Day 1 – Travel to Rome

We had booked 7 nights in Italy with return flights to Rome and had decided to split our time into 3 days in Rome and 4 days near the Amalfi Coast.

We had a really early start and were at Heathrow before 7am for our flight. We had a lovely flight with beautiful views over the snowy Alpes and the coast of Italy as we came in to land.

^{On our way to Rome – I had a row to myself on the plane!}

We picked up our hire car from the airport and drove to our Airbnb which was on the outskirts of the city – but really close to the train line. We knew we wouldn’t be using the car in Rome but it just made it easier for when we wanted to travel to our next destination.

Our Airbnb was lovely, it had 2 bedrooms and an outdoor courtyard so felt really Mediterranean.

Day 2 – Exploring Rome

We walked to the train station and took a metro directly to the Colosseum. We hadn’t booked a tour or anything but really enjoyed walking around. We also had the class teddy with us – Barnaby Bear so he got to explore too!

^{Inside the Colosseum}

We then headed over to Circus Maximus which was under a ten minute walk – Tom had been studying Latin at school and wanted to visit as he knew this is where all the chariot races had been held. Both Tom and Izzy reenacted the races!

Our next stop was Palatine Hill where we explored the ruins. Tom and Izzy really enjoyed playing on some of the rocks and pretending to be statues. It was also starting to get quite hot which we had not expected as we had left a rainy England the previous day.

^{Exploring Palatine Hill!}

It was then lunchtime and it had to be Pizza for lunch. We found a lovely Pizzeria on one of the side streets and Tom & Izzy both had Palma ham pizzas whilst I opted for the vegetarian pizza.

^{Pizza for lunch}

We wandered along some of the streets and found a lovely fountain at Piazza Navona and made our way to the Pantheon. There was a massive police/army presence outside! Inside we took loads of pictures and got some great footage of Barnaby bear flying through the air for our video.

^{Inside the Pantheon.}

We walked over to the Trevi Fountain which was absolutely manic! We took some pictures and then visited the Gelato shop that was next to it. The gelato was really good but it was not the most sensible place to have bought from as it was really expensive – probably due to its location!

^{Trevi Fountain and gelato}

Our final stop of the day (as we were starting to get quite tired) was the Spanish Steps. We climbed the steps and then admired the view of the city after walking along the top for a bit.

We trained it back home – picking up some prosecco on route – we were surprised how cheap it was compared to the UK and it was also really nice!

Day 3 – Vatican City

I had booked an early morning tour around the Vatican so we arrived at 8am – which meant it was quite peaceful.

The tour guide was really knowledgeable and spent ages talking about all the paintings we saw – but for us it was probably a bit too in depth! We went through lots of the galleries and rooms and my favourite was the map room – although by the time we arrived it was getting very busy – mostly with other tours.

We also went through the Sistina Chapel but no photography was allowed. At the end of the tour we could queue to enter St Peter’s Basilica but the queue was massive so we decided not to wait.

We left the Vatican and went for a river walk, wandered some of the tiny streets and found the most beautiful church – Santa Maria della Pace which we were able to enter.

^{River Tiber and inside Santa Maria della Pace}

We really enjoyed exploring Rome and although there is so much more to do, 2 days was enough for us with two young kids.