satisfying meal.

Then we had some ice cream at Grezzo Raw chocolate. The hazelnut gelato is thick and creamy, but a little on the sweet side for me. And that little ball of dessert is like a large Ferrero Rocher. What is interesting is that the tables and chairs in this shop are all made of recycled materials. What surprises me is that they can still support our weight.

The Colosseum

We explored our way towards the Colosseum and there were many revamping/restoration works going on there. I got excited to see the first water refill station, and there is even sparkling water.

We were really intrigued by how the Korean tourists take photos of their friend at different angles. There will be 1 model doing the posing and all the other friends will just start snapping. And then the next model is up.

We passed the Arch of Constantine and Arch of Titus. Most of the time, I don't know where we were walking. It was just too tiring for me since we did not have enough sleep due to the night flight.