New day, new itinerary. We were up at 8 to pack our bags and to munch on breakfast. After checking out we called an Uber to take us to the Vatican.
Ubers in Rome are slightly different from the UK, the drivers wear a suit and tie, and the car is always posh, like Mercedes or BMW. It feels like your own chauffeur and the cost is exceptionally reasonable as well (normally cheaper than the price of a taxi on the street)! You can also, book an uber tour around Rome which I think would be really interesting (if we had the time).
We arrived at the Vatican at around 9.30 so a little later than planned but thankfully it wasn't that busy.
On the last Sunday of the month the Vatican and Sistine Chapel are free, and so the queues we were warned would be huge! This only really applied to the Sistine Chapel which we had decided to give a miss anyway.
We walked straight into St Peters Basilica with no queue which we thought was pretty incredible. We wandered around taking in the sheer extravagance of the building. I was over come with the same emotion as last time I visited, which was just how anyone could think that displaying wealth in such a way was a good thing for the people. It really does reinforce how those at the top, get what they want but never the less, the building is impressive.
We then decided to head up into the dome of the Basilica where firstly we could look down onto the service taking place, next we climbed the 200 odd stairs to reach the top viewing platform where we could see all of Rome! The views were pretty impressive.
We wandered through the streets past Piazza Navona before heading to the cat sanctuary which is situated in the middle of some roman ruins.
They take in injured cats and neuter the local street cat population. They offer the possibility of adopting them as well!
It is such a bizarre building, with a huge hole in the roof. I would love to stand under it when it rained though, it would be so cool!
Next up we grabbed some lunch from a restaurant just around the corner from the Pantheon called Ristorante Grano.
The food was delicious and exactly what we needed! My pasta was dreamyyyyyyyy
Next up was the Spanish Steps which took around 15 minutes to walk to.
It was super busy and with the heat starting to get to us we thought it best to head to where we'd been recommended to have ice cream, or gelatto at Giolitti.
I had watermelon, grapefruit and pineapple which were all delicious. The watermelon even had chocolate chips to loop like the seeds!
After our little break we headed to our final stop, the "Wedding Cake" building. We got the lift right to the top and the views really were stunning and definitely worth the 8 euros each!
From there we wandered back to the hotel to get changed before going to grab some food.
Of course our last meal had to be pizza and pasta overlooking the Colosseum!
Rome really was a pleasure!
Should I get the opportunity to go back I would however want
1. to have an extra couple of hours in the city (so have 3 full days), and
2. To go a little earlier in the year so that it wouldn't be quite as hot, May would be perfect!
Love
Erin
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