The Vatican City

Ever since I first started my travel obsession over a decade ago, I've been fascinated by the idea of visiting the Vatican City. For starters, it's located within one of the most beautiful and interesting cities on the planet. Secondly, it's by far the smallest country in the world, at only 0.49 square kilometres, making it an fun bucket list destination for any traveller.

When I was living in Austria, I absolutely loved the fact that I could travel to foreign countries so easily and spontaneously, just by taking a train or a bus. But travelling to the Vatican City was the first time I've been able to actually walk to another country, which is even more of a novelty! (Okay, so I have walked between Wales and England while visiting Chepstow, but not between official sovereign states before.)

So, Claudio and I made visiting the Vatican one of our priorities during our week in Rome, and prebooked tickets to visit the Vatican Museums on our first morning. 

Unfortunately the morning didn't get off to the best start; Claudio had had a bad cold the week prior to our holiday, and while he was now on the mend, I woke up that day feeling fatigued and with a streaming nose. It's always annoying to get a cold, but it's especially irritating for it to happen when you're just starting a much-anticipated holiday, as opposed to during a normal working week! But all the same, I didn't want to let it stop me from enjoying our time abroad. So I took some cold and flu medication, and we set out on foot to the entrance to the Vatican Museums.

Being completely honest, I have to say that the Vatican Museums were the attraction that disappointed us the most during our week in Rome.

For one, it was definitely the attraction where we had to queue the longest to get in, despite the fact that we had prebooked tickets. Additionally, it was by far the most crowded place we visited during the week, which surprised me, as I'd expected places like the Colosseum and the Pantheon to be much busier. And on top of that, it just wasn't really a place that wowed us that much.

Don't get me wrong, there is an absolute array of incredible artefacts in the museum, from treasures of Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt, to some of the most valuable works of art ever created, including the world-famous Sistine Chapel. It was very interesting to see all of these beautiful things - I especially liked the Egyptian cat statues!

But at the same time, the place was so huge, and so full of sculptures and paintings and gold, that it was hard to take it all in. The crowds of tourists (including plenty of children far too young to appreciate this kind of place) also made it a less than relaxing environment.

And when we arrived in the Sistine Chapel, squashed in with dozens of other people, it was hard not to feel underwhelmed. Of course it was beautiful, but it didn't seem that incredibly different to what we'd already seen in the rest of the museum. I couldn't help remembering the painted ceiling of the cathedral in Udine, which I was really blown away by - I thought the Sistine Chapel would have a similar effect, but it just didn't really connect with me, probably because it was so small and crowded.

So, overall, we didn't feel like the 25€ we spent on our Vatican Museums tickets were that well spent, and we certainly won't be going back there if we return to Rome in the future. But, having said that, it is something that we felt we had to do during our first visit to the city, and at least we can say that we've now been there and done that (just like with the Mona Lisa!). 

After visiting the musuem, we had to go back to our hotel, as it was raining and Claudio had forgotten his umbrella. We had breakfast at a nice French place next to the hotel, and then set off towards the Vatican again, this time to visit St. Peter's Square, or Piazza San Pietro.

If the Vatican Museums weren't really worth visiting, St. Peter's Square definitely was! The size of it is incredible, and the architecture is beautiful, from the stunning basilica, to the Apostolic Palace and the Colonnades.  

We decided to queue up to enter St. Peter's Basilica, and we're very glad we did. Although the queue was long, it moved quickly, so it wasn't long before we were inside. And the inside of the building was incredible! It's actually the biggest church in the world, and the sheer size of it is amazing. It's also unbelievably ornate with so much gold and a level of detail that's hard to take in.

After spending a long time exploring the church, we decided to pay to go up to the top of the cupola. It costs 10€ per person to take a lift up to the roof, and from there you can climb up about 300 steps to get to the top. I wasn't quite sure about the idea at first, as I was feeling very tired with my cold, but we wanted to make the most of our time in this tiny, unique country, so we decided to go for it.

It was a special experience to arrive on the roof and to see the cupola up close. There was even a little café up there, where we bought croissants!

We then started the climb up to the very top of the building. Some parts of the staircase were incredibly narrow, and were in a spiral shape, so you couldn't see where they ended - the claustrophobia was actually worse than the climb itself. But in the end, we arrived at the top, and were able to look out across the whole of the Vatican, including the parts that we didn't visit, such as the Vatican Gardens.

After coming back down to the ground again, we both agreed that it was time to head back to Italy for a pizza!

To sum up, visiting the Vatican was a very unique and interesting experience. It's actually the 30th country that I've visited and Claudio's 10th, and I think it's quite fun that it was the smallest country in the world that got us up to those particular milestones!

Of course, after our day in the Vatican, we still had plenty left in Rome to explore. Our next day was spent exploring sights including the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and much more...

Rome: Day One

It was difficult to know where to start with blogging about our recent trip to Italy (and the Vatican City)! Eventually, I decided to do a post for each day we spent there, even though that means this first post will be a bit of a shorter one.

Rome is a city that had been one of the top destinations on my bucket list for many years, and of course Claudio was really excited to visit Italy for the first time, especially as he has family roots from there. So as soon as we got off the plane, we were eager to get our Italian adventure started straight away!

The journey from Roma Ciampino Airport to our hotel in the Prati neighbourhood of Rome was actually very scenic - we saw lots of the beautiful Italian countryside and even some Roman ruins, Villa del Quintili. Then we entered the city proper and had a pretty good tour from the taxi, seeing sights including Circo Massimo and the Temples of Hercules Victor and Portuno.

