Return to Italy - Rome, Naples, and Sorrento Part 1

Hello everyone, welcome to another one of my travels. This time we are visiting Italy again, but we going to the City of Rome so lets begin. Also this post will be in two parts as this trip was over a week long, so I thought I would spilt it up.

On the 14th November, we arrived in Rome in the afternoon after a two hour flight on a Ryanair plane from Stansted airport. We then caught a bus to the centre of the city, which we had to queue up for cause a lot of the buses that day were on strike apparently. Once we got to the city, we had to walk to our apartment which was through a park. This park had lovely little green parakeets flying around it, like the ones you see in London.

Parakeet in Rome

Once we had walked through the park we got to the other end, you could see a nice view of the city and down below was the Piazza Del Popolo

The place we was staying for 2 nights was just down from here near a tram line, It was an apartment called, Rome Studios Apartments. It was very nice, we didn't get breakfast and had a shared bathroom, but the room overall was great, including a comfy bed, which is always good.

Later that evening we went back into the city to have some dinner. Can you guess what we had?

Yes pizza of course! It is Italy. We also had mojito cocktails, the food was all very nice.

Pizza for dinner

With Mojito cocktails.

After dinner we found the Spanish steps wondering about, they are a very nice structure. Below is a few more photos of around the city.

On Saturday the next day, we went to visit Trevi Fountain, which we thought was going to be pretty amazing to see but unfortunately it wasn't very great to view as it was covered in scaffolding.

Saw people dressed up as Romans, they would let you take a photo with them, but they wanted money afterwards so if you don't want to go giving your money away, I'd stay away. We did have one guy come up to us by the Piazza Del Popolo. He wasn't dressed as a Roman but he was giving people roses, he would tell you information about the area and then he wanted money for the roses, so again beware if you don't give your money out!

We also found a cool toy store, I love looking in toy stores at all the different things, one thing I'm interested in is Lego and this store had loads of it so I was really excited.

The store window.

The store front. Cool huh!

I bought a mini fig which was a little bit cheaper than in the UK. We then went on to find the Roman Forum. The area around there was really amazing. One building was huge, this was the Piazza Venezia which is just before you go around the corner to the Roman Forum and Colosseum. It was such a spectacular looking building all white with pillars, had horse statues on top of it. 

The Piazza Venezia

Round the corner from here was the Roman Forum and the Colosseum, there was also lots and lots of men trying to sell you stuff like selfie sticks and umbrella's. I managed to get myself one at a bargain price of 5 euros instead of the price they was trying to sell them for 15 euros, haggle with them, they will give in.

The Roman Forum you have to pay to get into, you can buy tickets online which I think is the ticket to the Colosseum plus you get entry to the forum too. It costs around £10.00.

Being in the Forum is strange you have to imagination what is was like all them years ago it's rather hard. There is books you can buy that have before and now images of the ruins which come in very helpful.

Even cats visit the Forum,

After walking about the forum we came out and went walked around the outside of the Colosseum, we didn't go inside till the next day cause it was getting late. Such a big ruin, amazing thing to see.

Arch of Constantine

The things that must have gone on in that Colosseum must have been mind blowing.

The last thing we went to visit that day was the Pantheon.

This building was another spectacular sight, sadly we didn't get to go inside as there was a service going on. So we didn't get to the see the hole in the ceiling. It did start to rain, lucky we went into a restaurant for dinner.

Here is a few more sights round the city

These fountains were really beautiful.

 The next day we went back to the Colosseum, but this time we thought we would try out the metro. It's a bit different from the London Underground, I would say it looks brighter, less crowded as well.

The Colosseum is huge and simply amazing. It's a great place to visit and will be a excellent experience. I for one was amazed by it and if you are visiting Rome it's the one place you must go and see. You can spend a good hour or so in there looking around, it was very busy and this was in November, so I dread to think what it would be like in Summer time. So if you do want to avoid all the crowds, winter time would be better. There was a small queue to get in, another thing which is better to do is buy your tickets online, otherwise you will be waiting in a huge queue to get in.

