Week 15 (Part 1): Rome

When in Rome........ Aiming for the impressive St Clement's Basilica, we instead accidentically walked into a beautiful church by one of the busiest streets. Inside the roof was decorated with gold, the walls were elaborately painted and the floors were covered in interesting patterns. It wasn't until we left that we realised it was the wrong one ;) (the right one turned out to be closed for the day so win there!). We ate huge pizzas and enjoyed spritz and local beer with a view of the Colosseum before walking inside and taking in its size and history. Beside the Colosseum is the Roman Forum, a set of ruins that is the ancient city centre of Rome. Here we drank from the aqueducts and rested on big lumps of important stone. We moved on to find the more modern Imperial Forum, see the Altare della Patrica - a very impressive white building. To finish our first day in Roma we ate gelato and visited the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain which was covered in scaffolding........ But we returned to our apartment sun-kissed and happy.

Spanish Steps

On Day 2 we headed for the Vatican and boycotted the 3-hour long lines for the church and museum in favour of cabonara and Matt's second 4-cheese pizza (when in Rome...). We looked at the front of the Vatican Church (St Stephen's) and watched nuns eat their lunch. We wandered along the river and over to the pretty Piazza Navona. Here, red and white covered tables boarded the square with three large fountains, artists sold their paintings and a man with an accordion played 'That's Amore' (Perfect or what?!?!). We walked home via the Pantheon and one last church to visit Michelangelo's Risen Christ.

Nice way to fill up your drink bottle

From Rome we flew to Greece ready to soak up the summer sun!