Rome

February 23rd – 26th 2017

Our last holiday before travelling – well maybe.

Read our How to Rome here – our handy quick guide

So, after the panic about the Italy strikes & computer issues on board, we finally landed into Rome around midday. We got dropped off to Termini (the main train station) and went straight to our hotel which was only about a 10 minute walk away. Once back, we literally dropped our stuff off, freshened up & went out to explore.

Our first day/night consisted of loads of walking, 25km to be exact. We started off by roaming into random churches & seeing loads of ‘old stuff’ as Luke puts it and taking so many photos as the day goes on. We stopped in McDonalds (as you do) for a much needed coffee and some food before adventuring off again. Walking down streets, you would always see massive monuments/buildings that would always make you look up and wonder what the hell it was. One of the first one’s we saw was what we called a massive beautiful white building in basically the centre of Rome, which I’ve now found out is called Altare Della Patrica’, this is located in Piazza Venezia and you can’t miss it! It has an amazing terrace as well which you are able to go in for free and you can see wonderful views of the city from here. Later, we started to head towards the district Trastevere which was where most of the restaurants and bars were. We sat and has a drink here which was a lovely setting as well and where we first encountered people trying to sell you any old shit and spin any story to get you to pay. This is also where Luke had his first 1L beer and ended up nearly wetting himself by the end of the night.. After this, we just walked and walked taking in all the sights and lights that Rome has to offer. We also managed to climb the Spanish Steps without knowing it was the Spanish Steps as well aha. From here, we took a nice (long) walk home to crash and wake up to do it all again!

Day two of legs killing consisted of walking towards the Vatican City, the smallest city in the world. But, before we got there we decided on visiting Piazza De Popolo, which is just a nice big square. Here, was also where we visited the Leonardo De Vinci museum, which was thrilling… not. But, Luke seemed to love it. The Vatican City was amazing.. But, heads up, if this is something you want to do when you visit Rome, ensure you come here REALLY early
because the queue is something we’ve never seen before, probably looking at a 5 hour wait to see the Sistine chapel. However, the area is just equally as beautiful. From here, we saw the castle, the many bridges and monuments, where we thought we could go for a spot of lunch. This is the time that Luke tried his now, possibly favorite dish,  Cacio de Pepe, Pasta with cheese and black pepper. We then ventured off towards the Roman Forum, which is definitely a must when you visit Rome! Definitely recommend getting an audio guide though because it is actually really interesting so you know what once stood in front of you opposed to now. Tip: If there’s 2 of you, buy 1 audio guide and share it with your own headphones to save a bit of money. From here, we then visited another museum. Cue Abbie being bored and entertaining herself by putting up a funny Snap Chat story on Luke’s phone. After this, we then walked all the way back towards to Colosseum to see it at night time, which was so worth the walk. It was magical. We then went to a restaurant which I really recommend! The atmosphere, food and service was amazing & the best part was it was so cheap. Actually, the best part was the fact that this restaurant was right next to a Gelato place. We walked 30.04km this day which was 36,546 incredibly tiring steps.

Next day, we went into the Colosseum, something I’ve always wanted to do & it was amazing. I’d definitely recommend buying a guided tour for __. At first, I was a bit apprehensive about a tour, but it’s ideal to do. Not only do you get to learn everything about what once stood & stories, but, you get to go to the 3rd floor and underground, which you can’t do alone. This is 100% a must do when you are visiting Rome. From here, we strolled on down to the Pantheon. We got told prior to going that this was a must see & all the tour guide books detailed it as brilliant. Although, it was an impressive looking building, me and Luke didn’t really know what it was about. Turns out that the 1st king of Rome is buried there and it’s a very religious building. It’s good to go and see (it’s free to go inside) and it’s nice to just relax in front of it on the steps of the fountain watching the horse & carts, musicians playing, restaurants around the outside, etc. Our next stop was Piazza Navona. This was just an area with 3 fountains located in the middle of it with shops and restaurants surrounding the outside. One being Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, which I found very interesting. It actually represents the 4 rivers in 4 continents

• The Ganges in Asia (looks away from light = spiritual ignorance)
• The Rio de Plata in America (throws hand back in surprise = beginning to see the light)
• The Danube in Europe (looks towards and embraces the light of lord)
• The Nile in Africa (head covered = source of the river was unknown).

After this we went to the museum of Rome in which we got mugged off at because we paid for entry, only to see a temporary exhibition. So, next we went to the Trevi fountain & done the famous making a wish and throwing a coin over your shoulder. Next, we wanted to venture over to the other side of Rome towards the grand pyramid and town. On our way here, there was a park to our right filled with orange trees and amazing views of Rome, you manage to see everything from the Colosseum right over to Vatican City, whilst everyone queues to see the Basilica through a keyhole? Anyway, it’s miles to walk to this pyramid and it’s not even that grand, it’s not worth it haha, it’s just what is essentially, a roundabout. We had a quick sit down in what looked like a kebab shop, had a quick sausage roll and a drink to rest our poor legs before walking miles again as we wanted to see the Vatican City, Pantheon and Trevi fountain again but this time, at night. Little did we know, how much walking this would actual entail. We headed home after this, Luke almost crying with pain, to do the same thing over again tomorrow.

As today was our last day, we both thought today would be easy walking, we were soon proved wrong. Today was a lovely day though, the sun was shining and it was actually quite hot. Too hot in the terms of Luke – who was wearing all his jumpers/jackets that he couldn’t pack this morning. We walked up to where the Colosseum stood to go to Palatine Hill to see the history behind the king of Rome. We brought an audio guide to experience the hill and to go back to the Roman Forum for the second time, but understand why it’s there, etc. From here, we made our way back to the hotel to say our goodbyes to Rome and depart back for England 🙁 We walked through the towns and managed to ‘stumble’ across the Magnum shop right next to the Trevi fountain. So, we amazingly created our own Magnum, easily ate that and returned 🙁

Next stop: Dubai