Rome, Italy - 2014

In 2025, someone asked me about a short break to Rome and I went to revisit my report on our trip there in 2014, but it seems I never made one...

So, this report will be a bit thin on detail as it's being written 11 years later!

The decision to visit Rome was on a bit of a whim. We holidayed in Guernsey that Summer (a very enjoyable trip, which you can read about here if you're interested), but we fancied a trip abroad somewhere and we had a short break in the Italian capital in mid-June, why we chose Rome specifically is, I'm afraid, lost to the mists of time.

I booked a small hotel close to both the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps, but sadly the former was under renovation for our visit and covered in scaffolding!

Fortunately, the rest of Rome was open for business.

Our first day of exploring started with us visiting the Roman Forum and Colosseum, iconic Roman ruins.

It was hot, as was most of our visit, and we wilted a bit in the heat as we walked around the Forum.

What I do recall was marveling that so much of it remained, largely intact, 2 millenia (and more) on.

It was possible to walk from the Forum to the Colosseum and I had prebooked tickets to tour it.

The scale is impressive and once again, it remains largely intact, presumably dominating Rome for 20 centuries.

The information provided was detailed enough to be interesting and we enjoyed our self-guided tour, wandering both the seating area and the areas behind the scenes, where gladiators and animals were prepared for the 'shows'.

We wandered from there to the Trastevere area of Rome (the traditionally Jewish quarter), which is very relaxed and calm, along the river and enjoyed an excellent late lunch in one of the small restaurants there.

We headed on and found ourselves at the Pantheon.

At first sight, it appears to be a 17th or 18th century building, but remarkably it dates from the classical Roman period.

It really does defy belief that people were able to build such an incredible building with an unsupported dome all that time ago and even moreso that it has stood the centuries since!

It was also refreshingly cool, I recall.

We headed back, via the Spanish Steps and ate a leisurely dinner before retiring to our hotel. <>P>It had been a long, hot, tiring day and our feet ached, but we felt we'd seen and done a lot.

For the second day, we decided to visit the Vatican City, but with a relatively tight schedule and only limited interest in religious buildings, we didn't go in, simply passing through St Peter's Square on our way to Castello Sant'Angelo.

This lies at the opposite end of a wide boulevard from St Peter's Square and was originally built as a mauseleom for Emperor Hadrian in the second century AD.

It was later converted into a fortress and, as well as being an attractive and impressive castle, it provides excellent views across Rome.

Even now, this sticks in my mind as one of the highlights of the trip.

We walked along the Tiber, having a snack lunch as we went and then wandered onto the Villa Borghese gardens. I don't recall now if we visited the Villa itself as my only photographs are of the outside,but the gardens were worth the time.

The hot weather caused a torrential storm that evening, so we didn't venture far from our hotel to eat, making the mistake of ordering 'large' beers, which turned out to be 1L ones! Oh well!

For our final day, we wanted to visit the ancient Roman port that once served Rome, Ostia Antica.

Here goods were unloaded from seafaring ships and stored and then transferred onto barges or smaller boats to make the journey upriver into Rome itself.

I don't recall how we reached the site now, as it was too far to walk, although I think we took a couple of trains and possibly a bus.

The woman in the ticket office allowed us to leave our luggage with her, as we were heading straight to the nearby airport afterwards.

The site is quite large and took a number of hours for us to explore - You could easily spend days here.

Many of the buildings (warehouses, etc) are very well preserved, so if such places interest you, it's well worth a visit.

While we were there, there were very few visitors, possibly due to it being a little off the beaten track.

If you fancy a visit, this is a good guide.

We definitely enjoyed our trip to Rome, even if the details are now a little hazy, and there was plenty more to see than we fitted into our 3 days there.

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