Rome: Day Two

Our second full day in Rome began with a visit to one of the buildings we'd been most excited to see: the Pantheon.

I remember visiting the Stourhead National Trust property during the pandemic, where you can find a miniature version of the Pantheon. Visiting it had felt like having a little holiday in Italy, which was especially nice during a period of time where it was difficult to travel abroad. But it definitely made me want to visit the real thing! 

It took close to 3 years, but we got there in the end!

The Pantheon is one of the most incredible buildings in Rome; it is now a church, but was once a Roman temple, built in the 2nd century. It's amazing that it's survived as long as it has, and also amazing that the Romans were able to build such a grand and beautiful building with its famous domed roof, using the technology of nearly 1000 years ago.

I'd been prepared for another long queue after the previous morning at the Vatican Museums. However, we were actually able to enter immediately with our prebooked tickets, and even the line to buy tickets wasn't that long.

The tickets actually only cost 5€ each, which is great value compared to other attractions in the city. And it was worth every penny - the building is just as wonderful to see from the inside as it is from the outside.

We also walked around the outside afterwards, in order to admire it from every angle.

Then we sat at a nearby café and had a Roman breakfast of hot chocolate and maritozzi. I'd started listening to the Voices of Bell'Italia podcast by Babbel while planning this trip, and remembered that the episode about Rome mentioned maritozzi - a type of brioche filled with cream - as a traditional Roman breakfast food. It was nice to put the recommendation from the podcast into action!

Our next stop of the morning was another iconic landmark of Rome: the Trevi Fountain. It was beautiful to see, but the crowds of tourists did ruin the effect slightly, so it wasn't the most memorable attraction for us.

Claudio, however, had discovered a good tip before we went: if you go up to the first floor of the Benetton shop opposite the fountain, you get an excellent view from the window!

The next iconic spot we visited was Piazza di Spagna, or the Spanish Steps. To be honest, it's nothing more than a picturesque church and a lot of steps, but the view from the top of the colourful buildings of the city actually beats the more classic view from below. 

We followed a nice, peaceful pathway above the city until we arrived at Piazza del Popolo, one of Rome's most famous squares.

At lunchtime, we opted for a pasta restaurant, unsurprisingly! I had penne arrabbiata, which was definitely one of my favourite meals of the entire trip, and which was spicy enough to clear my head a bit from the nasty cold I'd started the previous day.

We spent a large part of the afternoon in Villa Borghese, a beautiful park that feels very peaceful and far away from the noise and crowds of the city. Here you can find beautiful temples (they're not actually from Roman times, but are inspired by classical Roman and Greek architecture), a lake, and various other attractions. This is where we saw our first Roman cat, as well as some gorgeous little turtles!

Unfortunately, as my cold was at its worst that particular day, I was struggling with fatigue, and nearly fell asleep when we sat down on a bench in the park! So afterwards, we went back to the hotel for a siesta.

I found it very difficult to get up again in the evening, but also didn't want to waste an evening in the eternal city! So we went out for a little walk to go and see the pantheon by night (You can how rough I look in the picture!).

We also saw the Temple of Hadrian, another Ancient Roman landmark.

We finished off the evening with some more pasta - we'd walked a lot during the day, and this is Italy, after all!

Overall, it was a fantastic day of exploring, and yet there was still much more to come...

However, the next day, we left Rome and took a little day trip to the seaside, where we found beaches, a castle, and lots of cats!