Rome, Italy – After surviving the ski slopes, which was not too hard in Zermatt, Switzerland unless you're with a travel buddy who almost lands on your head coming off-piste, it was time to head to the ruins of Rome.

We flew in the same day that my travel buddy's mother was arriving from Canada, thinking that if we arrived in Rome around 3 p.m. we would have plenty of time to meet her flight at 8 p.m. Ha! Rome has two airports and ours was the one less travelled to. It took us two hours to take a bus to the centre of the city and then another hour or so to find the apartment we rented for the week. Unfortunately, our apartment was a bit of hike from the centre, but it was cheap and would sleep all three with plenty of space!

By the time we found the apartment and paid for it, we only had about half an hour until her plane arrived. My travel buddy jetted for the second Roman airport while I stayed behind to sort things out. Well about an hour later his mother was on my doorstep and my travel buddy was nowhere to be found. Ten minutes after she arrived I got a frantic phone call from him saying he was in the airport and couldn't find his mother! OK, Rome is a cosmopolitan city, but neither airport is very big; probably only twice that of Bermuda's, so after his mother had waited for an hour, she had given up on him and taken a taxi!

Eventually he found his way back to the apartment and they were ready for their Roman adventure and I was ready for my tour guide duties. I taught at an American boarding school here for a year after college so I am still familiar with the city (not much changes the sites are just a tad bit more ancient). It was my travel buddy's first visit, so of course our first stop had to be the Colosseum.

During its heyday it was where hundreds of thousands of people and millions of animals met their death; now it hosts thousands upon thousands of tourists. And while the Colosseum was free for all Roman citizens when it could hold about 50,000 people, now it will cost you about ten Euros and there isn't a seat in sight. Still, like most, I was impressed by the Colosseum (how can you not be?). I, however, did not share the same powers of imagination as my travel buddies and after two and half hours of looking at the remains I finally dragged my unruly guidees to a café for lunch!

After a brief respite from the cold (with immaculate timing, we managed to be in Rome during one of its coldest weeks) it was back to the ruins! The ancient Romans were not satisfied with the gore they sought in the Colosseum, so to fill their bloodthirsty appetites they also built the Circus Maximus where 300,000 Romans could cheer on their favourite chariot racers. Now, it's nothing more than a sparsely covered grass oval that is used for parties and protests. Still my travel buddy required us to soak up the "atmosphere" and imagine how it used to be for close to an hour and then it was on to more ruins on the Palatine Hill next door.

This hill was basically the Tucker's Town or Fairylands of Ancient Rome (even Mussolini built himself a summer villa here). Everyone who was anyone wanted to live on this hill, that fits between the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus. The reason this hill had the most desired real estate? It all started with a myth. According to the story, two brothers Romulus and Remus were found in a basket that had been lodged in some reeds on the side of the Tiber river (which runs through Rome). A she-wolf suckled the little boys who grew up and decided they needed to move out and populate their own hills. They eventually fell out when Remus wanted the centre of the city to be on his hill (Aventine Hill) and Romulus wanted the city to centre on his (Palatine). Romulus killed Remus and, well, the rest is history.

Now what remains of The Palatine Hill are some stories that fill the stones left from various Roman emperors' homes, water fountains and an orange garden. These Emperors liked to have a good time when not "running" Rome. Parties would go on for days and would consist of endless food and wine to the point that there were rooms for guests to throw-up what they had eaten and then continue partying! I suppose it was handy, then, that this area was just next door to the Roman Forum or the old market place and meeting place.

This was our next stop on our ruin tour. The forum is still quite intact and I would definitely suggest taking one of the guided tours that incorporate the Palatine Hill, the Colosseum and the Forum as we did to help fill in some of the blanks. You can break-up the site tours, which start from outside the Colosseum, over two days if you need a respite from the ruins. The guides are informative and fun.

I, unlike, my travel buddy do not have a limitless appetite for ruins and am more interested in the Roman city of today. I suppose it's strange that although the city is littered with ancient ruins, they are not my favourite part of Rome. Don't get me wrong, the atmosphere they add is romantic and lovely, but I prefer sitting in a bustling piazza with a glass of wine or an espresso and taking in the current life. My favourite piazza is most definitely Campo dei Fiori which can be jammed packed every night with the likes of Americans studying abroad to Italians looking utterly bored by their antics. During the day it transforms itself into a market where everything from underwear to fresh lettuce can be purchased.

