Roman Holiday

In January this year my best friend and I finally went to Rome! It was something we have always said we wanted to do (personally, I think watching The Lizzie McGuire Movie as a child majorly influenced my dream of visiting Rome one day!). Travelling is one of my favourite things to do, you get to see the world, experience a completely different culture and make memories that you treasure forever. Because I had such an amazing time in Rome, I decided to tell you all about my trip, but also offer some tips and advice I wish I knew before I embarked on this adventure!

Planning

It may not be everyone’s favourite part of travelling, but nevertheless it’s still important! For me, planning the trip was half the fun! This is the time where you should start looking at package deals, hotels, things to see and do etc. If you’re travelling with someone then the first thing to do is decide a date that works for everyone who is going. Prices of trips change based on the time of year you are looking at and you need to consider other people’s schedules. I’m a student so in my case, we had to book around my timetable and went during half term, my best friend also works so had to make sure she could get time off. We managed to decide dates that suited us both and turns out we picked a great time to go as because Christmas had just past, there was still decorations up which made the city look even more beautiful. My best friend and I are not fans of particularly hot weather and we both love winter, so we knew that we wanted to go when it wouldn't be too hot, so half term which fell in January was perfect for us both! During the planning stages we also discussed what we wanted to see and do and also thought about what our budget would be.

Tip: creating an itinerary is a good way to plan your trip and make sure you have time to see everything you want to. By mapping out day to day what you are planning to do, you can be sure that you have the time to see everything and you won’t miss out on potential memories! Of course, you don’t have to stick to the itinerary, but a rough plan is always helpful and  thinking about what you’re going to do on your trip can get you even more excited.  

Booking

As a student, I wanted to make this trip as cheap as possible, while also remembering the saying “you get what you pay for”. This trip was actually booked over FaceTime as at the time I was living in America while my best friend was still at home in Essex. I booked through lastminute.com, before Rome I had never used this website so was a bit apprehensive, especially as we managed to get accommodation, flights and a return transport package to and from the airport to the hotel for just over £200 each. However, now after using them once I would highly recommend booking through lastminute.com and will definitely use them again when booking my next city break.

We flew with Ryanair, this was my first time flying with them and overall, I’m impressed and would fly with them again, even though on the return journey they did not have the space to accommodate all of the passengers' luggage so our bags were treated as check in bags instead of hang luggage. This was fine and there was no charge, however, having to wait for your luggage to leave the plane was annoying and added extra time the process of getting home. I downloaded the Ryanair app which had access to information about your flight (times, number, etc.) and mobile boarding passes which came in very handy considering I managed to somehow misplace mine! The overall process was very quick and we got everything we needed and wanted for a very good price.

Tip: Be sure to do your research and look at other websites to compare prices. I liked lastminute.com because I was able to book everything at once for a reasonable price.

Accommodation

For us, the main things we wanted out of our accommodation was for it to be in a good location that had easy access to things like public transport, attractions and restaurants & bars. After some research, we decided to stay in the Hotel Romanico mainly because it was in a fantastic location and fit into our budget. We were close to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps, so location wise, we were very pleased with this hotel. The hotel itself was beautiful and had stunning artwork in our room (as you can see in the photo below, courtesy of my best friend who took this photo and let me use it for this post). It also offered breakfast in a rooftop restaurant that had a stunning view of the city. While we weren't in the room a lot and we didn’t really mind where we ended up as long as it did the job and was in a good location, it was still nice to stay in a luxurious hotel that didn’t cost a fortune. Overall, I would highly recommend this hotel and would stay there again in a heartbeat.

Tip: Reviews written by people who have already stayed in the hotel before are both important and useful, you can get a real feel of what it’s like to stay at the hotel. Something I always do it purposely look at bad reviews to see what the negatives are.

Roaming Rome

Obviously the reason why I always wanted to visit Rome was because I wanted to see what Rome had to offer! I’ve always wanted to see the Colosseum and go to Vatican City, they were the two things I wanted to see the most when in Rome. My best friend and I had said since the moment we booked that we wanted to do a bus tour, they are the best way to see the main attractions and find out information about the city you are visiting. Rome has a lot of history so it was really interesting not only seeing the landmarks but also learning more about them and the city.

It's worth mentioning that you can buy passes that can give you discounts for public transports and tickets for attractions, we researched this and decided to wait until we arrived before booking anything online. When we arrived we decided that we didn't want to pass and instead used other methods to get discounts (our bus tour not only gave us transport around the city, but also included tickets to the Colosseum). 

On the first day we just wanted to explore the city and the landmarks closest to our hotel, so we set off to see the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.  The steps are a fantastic place to take photos, sit down and soak up the atmosphere and admire how pretty Rome is.  The fountains are some of the most breath taking landmarks I have ever seen and one of my favourite things about Rome. We loved them so much we went there a couple of times at different times of the day to really appreciate them, it sounds strange but I didn’t realise that I actually love fountains until I went to Rome!

