When in Rome...

As the end of my year abroad came into sight, my housemate Charlotte and I decided we wanted to go on a trip together to end our year on a positive note. And where better to go but Rome?

So on Friday 13th (ooh!) May we set off to the airport for our weekend adventure, and it's safe to say we were very, very excited.

(until we realised that flying with a budget airline means that bits inside the plane are fixed with duct tape...)

But we arrived safely in Rome and took the half an hour train to the city centre. Our hotel (Hotel Seiler) was about a ten minute walk from the main train station, and very close to the centre of the city too, so we were in a great location. 

On Friday evening we headed to the region of Trastevere in Rome, which we were told was less touristy and had some great restaurants. After a rather cramped and frankly scary bus ride, we decided we'd probably walk back to the hotel after dinner. We found a little pizzeria (of course, we were in Italy!) for dinner and on the walk back to the hotel later on we found a gelateria and bought the most amazing ice cream! 

Rome at night was beautiful!

Saturday, our first full day in Rome, was unfortunately very rainy...

...however we bought umbrellas and tried to make the most of the day!

We went for a walk into the centre area of Rome, where we saw parts of the Roman Forum, the Colosseum and Piazza Venezia.

We stopped for lunch in a lovely little cafe by the Colosseum and although it was raining, we were able to sit outside in the sheltered area. It was such a shame seeing so many tourists getting soaked (as we were) by the torrential rain and we tried to decide what we could still do.

We decided that we would try doing a bus tour of the city, as at least that way we would learn about the area and see some of the sights. So we bought our tickets, which included entry to the Roman Forum and Colosseum, and got on the bus. Unfortunately despite the rain, the company had put up the roof but no windows upstairs, so sitting by the 'window' meant that you got absolutely soaked. By this point I was feeling quite uncomfortable, and we decided we needed to have a change of plans.

We got off the bus at the Trevi fountain, and the rain had eased off a little. 

After that we thought that shopping in Rome might be a good way of being inside, dry and still experiencing the city. So we headed off around the corner to Via del Corso to do some shopping and it was very successful. 

We also found La Durée, a famous Parisian tea house, so we had to go in and try!

The hot chocolate was literally just melted chocolate in a mug - amazing!

On the way to the hotel on the Friday we'd seen a lovely little restaurant in a little alley that we really wanted to try, so we got back on the (rather wet) tour bus and headed back to the train station to find it. And we weren't disappointed. At Alessio Ristorante we had a lovely meal, with traditional bread, wine and, to quote Charlotte, 'The best panna cotta I've ever had!'

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to watch Eurovision and although I understood pretty much nothing of the Italian, it was great fun, especially to watch with someone from another participating country.

On Sunday the weather was a lot better, and we tried to make up for lost time. One thing I learnt is that two days is not long enough to see Rome. You need at least a week I'd say! But we enjoyed it nonetheless, and I would love to go back one day.
We started out at the Roman Forum, as we had to pick up our tickets here for the Colosseum and Roman Forum. As we couldn't get into the Colosseum until 2.30pm we took our time in the Roman Forum, learning a bit about the Roman civilisation that existed such a long time ago.

At around 1pm we'd still only seen about half of the Roman Forum, but we were pretty hungry by then, so we decided to go back to the same restaurant as yesterday and have some lunch before heading to the Colosseum.
As we arrived at the Colosseum, we were a little confused. We'd bought 'skip the line' tickets, but couldn't see a way in other than an extremely long queue. It turned out that this queue was for the 'skip the line' tickets (ironic!) which was ridiculous...so we asked a tourist information worker for advice. He said we could take part in an English tour (of course for more money) and then we wouldn't have to queue. We thought this sounded like the best idea, as then we also get information about the Colosseum and learn something, so we joined the tour group.
I did get a little freaked out when the tour guide told us we had to pretend not to have a ticket to get in, and then after the metal detector we could just head on through as though we did have tickets (which we did), but we couldn't go as a group because it wasn't 'official' and that he would meet us in there...eek! But we trusted him, and it paid off, because he did appear and the tour was fantastic, informative and I learnt a lot - definitely worth that little extra money for a tour and skipping the queue!

As we were headed back to the hotel to drop our bags off before dinner, it started pouring with rain...

We sheltered in a couple of shops and popped into a supermarket to buy some traditional Italian food to take home with us, and eventually made it back to the hotel, completely soaking wet (I had to throw my poor shoes away!)

Our plan was to head back to the same restaurant at the day before, but we decided that because we were now soaking wet, we'd have a picnic at the hotel instead, and it was totally worth it!

Early on Monday morning we flew back to Austria. Despite the weather, I had a wonderful time in Rome, and it was a great way to end my time living with Charlotte. She's been an amazing housemate, so generous, helpful and fun - a friend for life!

Thanks for reading!

Laura