Santa Severa

Generally, when Claudio and I spend longer than a few days in a particular city, we like to do at least one day trip during the holiday. And being in a Mediterranean country like Italy for a week meant that we definitely had to have a day at the beach!

I consulted a few articles online before our trip to Rome in order to get some ideas of interesting beach towns that are easy to visit in a day. Having weighed up the options, we decided that Santa Severa was the one for us - it's only an hour from Rome by train, and it has a castle (always a plus point for me)!

So halfway through our week in Rome, we went along to the train station and travelled over to this town on the Mediterranean Sea. We were a bit surprised by how deserted and unequipped for tourism the town was; the train station building was closed and there were no pavements on the roads leading towards the beach. Obviously, March is not really a month for beach weather, and the beaches in this area of the country are not famous tourist destinations in the way that beaches in the Italian Riviera, Amalfi Coast, Sicily and Sardinia are. All the same, it was surprising that the place was so quiet, but also quite fun to be somewhere that felt so off the beaten track after the previous couple of days we'd spent visiting world-famous attractions.

Our first stop was the town's castle, which was built in the 9th century. It has a nice little museum that we had pretty much to ourselves, and some fantastic views across the turquoise sea. It also has an array of lovely cats! Most of them were very friendly and we had a great time fussing over them!

We then went for a nice stroll along the town's main beach, which is where you get the best views of the castle. There were some repair works going on next to the castle, which did ruin the view slightly, but it was still a picturesque place.

We also walked through the rest of the town, which was very quiet, and stopped for a somewhat disappointing macaroni and cheese at a café.

We finished our time in Santa Severa chilling out at the tranquil beach on the other side of the castle, where Claudio did his best impression of the Little Mermaid!

But by the time we got back to Rome, we weren't quite ready to call it a night yet! So we finished our day off at Giolitti gelateria, with some of the best ice cream we've ever tasted in one of the most beautiful settings.

To conclude, it was fun to break up our holiday in Rome with a bit of time by the sea, and I'd definitely recommend Santa Severa if you like beaches, castles and cats!

The following day, we were back in full-on sightseeing mode. It was time for us to visit one of the Seven Wonders of the World!

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!