Rome: Day Four

Our last full day in Rome was the only day when we didn't have anything specific booked, so we expected it to be more relaxed, but it actually turned out to be the day when we walked the most out of the entire trip!

After breakfast at a nice café, Claudio and I started the day's sightseeing at Largo di Torre Argentina. This square with its Roman ruins is believed to be the site where Julius Caesar was assassinated. However, it is now also famous for being a cat sanctuary! It was lovely to go there and watch the kitties wondering around through the ancient ruins.

Our next activity of the day was exploring Piazza Venezia (with its Venetian style palace) and the Victor Emmanuel II Monument. Although we didn't go up to the roof of the monument, as that costs 17€ each, we had a great time looking around both the inside and outside. It really is an incredibly impressive building.

After a bit more time exploring the outside of the Colosseum, we had a lot of fun visiting La Bocca della Verità (The Mouth of Truth)! You have to queue to get your photo with this ancient Roman sculpture, but the queue moves quickly, and it's free to visit. Legend says that the mouth will bite your hand off if you tell a lie!

After your visit, you move through into a pretty church that has a gift shop. I took the opportunity to buy a Roman Holiday postcard, as I absolutely love this movie. In fact, this is one of two films that gave me Wanderlust to visit Rome - the other being the Lizzie McGuire Movie, haha!

Next to the church, you can find two Roman temples that are absolutely worth checking out: the round Temple of Hercules Victor, and the Temple of Portunus, which is somewhat like the Parthenon.

Afterwards, we went back to Pasta Imperiale for lunch, this time trying Fettucine Alfredo, a Roman pasta dish, which was very tasty and also very filling!

Then we spent most of the afternoon inside Castel Sant'Angelo. I always love visiting castles, and really enjoyed this one! It was actually built as a mausoleum for the emperor Hadrian, but was later used by popes, and has some beautifully ornate rooms inside.

The views from the roof across the city and the Vatican are also stunning.

After some delicious gelato, we finished off our last evening in Rome with a quick trip to see the Vatican City by night.

Rome had been on both of our bucket lists for a long time, so our week there was a real dream come true. It was fabulous to see all the iconic sights, such as the Colosseum, the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain, as well as some quieter spots, like Villa Borghese. We also enjoyed visiting the Vatican City - a new country for both of us - and having a relaxed beach day in Santa Severa.

Hopefully, we'll have the chance to go back at some point in the future, but we both feel that we really got the most out of our time there (despite the nasty cold I had at the beginning!) and we have loads of wonderful memories to look back on from the Eternal City. ❤