A WEEKEND IN ROME

My boyfriend recently booked us a weekend away to Rome as an early birthday present. It's somewhere I've always wanted to visit and I'm so grateful we finally got to go as it is absolutley BEAUTIFUL. I think he had about 8 of his mates text him a ring emoji and now I understand why -  its so romantic. Sadly I came back with no ring but quite happy with my a belly full of pizza and wine tbh.

We went Saturday-Monday at the beginning of September. Josh had BA airmiles and we got an absolute steal on the flights costing us £30pp. Rome itself is pretty expensive, on par if not more with London prices so I woud say try and save money on flights and accomodation where you can - we were hardly in our apartment!

Travel & Flight

We flew from Heathrow at around 7am on the Saturday arriving to Rome at around 10.30am. From here we got the fast train to the centre after watching another couple do the same on YouTube and save abit of money by doing so (and all part of the fun right? #bargainhunters). If you decide to do this the train is like every 30 minutes and takes around 20 minutes. Don't buy your tickets in the airport go down to the station the queues are SO much shorter! Also make sure you stamp your ticket using the machines on the platform before boarding the train, it validates it for travel.

We then got a taxi from the station but looking back we would of hopped on the tour buses as it takes you round the sights (and depending where you're staying) near your hotel. We went on the tour bus on our last day and used it to get back to the train station.

Accomodation

We booked accomodation using Airbnb. We could not fault the location and the English speaking assistant who let us into the flat early to drop our bags and let us leave our bags in it on the last day all day as our flight wasn't until the evening. However we were VERY unfortunate with a storm 2/3 days we were there and it was like flash flooding and our bedroom was in a baseroom so it became very damp which was quite uncomfortable. But apart from that it had everything and we walked to everything while we were there. We paid £250 for two nights, looking back we probably didn't need such a big apartment as we were out exploring most the time and just needed the bed!

Average costs

Pizza/pasta at restuarant: 10-15€

Fish/chicken at restuarant: 20-25€

Cocktails: 8-10€

Coffee: 2€-5€ prices vary - if you stand and drink at bar coffee is much cheaper, they charge more if you sit in.

Glass of wine: 6-10€

Water for the table: 2-3€

Gelato: €3-6 (depending on scoops)

Collesseum: 20€ pp

Hop on hop off bus: 23€+pp depending on how many days you buy

Train to airport: 14€ pp each way

Recommendations 

Eating out - Pizza and pasta is the cheapest way to eat in Rome, chicken and fish dishes are almost double the price - but who's complaining about soaking up all that great wine with bread and pasta?There are gluten free pasta places but you do have to have a google or a walk to find them not everywhere does it.

Breakfast: Ginger Sapori e Salute

I wanted to try this place after a recommendation from @completleycarys! It's a little on the pricey side but let me tell you it was SO good, its got all white interior and all their fruit laid out to make fresh juices. I would recommend the acai bowl (the banana one), we also tried out a bacon & mushroom omelette and the coffee obv.

Lunch: Il Tagliere Toscano Navona

The perfect spot for a meat/cheese platter and wine. These look absolutley amazing, unfortunatley we had eaten a couple of hours before but we did get some free samples of some butternut squash and pesto on toast and it was unreal! The wine was also great - would 100% add to your list. And just a heads up they only take cash!

Dinner: Cantina & Cucina We went here for dinner on our second night. We queued for about 10 minutes but don't be put off by the queue it was the best meal we had in Rome. We had 2 starters, 2 mains, ALOT of drinks and it was 90€. My boyfriend even said 'best squid he's ever had' - and thats a pretty big deal guys. Also the service in this place was a cut above other places. We actually had quite alot of rude waiters or unatttnetive staff during our trip but here they were very accomidating and looked after you very well.

Collesseum - We wanted to go to the collesseum one morning before the queues formed, which is basically never, there are queues anytime.

I would suggest buying tickets from the people standing right outside the collesseum. All tickets are queue jump, so there is a queue regardless, but private tours there is a smaller queue, plus its kind of cool to hear about it all, we regretted not getting one but as we were mid storm we just wanted to get under cover! I would also say to not eat or drink near the collesseum. Its a complete tourist trap for prices, 5€ for coffee, 13€ for a beer and 5€ for a bottle of diet coke!

Touristy things - The tour bus is a good way of seeing Rome from a a higher view, it is amazing to walk down the back streets and look up at all the buildings but its interesting to hear about the history and see more from an open top bus (it also saves your legs of all the hours of walking, we averaged around 20,000 steps everyday!). It's all very quiet in Rome early in the mornings so if you want to go to Trevi fountain etc in order to get good photos and not around loads of crowds go earlier in the morning before 10am.

Queues to get into Vatican city were absoultley ridiculous when we arrived late afternoon - its still amazing to look at the architecture at the entrance so would still go for a mooch!

Due to the weather we would love to go back and explore a bit more but would like to do a big trip seeing more of Italy! I did try to put together a video of our trip before we flew off to Asia (mostly us drunk or eating) but unfortunately being auntie abs and trying to fit my life into a small backpack took up way more time than I anticipated! Stay tuned for it in 2018! Ha

AbbieJS 

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