So, if you missed me recently, it was because Ad and I recently visited Rome for a few days. Being very much in need of a break, I embraced the opportunity to take some time off from blogging as well with a view to really recharging my batteries.
So, we took an early(ish) flight from Gatwick over to Italy whereon we had to hop onto the Leonardo Express train to get into the centre of the city. It took about 30-35 minutes to get from the airport to Rome Terminus Station. I would like to say though, for an express train, it certainly went no faster than 50mph but given there were no stops I shouldn't complain.
You can tell I'm simply delighted with the speed at which we're travelling. We booked our travel for November as we'd hoped to miss the bad end of the tourist season and therefore the queues. Whilst we were able to get into most things fairly quickly, I would like to point out for any would be travellers that during November, a lot of the big attractions shut at 4:30 so we had a lot to cram in over the next few days.
We arrived at our B&B at around 2pm and this was the view from our room. Isn't in amazing? We stayed on the Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore (this is the Monti & Esquilino District if you're wondering) which is about a 5-7 minute walk from the train station and about the same to the Colosseum. Despite being in such a good location, it was pretty quiet in the evenings which made for a good nights sleep.
As we only had a couple of hours before things began to close, we decided to try and get around the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. The tickets were about 12 Euro each and are valid for two days, you get one entry to the Forum and also one entry included to the Colosseum as well. I'd strongly recommended getting your tickets from the Roman Forum ticket booth as there were no queues!
I believe that the arch you can see here was apparently the inspiration for the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and was one of many imposing archway style monuments which we saw during our time in Rome.
The area itself was pretty vast but we were pretty lucky in that we managed to scoot around most of the area before the heavens finally opened and we both got soaked. For those of you unfamiliar with Rome, the Roman Forum was essentially the centre of the ancient city and featured some of the most extravagant basilicas and marble temples back in the day so it's a must see during your time here.
If you're running tight on time like we were, I'd certainly recommend heading straight for Palatine Hill, the views from up here were beautiful and when it was clear, you had a spectacular view of the city.
As we headed out we spotted the Colosseum again, but by this point it was far too late to have a peek around. Instead, we headed for Zizzi Pizza in the Piazza San Martino Ai Monti which was just far enough away for an authentic pizza. The food here was amazing and all of this grub only set us back 18 Euro which was an absolute steal.
After our meal, we headed back to the Colosseum to take some photos of it all lit up. It was quite breathtaking to see as it's such an imposing building.
As you can see, it was a pretty packed day so we were glad for an early night before our action packed second day in the city.
Stay tuned for Day Two of Our Roman Holiday!
