Central Italy
Rome, Umbria and Vesuvius
This was a short trip, together with friends, to Umbria and Vesuvius in the second part of November. We arrived in Rome by plane. In advance, we agreed to rent of apartment in the centre of the city.
The apartment was located just a few hundred meters from Vatican City, river Tiber and very close to many other attractions. A few days after arrival, we rented a car to reach other points of interest outside of Rome – Vesuvius, caves of stalactites and to taste some Italian food in the countryside.
Italian capital Rome
We were lucky with the choice of accommodation – we found a bedroom flat offered for short-term rent in Rome.
Communication with the landlord agent was effective, upon arrival, we were met exactly as agreed before and accommodation was as good as we expected in terms of comfort, location and cleanness. I’d use this service again for sure.
Italian capital Rome, with its 2.7 million residents and history of more than two and a half thousand years, is like an open-air museum.
Wherever you go, history is all around you – monuments, museums, churches, ancient buildings and so on. And that is why Rome is the most visited place in Italy and the third most visited in the EU.
Caves of stalactites and stalagmites
After a few days spent walking on the streets of Rome, we left the city for two single-day trips. The first one was visiting Grotte di Frasassi (caves of Frasassi) in the province of Ancona.
It was a full-day trip because the cave is located in the Nord-East bout 250 kilometres away from Rome and there are no major motorways available all the way. You can see the exact location of Grotte di Frasassi and our route on the map.
Caves of Frasassi were discovered very recently – in 1971. The length of the cave complex is about 13 kilometres; it consists of many “rooms”. Some parts of the rooms are available for visitors (caves have been open to the public since 1974; more than 12 million people have visited them).
You can find both stalagmites and stalactites in the caves. After a few days spent in Rome, we recognized that the Umbria region (we crossed it while driving to caves) has an absolutely different landscape compared to the Lazio region where Rome is located. It was a really beautiful difference to be ready to return to Rome again.
Vesuvius
Our second one-day trip was to the Vesuvius volcano. We left Rome early morning driving in the direction of Naples (E 45, South-East). It did not take much effort to reach Naples because of the good motorway connection between the two cities. However, another part of the trip was very slow because of the dense population and narrow roads in the surrounding area.
After visiting a local producers of fermented grape juice and having some locally made snacks, reaching the top of Vesuvius was a real joy.
I should mention that there is only one way of getting to the top for tourists not prepared for long hiking – a special Vesuvio bus service (you cannot reach the top by car because it’s not allowed. Also, actually there is rather a path than road allowing only off-road vehicles to climb up).
From the top of Vesuvius, it was a beautiful landscape all around. There is still steam coming from inside of the crater; not huge, however interesting to see anyway. We had a bit more than hours to walk around the crater before the next bus arrived to collect us and bring us down to the starting point before our return to the Italian capital Rome.