Roman Holiday - picture post!

When I wrote about my recent trip to Rome, I promised to post some pictures on my return, and here they are, a little later than planned, but, better late than never, right?

At the Trevi Fountain

I feel lucky to live in Europe - all it takes is a short plane journey, and I can visit some of the most amazing cities in the world.  What's extra good for me is that these cities are very old, and steeped in history, and I love that! Our trip to Rome included visiting a lot of places of historical significance.  We took in The Colosseum, The Roman Forum and Palatine Hill on our first day of sightseeing.  The very first place we visited was The Trevi Fountain, which I thought was oh, so pretty, but the crowds there were too much. Insane! The Spanish Steps were even more crowded. Rome is probably one of the busiest cities I've been to!

We revisited The Trevi Fountain a couple times (we were staying near there) and the best time to go was definitely late at night because that's the only time when the Trevi Fountain is relatively quiet. Good thing that I love to take late night walks around cities! 

I had a great time on this trip. The weather was perfect, as was our holiday apartment.  The food was delicious, and so was the wine!

Here are some pictures!

The Colosseum by night

If you ever do go to Rome, and plan on visiting The Colosseum, buy a Rome Pass which will enable you to skip the queues for The Colosseum. The queues were insane - up to an hour long wait.  Thankfully, though I am supremely disorganised, I am a whizz with google, and I had figured that I should buy the pass. No queuing here!  The Colosseum isn't open at night, by the way, I visited during the day. I just wanted to get some night shots!

You know what else was insane? The Spanish Steps! I've never known such popular  set of steps. Look, see what I mean?! Crazy crowds!

Crazy crowds at the Spanish Steps

Rome is a busy, crowded city - it's a lot smaller than I thought it would be too.  We stayed very centrally, and were able to walk everywhere.  If you've tired of crowds, and want some peace and tranquility a good place to go is the Villa Borghese park, which is the largest public park in Rome. It's also just a short walk from those Spanish Steps (there is a hill, though!) Featuring lakes, temples and fountains, it's very pretty, and the perfect place for a chilled out picnic!

Aesculapius Temple at Villa Borghese

Our Sunday in Rome consisted of going to the Vatican City and the Castel Sant'Angelo - the views from the roof are Wow!  The Vatican city is also very impressive.  The following sculpture was one of my favourites - it caught my eye right when I walked into St. Peter's Basilica...

Angels in Saint Peter's Basilica

Of course, when in Rome, you have to sample the gelato, right. Before I went to Rome, all anybody talked about was the gelato...and it is good! My favourite was probably the lemon flavour. I sampled 5 or six different flavours. I definitely ate too much on this trip (I am a pasta fiend!), but I walked a lot too, so I figure that's OK! 

Sunday concluded with a trip to Castel Sant'Angelo, which has great views of the city. If you're going to visit, go right to the top for the views over the city!

At Castel Sant'Angelo

On this trip we also visited The Pantheon, Piazza Navona and the Torre Argentina cat sanctuary, the volunteers at which are doing some wonderful work on behalf of the stray cats of Rome.

We didn't fit in the day trip to Florence since our days were pretty full as it was and we just didn't have the time.  I'll have to save that for another trip!

Hope you enjoyed looking through my Rome pictures.  They're pretty small on the blog, but if you click them, they magically get bigger! :)