Rome

Last month my friends and I made a trip to Rome for five days.

In all honesty I had never really intended on visiting Rome but whilst researching into a variety of destinations, Rome seemed to attract our attention with the many sites and places to visit as well as the extensive history.

So on Monday 21st March my alarm woke me up at around 3am as our flight was due to depart within the early hours of the morning. On arrival to Rome, we commenced our trip by checking into our hotel which was located a short walk away from the Vatican. We then had a wonder around the surrounding streets and had our first Italian lunch. This of course was naturally a pizza. We were all quite tired from the early morning flight so had a quick nap which actually turned into three hours (woops) and then headed out to the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi fountain or Fontana di Trevi is possibly one of the most beautifull pieces of history which I have ever seen. The fountain appears ellumianted at night which enhances the features.  

The following day we decided to go to the Vatican City (Holy See). I can not express enough how much there is to do here. We spent the whole day exploring the Vatican Museums, the Sistine chapel, St Peters Square and the St. Peters Basilica. The amount of history within the Vatican City is immense and it highlights the beauty of Rome even more. I do not consider myself to be a religious person but being within the surroundings of the Vatican City, it made me feel a sense of religion and admiration for the history and meaning behind many aspects of the Catholic church. I didn't take that many photos as I felt a need to respect the surroundings especially in the Sistine Chapel.

As we were visiting the week leading up to Easter, we managed to get tickets to a ceremony and see the Pope.

Pope Francis

Below shows photos of the Collosseum. The inside was immense and ever so grand. Along with the tour we also booked onto of Palatine Hill. This is where Rome began and it had so much history to present. The Collosseum was definitely one of my favourite parts of the trip just because it is so well known and it holds so much history.

The Collosseum

The Collosseum

Palatine Hill

Palatine Hill

Castel Sant'Angelo

We also visited so many other places such as The Catacombs, Castel Sant'Angelo and The Pantheon. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go inside the Castel Sant'Angelo and The Pantheon due to running out of time.

There are so many things to do and see in Rome as well as eating lots of fresh Italian food! I would suggest the following top tips if you're thinking of going to Rome:

1. Pre-book tickets for sightseeing such as the Vatican City, Colloseum, etc. This helps to avoid the ques which were very long for these two sights in particular. We pre-booked for the Vatican before we went on our trip. There are also private companies which offer que jumps and guided tours which are located all around Rome and outside major sights.

2. Try and plan out your trip. We made a daily plan of what we wanted to see each day. This enabled us to cover most of the major sights and cover sections of Rome each day.

3. We booked our hotel which included breakfast. This was useful as it saved money and time on buying and finding breakfast each morning.

4. Location of hotel. Our hotel was located a short walk from the Vatican City and the major sights.

5. Tour bus. We booked onto a tour bus for two days which was handy for getting us around Rome whilst also seeing the sights of Rome.

6. Comfy shoes! I made the mistake of only bring boots and flats. There is so much walking in Rome so I would definitely recommend a pair of comfy shoes.

7. Tour guides. We found it really interesting to have a guided tour of the Colloseum and Palatine Hill. We didn't book a guided tour for the Vatican museum which was ashame because it would've enabled us to learn and hear so much about it.

8. Length of stay. We stayed for four nights. I felt that we were able to see and do everything in this time from careful planning. We also ensured that we were up early everyday and left the hotel for around 10am.

9. Photos! Make sure you take lots of photos to show family and friends of the amazing sights!

10. Magnum shop! The Magnum shops enables you to pick and design your own Magnum ice cream which is made in front of you.

Hope you enjoyed this post.

Lizzie xxx

*All photos were taken by myself and are therefore property of www.lizziebeau.blogspot.co.uk.*

*All opinions are my own and I have not been sponsored for this blogpost.*

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