And then as we approached the hotel, we passed Castel Sant'Angelo, which was very exciting. It's such an impressive building that we went straight out to see it again after checking in to our hotel. It looked beautiful lit up at night.

By this point in the day, we were very hungry, and being in Rome, of course we had to find some pasta!

We decided to go to Pasta Imperiale, a little place where you can get a plate of pasta, a bottle of water and a tiramisù for about 10€ each. It was great value and the food was delicious.

We finished off our first evening in Rome in Piazza Navona, one of the city's most beautiful squares. Filled with Baroque architecture, it's a place where a lot of people come to hang out in the evenings.

Our first night in Rome definitely left us eager to explore even more of the city.

But the next morning, it was time for us to leave Italy, and enter the world's smallest country...

Life Update and January & February Highlights

Claudio's now been in the UK with me for nearly three months, and we've been living at home with my parents since Christmas. We'd hoped that in the first few months of 2024, we'd be able to sort out our future plans, but of course, that's not proving to be easy. Nothing has come up in terms of work for Claudio in the UK - probably because he's currently on a tourist visa - and we're not sure we'll be able to get a partner visa for him, because the requirements are supposed to be changing soon. And in any case, I don't think the UK's a great place to live at the moment, and I don't know if I want us to be tied down here by a two-year visa, when we'll both hopefully have EU citizenship within the next year or two. Having said that though, Claudio has been attempting without success to get an appointment to submit his documents for Italian citizenship for over six months now, so who knows how long it will take him to get his passport. (Hopefully the process to get my Irish citizenship - which I plan to apply for this year - will be quicker and easier.)

So, all in all, things are pretty much still as uncertain as they were before. And although we long to settle down somewhere permanently, we've realised that that might not be easy to do until we've got more options open to us. But fortunately, there is an adventurous side of us that has things we want to do and places we want to go before we settle down permanently, and so we're now looking into some exciting plans that could be a great way to fill the time before we both get our EU citizenship.

Of course, we've been stressed and worried and full of uncertainty lately. But despite all this, I want Claudio to enjoy his time in the UK as much as possible, however long he's going to be here for. 

Once a week, I go into the office in Bristol, and Claudio comes with me by train. Usually he goes round visiting different places and museums in the city, and sometimes he goes off to other cities. Once he even went to Wales by himself, which was quite impressive considering he hadn't really travelled solo before.

And of course, at weekends, we try to go off to nice places whenever possible.

Here's a selection of highlights from the first two months of this year...

Our Engagement Celebration!

In January, we had a low-key celebration of our engagement at one of our favourite restaurants, the Thai Emerald in Cirencester. It was a really lovely evening! As always, the restaurant looked beautiful, the food was amazing, and it felt like an ideal place to celebrate our engagement, given where we're planning to have our honeymoon...

The Whitehall Garden Centre

The following day, we went for coffee and cake at the Lavender Lodge Tea Room in the Whitehall Garden Centre. This is one of the prettiest cafés I've ever been to, and to make things even better, we saw gorgeous reindeer, goats and donkeys while looking around the garden centre!

Afternoon Tea at the Old Bell Hotel

For my parents' birthdays in February, we went for an afternoon tea at the Old Bell Hotel in Malmesbury. It was a new cultural experience for Claudio, as he'd never had a traditional British afternoon tea before, and we all really enjoyed it.

Malmesbury Animal Sanctuary

One place I really wanted to take Claudio was Malmesbury Animal Sanctuary, where you can find rescued chickens, goats, alpacas, and emus. Claudio was particularly happy to see the emus, as he follows a Chilean "car influencer" who has one for a pet! They are very funny birds, and certainly entertained us with their movements and expressions!

Claudio's Christmas Present!

I got Claudio a Christmas present this year which I'll probably never be able to beat in future years! As he's a car fanatic, I decided to get him a supercar experience voucher, which involved driving a Ferrari and a Lamborghini, and having a high-speed passenger ride in a GTI. So on a rainy day in February, we went over to Castle Combe race track to use the voucher at a supercar event there. Claudio was in his element and had an amazing time - he especially loved driving the Lamborghini Huracán - and it was great to watch him having so much fun!

The Temple of Minerva and Botanical Gardens, Bath

This probably would have been our wedding venue, but then we found out that we can't legally get married in the UK because of our civil union. All the same, it was really nice to visit this little temple, which is located in a beautiful, secluded part of the city that I'd never visited before, despite the fact I've been coming to Bath for years.

(As it happens, we've discovered what looks like quite literally our dream venue in Chile, so hopefully we'll be able to get that booked for the Chilean summer!)

The Swan Hotel, Bibury

This is another wedding venue that we were considering, though after visiting, we felt that the village of Bibury itself was too full of tourists to have our wedding there. But the hotel itself is lovely, and as part of our venue visit, we got to visit its garden, which is so pretty.

AV8 and Cotswold Airport

This is a place we didn't get to take Claudio last time he was here, so it was nice to show it to him at last! It's really interesting to look at all of the different types of planes at the airport, and the décor in the café is so fun!

More adventures will be landing on this blog very soon, as it's not long before we'll be off to Italy! Even though our future plans are still really uncertain at the moment, we have to make the most of this time together, explore this part of the world, and have great experiences whenever possible.

See you back here soon!