671. Day 19 of 28 | Rome and Vatican City

Early the next morning, we took a train from Monterosso to La Spezia to Rome. The last time I've been in Rome was only about 2 years ago so the city still felt pretty familiar to me. We were only in Rome for one night, mainly coming since it was the most convenient way to go to Greece afterwards. We just walked around the city, had lunch, visited Vatican City, then met up with my boyfriend's friend for dinner and then the Lazio soccer/football game (as he kindly got us tickets). It was my first time ever going to a game.






Delicious watermelon granita..I had two of them!








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502. Rome | Snapshots Part 3

First of all...what do you think of my new logo?? I can't believe (after 8 years of blogging) I finally have one made. I actually got two different ones made because I couldn't choose between the two concepts. I will probably alternate between them each month or so. I won't reveal the other one until then. I love hot air balloons, even though I've unfortunately never had the chance to go on one yet. However it is very high on my bucket list. So I wanted to incorporate that in some way, and also to illustrate the idea of travel. This image and font were hand-drawn and custom made by the designer..I love it a lot!!

Here are some more random images from my trip to Rome.


Inside Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio a Trevi











My impulse purchase (the monogram shawl in navy blue) which I posted about in another post


I love the Trevi Fountain. I mentioned this before that it's one of my favourite attractions in Rome..I just find the blue shade of the water so beautiful against the white marble sculptures. It's also ridiculously crowded there ALL THE TIME..and takes a lot of patience to be able to walk close enough to get a good shot.




These street painters were pretty entertaining to watch. Here is a short video I took of one. I really liked the music they were playing too so I stood there quite a while to watch..



Back at my hotel for the night with some treats from their restaurant.

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485. Day 8 - Rome

I almost made it to the end of my trip by daily posting, but on the last day I just wasn't able to. I had to wake up at 6am for my flight the next morning so I didn't have time that evening..so now I am posting this from back home in Toronto (unfortunately)! I really wish I was still there, especially in Rome as I didn't have nearly enough time there. Actually when I booked the trip, I didn't even think about visiting Rome. If I had planned it better, I think a week in Rome would be ideal. The architecture, Piazzas, and everything in the city are so beautiful. I love art and photography so I had a lot of fun just walking around and taking photos of everything. I really have to return one day. I've visited once before when I was 17 and don't remember much at all..but that was a very different experience as I went with my mom on a tour.

So on my final day in Rome, I started with breakfast at my hotel's restaurant - Aroma. Aroma is on the rooftop of the building with the PERFECT view of the Colosseum. They are a Michelin-Starred restaurant and book up months in advance for dinner especially. As I only sorted out my stay there maybe a week before I arrived, I unfortunately couldn't get a table for dinner but they reserved me a nice table for lunch. I will do a full review on it in a future post. Their breakfast was very good. The atmosphere was nice and relaxing, with my favourite lounge music (some of Hotel Costes songs) playing in the background.

After my breakfast, I walked out to realize it was extremely windy and quite cold that day. I very impulsively decided to buy a Louis Vuitton scarf. I don't know if it was impulsive actually, since I had wanted it for a few years now lol. But I never had a good enough reason to buy it until that day. I really love it, especially in this colour (as you probably know, I love navy blue/all shades of blue). I also realized that Louis Vuitton, and most designer items, are a lot less expensive to purchase in Europe than here in Toronto. For example this scarf I got for about ~$300 LESS than I would have paid here..after taking into account the currency conversion & VAT refund!



My first stop of the day was the Colosseum. My hotel had kindly arranged tickets for me so I didn't have to purchase them on my own, and technically my tickets should have allowed me to bypass the line. In the photo above, you can see how crazy long the line was. I couldn't even get the whole line up in the photo lol. I can't even imagine how much worse this would be if it was during the peak tourist season. To get an idea of how packed it was...my "line bypass" tickets had its own line up!! It was just for the security check but luckily went pretty quickly and I only waited about 10 minutes.

Many people recommend going in here to get an idea of how large it is but to be honest I wasn't too impressed..I think a lot of other sites in Rome are more interesting. It was nice to go in but if I had to, I would not spend more than 30min lining up to go in. I really loved the Roman Forum though so if you are tight on timing, I recommend lining up to go in there instead. I also waited about 10min only with my line bypass tickets and the actual line there was a lot shorter than the Colosseum.

