Travels: Rome

17:32

Hi guys,
so back in July I went on holiday to Rome, Italy.
As a history student, this was a dream come true! Myself and Hilly went for 7 days and stayed in the heart of Rome in a small hotel called Hotel Floridia.

The trip however was not without its stresses. As we live in Newcastle (UK) we had to get a connecting flight to Italy via Paris CDG. This didn't worry us too much as we had connecting flights in Valencia and we had plenty of time between the landing and departures. However, things didn't go as swimmingly as we hoped. Long story short; our NCL-CDG flight was delayed by half an hour and by the time we landed in Paris we were held up on the plane for around 45 mins (Air France said this was because it was Bastille Day... which we knew was a lie because as history students we know Bastille Day is on July 14th and not the 11th which is when we travelled!), which in turn left us sprinting through CDG to another terminal. We reached the gate with a minute to spare but were turned away as we were 'too late' and the flight had 'already departed'! Great. So we ended up stuck in Paris overnight and boarded the next plane to Rome the following morning.

That didn't stop us from having an amazing time, and we visited all the major landmarks and discovered some little gems in the city. We visited the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Colosseum, Vatican City, the statue of Giovani Bruno and more! I will say if you want to visit the Colosseum and the Vatican Museum, you should 100% purchase your tickets before you go! This saves so much time and most hotels will print them off for you too!

We also went to the beach twice and if you are planning to go to Rome I would definitely advise making room for a day at the beach. Most beaches are 30/45 mins on the train and there are plenty to choose from. We went to tourist-y Saint Marinella and also to relaxed Fregene. I would recommend Fregene over Saint Marinella as all of the beaches at Fregene are free (unlike S.Marinella where you have to pay to sit on the nice parts). However, DO NOT GO TO FREGENE ON A SUNDAY. We made this mistake and definitely added stress to the day. Bus services are confusing in Italy and bus stops are hard to come by, especially on a Sunday in a small town. To get from the station to the beach you need to take the bus as it is quite a distance. We managed to get to the beach fine, but it took us 2 hours to catch a bus on the way back and were stuck in Sunday traffic for around 30 mins. Adding to that, the train we were meant to catch had got in an accident at the station before ours... which meant we were waiting for even longer to get a train back to Roma Termini!!! Eventful right?

Anyway, I will upload some photos of my trip for those of you who are interested, and if you guys are thinking of going to Rome, I would definitely recommend. It is a beautiful city with amazing people and so much history.