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...