Roming Around!

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In July, myself and two friends visited the wonderful city of Rome for five days and 4 nights. I have always been a fan of classical civilisation, so Rome fullfilled my need to see into the ancient world. What I loved most about the city was the way in which ancient Rome had been moulded in with modern day Rome...with ancient ruins still in tact around the city, but grande modern buildings standing right next to them. It was truly mezmorizing! I had visited italy before on a school trip and fell in love with it...so had to go back! So when we were deciding on a perfect girls holiday I persuaded them that Rome was the place!

Now, I am quite fussy about where I stay when I go abroad and prefer to stay in a classy hotel where I can be waite on and pretend I am posh for a few days. But because I had just finished uni, an expensive hotel was out of the question...so instead we booked a flat on House Trip. I don't know about anyone else, but I was a bit put off by staying in someones flat at first. You have to make sure it's clean, you can't break anything (not that I like to break stuff, but I am a very accident prone person) and you have to put a deposit down. But I have to say that the flat that we booked was absolutley wonderful and definatley a good advert for House Trip. We paid £130 each and put down a deposit of £50 and when we got there the flat was just so lovely! it was in a prime location, next to the Vatican, and it was just a perfect little flat for the three of us. I would really reccomend using House Trip now that I have faced my fear, because you save so much money on accommodation as well as on food because you can cook what you want, when you want. Our Land lady for the week was so lovely and left us to get on with our trip, but gave us a number to call if we needed her. She also booked our cabs to and from the airport and gave us a quick low down on what great places there were to go locally!

But anyway, onto the more exciting stuff! Now obviously there are the amazing sites like The Vatican to see, but before we left for Rome, my friend googled 'the most unusal places in Rome', and one fo the results was a Cat sanctuary. If you are a cat fan I would definaltey reccommend going here, but be warned! You will want to take all the cats home with you! I know it might seem like a strang place to visit when going somewhere like Rome, but it was so lovely! The sanctuary is placed amongst ancient ruins and is a place where neglected cats are looked after! My friends and I are avid cat lovers, so this place was so nice to see. You can sit and play with the cats for as long as you want and they enjoy the company. However, when you hear some of their stories, you might erupt into tears ( like I did). Just be warned!

Now The Vatican is absolutley incredible and I would definatley insist on anyone who is going to Rome to see it! The last time I went to Rome, I just went into The Vatican and had a look around, but I did not realise that you can actually climb up the The Vatican to the top and look at the view. It is 5 euro to climb to a certain point and 7 euro to climb to the very top. I paid the 7 euro but I have to admit, I nearly died getting to the top. There are so many stairs and it is very narrow, so if you stop walking, you hold back everyone behind you. It was a lovely view when getting to the top, but to be honest, I don't think it was worth the pain! But a, probably the least active person in the world, so if you are active this will probably be right up your street! Just to warn you however, the cafes and resturants around The Vatican are so expensive! I went to a cafe with my friends and we ordered a can of coke and a waflle with ice cream. The can of coke was 6 euro and the wafle and ice cream was 21 euro. Probably should have checked the prices before we went in, but we never thought that it would cost that much!

Just a word of advise to anyone who wants to travel outside Rome. I would really reccommend booking a 10 day holiday if you are planning on doing this. On this occasion, we went for five days and my friends wanted to travel to see Pompei, but it was going to take a whole day to get there, with just one hour to have a look around so they decided against it. I have seen Pompei on my previous trip to Italy, but what we did then was book five days in Rome and then 4 days in a place called Sorento which is absoleutley beautiful! It is in a prime location if you want to visit Pompei and Mount Vesuvius, but is also a wonderful place for a bit of sun and sea! I would honestly reccommend this place so much because it is just soo nice!

Hope this is helpful to anyone travelling to Italy! Happy holidays!

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