Rome 2016

Hello all you lovely people,

I have just posted all about my summer holiday to Portugal but did you know I went away in October too? I can not wait to get this post up. October is a hard month for me, I love it as its Halloween and Autumn has officially kicked in and all I want to do in snuggle on the sofa under a blanket with hot chocolate but its also a hard time of year for me due to personal reasons. So at the beginning of the month I said to myself I HAVE to make this month amazing and not sit and dwell on things and with that said I booked a trip to one of my favourite European cities, (if not my favourite). I went back to Rome. Please prepare for a really photo heavy post... LOL, Grab a cuppa and enjoy..I'm not even sorry!

I booked Rome for me and my sister Sylvia on a whim and was so excited about it yet nervous and a little sad my other sister couldn't come too. Sylvia goes on holiday every summer to Portugal and shes been to France and Spain before but she has never been anywhere to explore as such and she was even more excited than me. We stay at a little hotel called the MF Hotel in Rome (there will be a review about it coming soon), which was a 20 minute walk from the nearest metro station. We decided to be like the locals and use public transport to get around. Rome is one of those amazing cities where you can get anywhere by bus, metro or even better, by just walking around and exploring including those little back alleys.

Once we arrived in Italy and did the journey to the hotel, we changed, freshened up and went out to explore, we were really lucky in the sense that it was October but we had beautiful weather, 27 degrees.. although we weren't expecting it to be so warm and we did pack jumpers and hoodies in case it was chilly. In Rome you walk alot, therefore the walking and the heat did at times make us a little uncomfortable, but nothing that a cold bottle of water couldn't fix, and lucky for us there were street sellers everywhere selling ice cold ones! :)

Day one was about exploring the sights I had been to before but just seeing them through a new perspective, after all I went to Rome to make new memories of a city I fell in love with the first time I went there. We visited the Trevi Fountain as I think that's the first place you should go, we went to the Colosseum and the Pantheon and we wondered the back roads, seeing all the cute shops and eating all the gelato in the world. We also went to Dinner in a beautiful little restaurant with a great outdoor seating area, this was where we met Marco who became a friend with suggestions.

Day two we had already booked tickets to go to the Colosseum and explore the Roman Forum, so we woke up and went to a cafe nearby, we had the most amazing breakfast with freshly squeezed orange juice, then we walked down to the Trevi Fountain and looked around and took photos like proper tourists, we even bought a selfie stick and we did the tradition of throwing the coin in the fountain, my sister Sylvia had read that if you throw 2 coins in, one means you will return to Rome and two means you will find love. Once we had finished we walked to the Roman Forum, we lined up to collect our tickets and then off we went. The first time I came to Rome I actually never got a chance to do this.. so I had no idea what to expect but I was so excited. Once we were in I was in awe of everything, just seeing all the ruins and understanding that this was once the greatest empire in the world, is truly breathtaking. I love history and it was so amazing to be able to step into a piece of history that was still standing. The columns scattered around made it so beautiful, I cant quite describe it in enough words and I don't think pictures do it justice, but please believe me when I say you need to visit there at least once in your lifetime!! When we finished we went for lunch, and decided to have lunch right outside the Colosseum with a magnificent view of it, the food here wasn't actually as highly priced as I would expect it to be seeing as its in a tourist spot. It was a great lunch and filling, then we went to the Colosseum where we lined up again to collect tickets and go through security, this was something that was not in place the first time I visited Rome, but with everything that has happened in Europe in this last year I totally understand the need for it. Being in the Colosseum is just the best feeling, its huge and there are so many little spots to take photos from. It was beautiful to just see it, be in it, and think of the games that were played there centuries ago.

When we finished at the Colosseum we had dinner plans with some old friends and I was so nervous and excited to see them again. Me and Sylvia walked to Piazza Novona where we had some cocktails and the most amazing Ice Cream, that even the table next to us asked if they could please take a photo of it. Once we had finished that and Sylvia had left a tip as well as her lipstick kiss on the napkin for the waiter we left, got a taxi and met up with friends for a lovely evening dinner of Fish. We first went to a bar for some pre drinks and nibbles before we headed to the meal, which was amazing as was the company, it was so nice to catch up with them, and once we had finished that we went for some late night gelato that only you could do in Rome. We were then taken home while very tipsy from far to many cocktails and wine. It was a great end to our second day!

