Sort of.
Towards the end of the summer, myself and one of my closest friends from Sixth Form booked a girls sightseeing holiday to Italy. Our plan was to spend 2 days in Rome whilst also using the rail network to visit the cities of Florence, Naples, Pompeii and Pisa. And with the help of Loco2.com, we did just that.
To fill our schedule of all the things a tourist could dream of, we got what felt like the earliest flight in the world, departing Stanstead at 06:30am arriving at Rome Ciampino.
Our first day was spent doing all the touristy things Rome has to offer. Apart from the Spanish stairs which were shut for maintenance.
When it rains in Rome, it pours. I’ve never felt like a drowned rat as much as I did at the very moment when we were waiting for the bus outside the colosseum. And there was no chance of buying one of the hospital esque rain ponchos the street vendors were selling, so I suffered and got absolutely soaked. Looking back, I guess it would be appropriate to say ‘When in Rome’. But at the time I was barely keeping it together. Despite this, we dried off and went for food. Food in Italy is amazing. Our first Italian meal was in a cute little restaurant near Rome Termini station. It was off the main roads and had a few actual italians in so we took that as a good sign. I was really basic when it came to food and ate my body weight in Pizza, Pasta and Fish. And a abnormal amount of coffee, orange juice and Gelato.
We were staying at the nicest little hotel near the Basicilla San Paolo metro station and would 100% recommend Hotel San Paolo to anyone looking to spend some time in Rome on a budget but also stay in a really good quality hotel.
Day 2: Another early start as we had to catch the train to Florence which was about 1 hour 10 minutes away. We booked first class train tickets so the free coffee and food didn’t go down badly at 7:30am. Florence was my favourite place of the whole trip. Something about it is so peaceful and the cathedral is absolutely stunning. When we set out for the day, I did not see us walking up nearly 500 stairs to reach the top of a bell tower, so I wore sandals. Big mistake.
We then caught a 50 minute train to Pisa to take some obligatory pictures with the leaning tower of Pisa. I genuinely don’t know how people do that cliche, leaning on the tower pose, because I when I tried it, I failed miserably. We then went back to Florence and spent early evening there then catching a train back to Rome.
Day 3: Naples and Pompeii. I loved visiting the old town of Pompeii and seeing the ruins. It was probably the one and only time my GCSE in Latin will ever be useful. I’m gutted we didn’t spend more time in Naples as I would’ve loved to catch the ferry over to Capri but we did have Pizza in the birthplace pizza, so I have lived.
Day 4: We battled the crowds of people on a Wednesday, which was when the pope came out to give a special address at The Vatican. The crowds were insane but it was a once in a lifetime experience.
I also would’ve loved to visit Capri, Sorrento and Milan but i’ll save those for next time when I do interrailing around Italy properly.
Until next time Italy.
Mx
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