After the Colosseum, I just walked around aimlessly. This is my favourite thing to do when I travel on my own. Rome is perfect for this as there is so much to see and so many tourists to follow behind (so you don't need to plan out your route)..so wherever you walk to, you know you'll end up finding a good spot. Here is the Pantheon. There was this street performer there singing "Time to Say Goodbye". I guess that was a fitting song for my last day of the trip lol. He was so good! I love all the musical street performances there (there are a lot)..really adds to the atmosphere of the city. I took a quick video. I don't know how to upload it on here but it's on my Instagram if you want to take a look - CLICK HERE

Another thing I love about Rome is all the Piazzas. One of my favourites is Piazza Navona. I went here and sat at the patio of Ristorante Tucci for awhile, enjoying some gelato, tea and free WiFi.


Towards the evening it started to get really cold, so I started to head back to my hotel while stopping at (my favourite) Trevi Fountain one final time. If it wasn't so cold and if I didn't have to wake up so early the next morning, I would've walked around all night. This would be a great city for night photography.


This is inside the small church across Trevi Fountain.



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484. Day 7 - Rome

I am now in Rome!! Sitting in my beautiful hotel, Palazzo Manfredi. I've been very lucky this trip to have all my hotels at a very central location, and the best views of the city (or in the case of Capri - the sea). I am just steps away from the Colosseum here. Speaking of hotels, my Italy trip has been very hotel-focused. I know not everyone is like this but for me, the place I stay at is quite important when visiting a city. Sometimes it really adds to the whole experience and makes it all the more memorable. Like in Capri, I couldn't be happier with the service I received at both Punta Tragara and Casa Morgano. Both hotels offered really personalized services and went above and beyond. They made me feel like more than just one of the many guests at their hotel. Well I will go in more detail for each when I do my review posts.

I had been thinking about it (the hotel service) this morning after an issue arose...as Capri is an island, you always have to take a boat to and from Naples on the mainland. I had booked a train to Rome and needed to take a high speed boat to Naples this morning. I had booked everything already on my own but when I was going back to my room yesterday, I spoke with the front desk to arrange my luggage being brought down to the harbour for me and mentioned that I was taking the boat to Rome. So this morning before I woke up, I received a call from front desk to inform me that they found out all the high speed boats were cancelled for the rest of the day due to the rough waters. I started panicking but then they told me not to worry and they helped me arrange the next option which was to take the slower ferry over. They even made a schedule for me telling me how much time I had for breakfast, when I would have to start walking down to the harbour, etc. There was only one departing that morning (it was a bit earlier than my original boat) so I had to quickly pack up and leave. They even gave me a ticket for the funicular and told me everything I had to do to make sure I got there on time. Obviously if I wasn't informed of the boat cancellation, I would not have known and would have only found out when I went down to get on the boat..then I would've missed my train to Rome and it would've been a disaster. Anyway I prefer not to think of that lol. But I am very happy that it ended up working out, and I successfully made it to Rome.

My hotel in Rome is also pretty amazing. They provided me with tickets to the Colosseum, Roman Forum, & Palatine Hill today and apparently it should help me skip the lines..but today I didn't know how to enter without lining up. Well I managed to not line up for the ticket purchase line at least. Will try again tomorrow to bypass the entrance line (as it's huuuuuuge for the Colosseum). They said they could also get me tickets to Vatican City or wherever else I want to go but unfortunately I only have 2 days here which I now realize is nowhere close to enough!! I must come back to Rome/Italy again soon. I am really starting to love it here.

I ate at a restaurant called Angelino Ai Fori Dal 1947 tonight. As it was right beside the Colosseum, I didn't expect the food to be that good as it's tourist central. But this Fettucine Alla Roma was amazing!! I was sitting on the patio though and it got so cold. The weather here in Italy is really annoying. During the day it's very hot but as soon as it hits 6pm or so, it becomes freezing. I thought it would be hot here all day so I didn't bring any warm clothes.

Here is the Piazza di Spagna. Rome is quite the opposite of Capri. Capri is quite small and quiet in terms of tourists during this time but Rome is huge (lots to see) and soooo many tourists everywhere! Places in Capri also close extremely early, but places in Rome seem to stay open late and people are still out very late. I knew it would be busy here but I didn't expect it to be this busy at every attraction and every street. I like it though. This way I can just follow the crowds and I won't get lost while looking for an attraction (like I usually do).


The Trevi Fountain - my favourite attraction in Rome. So beautiful.


Roman Forum. I think I may go again tomorrow.


& my final moments in Capri :(

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