Day three was our final full day in Rome and we had the Vatican museums booked in as well as St Peters Basilica. We woke up to breakfast in bed served by the lovely people at our hotel and then we started making our way to the museums, It was raining, and so we bought a little umbrella from a street seller to use as we walked about. Once we finally got to museums the queue we saw was almost enough to put me off and make me turn around and go straight back home, but we found a different entrance. The entrance we were actually supposed to take, Our ticket was booked for 10:30 but we arrived closer to 11, we didn't take into account that because of the rain, things would take twice as long to do, so we started to panic thinking they wouldn't let us in, but it was okay we were allowed through security again and once inside we soon dried off and got to explore the museums. We had been told by friends that it would likely take 4 hours to explore the whole thing, but I wasn't too keen on exploring every last thing of it, to be perfectly honest I was mostly interested in seeing the Sistine Chapel. So we made our way through it all, paying attention to any specific thing that caught our eye, like the tapestries they had hanging, and how they smelled very old but were so beautiful and enormous, I cant even imagine how long it would have taken to make just one, and there was room after room full of them. Another thing we really liked were all the mosaic paintings, that I thought were actually oil paintings but on closer inspection they were not. We were in the museum for a grand total of an hour and a half and that included going into Sistine chapel. That was a surreal experience, you are not allowed photos in there and rightly so, I don't think any photo could capture what we saw. It was breathtaking and eerie and to think Michel Angelo did that whole ceiling leaves me with goosebumps. Amazing. When we left we decided to go to a restaurant nearby for some lunch as we were starting to get hungry and the rain had stopped. We went to a traditional Italian one, and actually enjoyed a really lovely meal there. Again very inexpensive for a restaurant that is in yet another tourist spot.
Once we had finished our lunch and had got our energy back, we went to St Peters Basilica. First we got into a queue as we were told by people who were tour groups that it was where we should be..but it didn't feel right, I had paid to skip the queue so was utterly confused. We finally found the teeny tiny queue we should have been in which was to collect our audio guides as well as the security bit. Once we had everything and we were inside, we were in awe, I've been inside before but it still captures my breath, there is something so grand about the sheer size of it and the inside is beautifully decorated. We explored a little while listening to our audio guide which gave us lots of helpful information and when we had seen all that needed to be seen, we returned our audio guides, paid an extra €6 and got the lift to the top of the basilica's dome. The view from the top is amazing, because of the weather Rome was having it was slightly cloudy but none the less it took both mine and my sisters breath. We got the lift but still had to climb nearly 300 stairs and by the time we got to the top we were in need of water, a sit down, some air and to undress as we were sweating. Thank goodness that on the way down, at the half way point there is a shop where we were able to buy water, top tip for next time right here guys, have water with you on this journey, or buy some from the half way point on the way up instead of down.

As we left St Peters Basilica we made our way to St Angelos Castle which is a short walk away, we didn't go in the castle this time but we got to take some lovely pictures of it as well as on the bridge opposite it. We then had to go check out the Spanish Steps and what they are all about. I couldn't afford any of the lovely pieces I saw in all the designer shops but its still such a beautiful little area to go and explore, and if the weather had been better, its the perfect place to chill out with friends. Then we headed to dinner, and seeing as this was our last night in Rome we decided we could have a little more to drink then normal. We went to one of our favourite restaurants where Marco and his boys were working and had the most amount of wine, cocktails and shots, (we would personally like to say thanks to the boys, they soooo wanted to get us drunk) we also had one of the most amazing meals and Sylvia left with one of the waiters phone number. Haha, it was a beautiful last night, we decided to walk up to the Trevi while we swayed as we were quite drunk. We stopped in one of my favourite shops with everything made of wood, just like Pinocchio. Such a beautiful shop, we bought some gifts for our family and friends and then we went and said a tearful farewell to our favourite spot. The TREVI FOUNTAIN! We then got a cab and made our way home for our final sleep before we had to leave the next morning. I should point out, that flying while hanging is the worse decision you could make, especially if your flight gets delayed by 2 and a half hours! Also, being drunk when the country has two earthquakes is not the smartest idea either, the first one happened while we were at dinner, but we didn't feel anything, the second however happened at about 9-10pm, we were walking the Roman streets and were drunk and the whole world was moving anyway, so thank goodness it wasn't too bad in Rome, as we would have been screwed! :(

Overall I went to Rome to make new memories of a city I fell in love with, and I fulfilled that. The city stole my heart once again, but this time I didn't want it back, I wanted to keep a piece of me there. Thank you Rome I will be back, and thank you to Sylvia for coming with me on this adventure.

We will be back Roma... Enjoy the little video of all our memories..

Ana
..xo