Second on the list is Piazza Navona. This three-fountained piazza used to be the centre piece for staged naval battles in Ancient Rome. The imposing fountains are now the only things filled with water while the bars on the perimeter keep the wine flowing.

A night out could easily continue in the Trastevere neighbourhood, which offers winding streets, fabulous little restaurants and a great piazza to sit and enjoy life across the river from Piazza Navona. These little streets also fill with a market on Sundays.

When my travel partners could finally extricate me from my wine-filled piazzas, we also managed to take in the Pantheon with its inexplicable architecture that leaves a hole in its domed ceiling for the elements to enter, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain (which of course you have to visit at night), and the Victor Emmanuele Monument (also called the wedding cake) among other sites.

Of course Rome also has wide-open green spaces available to the escape the heat (in the summer) or the chaos of the city. The Villa Borghese is one of the most beautiful parks and the best way to get around this enormous estate is to rent a bike. From lakes to a horse riding centre it was the former estate of Sciopione Borghese who built it to celebrate his purchase of a cardinalship. It also houses some of the best art galleries, apparently, but we were too broke at this point to try and visit those.

We did, however, rent bikes (well I rented a solo bike while my travel buddies took a double-seater to more easily visit the villa's estate. As my travel buddy took their vehicle off-roading I'm pretty sure his mother was wishing she was riding solo too! It was fun to get out and have some exercise and almost forget you're in the city. That can also happen in the other large formerly private estate of the Villa Doria Pamphilli. Just behind the Gianiculum hill, which has a great view of the city (and Italians seeking "privacy" from their parent's homes) at sunset.

It also leads down to the city-state of Vatican City, which of course you have to see regardless of your religious calling and even if it costs a small fortune. This autonomous area – it has kept its distance from Italy by minting its own coins with the pope's face – lies on about 108 acres within Rome. There are essentially two parts that the public are allowed to see – the Vatican museum that houses the famous Sistine Chapel and Saint Peter's Basilica. The Basilica is amazing and overwhelming as it dwarfs any other Basilica in the world. And of course you must endure the necessary neck strain from staring at Michelangelo's famous ceiling. I would suggest, though, that anyone going should take their time through the map corridor leading to the Sistine Chapel which boasts beautiful, rich depictions of Italy.

Of course this is the road most travelled by those with limited time to see the ancient city. Those with a few more minutes should try and visit the Giardini degli Aranci (garden of the oranges) on the Aventine Hill (Remus' hill). The view from this garden is also spectacular and next door is one of the more random things to see in Rome. Do not ask me who thought to look through the key hole of the cream-coloured arched gate just down the road from the orange garden first, but what they found was a perfectly framed view of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. Believe me you will feel like an idiot squinting through the hole, but do it! It's very cool.

Other ways to fill your time in this city if you have it, is to visit the Baths of Caracalla, which unfortunately no longer work, but used to clean the citizens of Rome. Following the tour of these still grand structures should be a trek down the Appian Way (if it's Sunday when it is closed to traffic). I used to run it when I lived here, but this time I missed it because I came down with a cold so I had to send my travel partners off with a few words of Italian, a well drawn map and a prayer that my travel buddy would be able to find his way!

I did manage to recover in time to visit Ostia Antica, which is great afternoon trip from Rome. From the Piramide metro stop in Rome you can take the train about six stops directly to this port town of ancient Rome. It's still quite intact and it's interesting to see that the water had withdrawn several kilometres from where it used to be. I lucked out because for some reason journalists get in for free (and here's their free advertisement)! It's a beautiful tree-lined site with a perfectly intact theatre which unfortunately as we saw still draws egotistical tourists who believe everyone wants to hear them sing/screech out a tune. I would recommend taking a picnic and enjoy a wander through this little jem as we did.

After spending a week in Rome it was time to pack up our ruin-filled cameras and head for the coastal city of Sorrento and more ruins in Pompeii!