I bought ben a trip to Rome for Christmas. One of those presents thats really for yourself too.
The best time to go to Rome, according to the my trusty guide book is the Spring or Autumn when it’s hot but not unbearable. What it didn’t tell me was that the marathon also happens in March, cue road blocks and one way systems. Luckily it didn’t effect us too much, but avoid last weekend of March if you aren’t an avid runner. We are not.
We love airports. Not the checking in or the delays but that ‘we’re going on holiday excitement’ and definitely the airport lounges. We left work early on Friday and spent a few hours in the Aspire lounge sipping gins, eating and doing puzzles. Nice and relaxed.
We stayed in Hotel Ripa Roma, in the Trastevere area, south of the river and a little (15 min tram) outside the centre. I picked here as it has a great evening scene, bars and restaurants just a scroll away. If we can we like to not venture too far from the hotel at night so we can stumble back to bed easily. You can also get a little more for your money.
We headed around the Colosseum first on Saturday, following the main road down to the Roman forum and passed the Basilica di Santa Maria. Here we veered away from the main stretch in search of a beer. We found one in one of many of cute squares ‘piazzas’. We carried on up to the impressive Trevi Fountain and threw a coin in to ‘guarantee our return’. Ben was quite upset that the flash mobing on the Spanish Steps ruined his photo! The sun was out in full force now so after a spot of window shopping we stopped for a couple of Rosés at Il Palazzetto, pricey but a great view. We were very close to Villa Borghese, a beautiful park so had mooch around and looked out over Rome.
Dinner was here – Ristorante Pizzeria alle Fratte di Trastevere. It was delicious. All the food from the trip was gorgeous, as was all the prosecco.
Sunday we started at the Vatican and St Peters Basilica, where we encountered the first of the runners. We didn’t go in as we decided we didn’t want to spend most of the day in the queue that spanned almost the whole perimeter. So Ben snapped away from the outside. Museums and churches don’t tend to feature high up in our trips away. We followed the main stretch to the Sant’Angelo Bridge then down onto Piazza Navona (more runners). It started to rain so we took shelter in a bar with a ginormous beer. Oh and made friends with Frank (pic).
We ate lunch at Da Francesco, they were super accommodating and dragged in an extra table from outside to be able to seat us. More scrummy pizza.
After we pottered around the narrow streets. Rome is great for just wandering and seeing something great around every corner. After the Pantheon we headed back to the hotel and squeezed in a cheeky power nap. The same area for dinner was quieter on Sunday evening so we got a seat at Otell0 and we’re served top notch gnocchi and awful shots by the lovely Natasha.
With all the main sites ticked off we had time on Monday to explore the Trastevere area by day. We had a walk up the Gianicolo Hill for more stunning views over Rome. Time for another beer in the sun and more pasta at Grazia & Graziella, before heading on to the airport.
Super food and drink, super sights, super relaxed weekend xx