Tip: There are vendors at every landmark and attraction who will try and sell you anything from Roses to selfie sticks. Usually saying a simple "no thank you" a couple of times will do the trick, but you may come across more pushy sellers. None of them were ever aggressive, however, it’s best to be prepared and know that if you’re going to an attraction, you will most likely get approached.

There are loads of open top bus tour companies that all offer the same (or very similar) services, we booked ours through our hotel and picked a package that paid for the tour and tickets for the Colosseum. While on the bus the tour guide offered us a package where you could skip the line for tickets and get a tour for what seemed like a relatively expensive deal, we were considering taking the offer until a woman in front of us recommended booking with a tour company who approached you outside of the Colosseum. Both of us were apprehensive to do this as I usually decline companies like this because I wonder if they are genuine tours or people trying to rip you off. We ended up buying a package with a tour company where we got a guided tour of the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill for €15 each, which is an incredibly good deal. The tours were brilliant and for once I would actually recommend taking one of these guided tours as they are fun, interesting, well priced and most importantly, legit!

After our tour, which we did on a Thursday, we were told that Vatican City would be ‘closed’ on the Friday, the day we planned in our itinerary! We were also told that it had already closed before our tour finished and would not be open again until the Saturday when we would already be on our flight home, which left us disheartened and left me annoyed in all honesty! When we were back on the bus we agreed that we would hop off at Vatican City anyway and see if we could see St. Peter’s Basilica from the outside. After getting some lunch we made our way to the square and I noticed that there was a crowd of people queuing, we weren't sure what for as we were told everything was ‘closed’ but decided to join them anyway. This was probably the best decision we made the whole trip! Turns out, the queue was to get into the Basilica that was very much open! I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful it is, it’s breath taking! The outside, the paintings, the statues, everything! It’s hard to pick one part of the trip that I liked the most, but if I had to, I think Vatican City would be it! Still to this day we aren’t sure what was actually closed- I assume it was the Sistine Chapel as we were unable to see this.

Tip: If you want to go to the Basilica specifically to try and see the Pope, you can see a schedule of when he is due to be there. That way, if you really want to go when he will be there, you can avoid disappointment and book your trip based on these dates. Unfortunately, he was not there when we were, but I knew this before hand because I found the schedule. 

While in Rome we wanted to see the Pantheon and again we managed to find a cheap, good quality guided tour which gave us lots of information about what we were seeing and the city we were visiting. On the way back to our hotel we walked past a very plain looking building that had an open door, for some reason I felt the need to look inside and noticed that it was home to one of the most beautiful churches I had ever seen. So another tip I have is to take notice of even the most basic looking buildings because you may miss a hidden gem if you don’t.

It's also worth mentioning that Italy is incredible for fashion, and as a shopaholic, shopping in Rome was fantastic and I even splurged some of my budget on a beautiful bag (no surprise to anyone who knows me and understands how bad my bag obsession is). During our trip we ticked off everything on our itinerary (apart from the Sistine Chapel) and even though we saw almost everything, I would go back to Rome in a heartbeat. The city has so much to offer and I think that even if I go back there soon, I wouldn’t get bored of seeing the same things over again.

Food

Of course, one of the most famous things about Italy is the food, and it’s safe to say that Rome is home to some of the best pizza and pasta I have ever had! When planning the trip, we budgeted more than enough for food because we expected it to be really expensive, however we found that the prices were very reasonable even in the more expensive restaurants we dined at. You can get a nice meal and drink for under €20 if you find the right place. We even managed to find a little family run restaurant that offered pasta with half a lobster for €16, lobster for that price is amazing!

Unfortunately, I can’t remember any names of the places where we ate, but I do remember the name of the gelato place we went every night we were there! It was called Come il Latte and it was so amazing we didn’t bother looking for another shop. There were lots of different flavours to choose from and the man that owns it was very nice and always remembered us and asked us how we were. It was right around the corner from the hotel and I miss it!

Tip: If you are on a budget, stay away from restaurants that are placed directly near attractions; these will be some of the most expensive places to eat. I found that walking down a side road was home to restaurants that served well-priced, good quality food. Sometimes the cheap, little restaurants that don't look like they have much to offer are actually the hidden gems and the best places to go!   

This trip had been dreamed about and planned for years, so there were high expectations, the trip blew those expectations out of the water! Everything about the trip was amazing and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. There are some incredible attractions that have a lot of history behind them and plenty of places to take amazing photos and create amazing memories.

I hope this post has given you some information you may have found helpful. My general advice to anyone thinking visiting Rome? GO FOR IT!  You can have the best time, even if you are on a strict budget! It’s now one of my favourite places in the world and I can’t wait to go back one day.

Until next time.

Becca x