Once inside you can walk all around the bottom, and then there is stairs to go up to the top. You can get some stunning photos in there, as you can see below.

In black and white.

That was all we had time to do in Rome, after that we travelled down to Naples on train, then switched trains to Lucrino, where we were staying in this beautiful hotel called Villa Luisa. But there will be more about that in the next post. This is the end of part 1, hope you enjoy this helpful and enjoyable to read. Go to Part 2 <---

Thanks Aimee

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Italy - Lake Garda. My First ever flight!

So this post is going back to the beginning of the year. On the 28th February to the 4th March I went to Italy, my first holiday aboard on a plane. This was the first main adventure of the year and it was an amazing experience, I loved every minute of it.

Me and my boyfriend flew from London Stansted airport on Ryanair, I was really excited about going on a plane, I had wanted to travel on one for such a long time, It had finally come. We landed at Bergamo airport then caught a coach to Milan.

We walked around Milan for a bit doing a bit of sightseeing we didn't go too far, just around by the station. Then we took the train to Desenzano del Garda, and then walked to Sirmione, where our hotel was. This took around a good hour or so, but it was a enjoyable walk along the lakeside.

on the way to Italy travelling over the mountains.

Milan train station

Tram in Milan

In Desenzano del Garda.

Our hotel was lovely, it was called Albergo Maruo. The hotel looked like a big house, we got breakfast each morning, which was a lovely continental breakfast. We tried to speak some Italian but we weren't very good, and the man started talking in English to us. The room was also really nice.

Albergo Maruo, our hotel

Later that evening we went and visited the Castello scaligero which was a bit of a walk from where we were staying but we got to see up the other end of Sirmione. We had dinner up there in one of the restaurants (pizza).

Round abouts in Sirmione are nicely lit up at night.

Castello scaligero

Castello scaligero

Pizza for dinner

 The next day we went on the bus to visit Garda.

At Garda.

Narrow street in Garda

Sparrows in Garda, Italy

Garda is a very pretty town, with lots of little narrow streets, which we had a walk around, then decided to go up a big hill. The old rock of Garda was a fairly pleasant short climb, apart from the rain and getting wet. There are some dug out caves on the way up to the top, but don't look in them, because a sign says not to, I only had a quick look.

The cave climbing up to the top of the hill in Garda.

View from the top of the hill.

View from top of hill, at Garda.

Later in the day we got back on the bus to Verona. 

The Verona Arena (Arena di Verona) is a Roman amphitheatre in Piazza Bra. It was interesting walking around this large historical site. I for one enjoyed pondering what it would have been like all those years ago to be in the middle of the Roman crowd.   

In the city I found a Disney store and bought a Stitch mug which I was happy about.

Verona Arena.

The walls

Another day and another part of the lake to explore - Malcesine, at the base of Monte Baldo. We got the cable car to the top of the mountain, and after travelling through the cloud base, found the top covered in snow. We played around in the snow a bit, it was really cold and windy up the top, so wrap up warm if you go up there. The view you could see was stunning (once the cloud cleared). 

There is a lovely little cafe up there with a view all the way down the bottom. You can also do skiing up the top, which we saw only a few people doing. Back down in the village of Malcesine, there was some kind of carnival on, I believe it was the Gran Carnevale 2014 which was on the 2nd March there was some parade wagon with people dressed up as native Americans. There was confetti all over the floor. There must have been celebrations all around the lake and maybe Italy cause there was confetti in other towns too, which brings me to the next place.

More views, was cloudy.

View of where the cable cars come up.

Cold

Venice. Had to get the train there from Peschiera del Garda which cost around 45 euros return and took around one hour and a half to get there, on a high speed train. The place was completely patched with tourists, it was strange cause all the other places seemed quite for this time of year but Venice was packed. Some kind of festival was happening in St Mark Square I believe it was the Carnival of Venice which is once a year festival, ending on Shrove Tuesday (Pancake day) the Christian celebration of Lent. Lots of people were dressed up in elaborate costumes, and masks.

Italian train at station.

In Venice

We bought some masks to join in.

St Mark Square

Lots of different costumes.

Venice bridge.

View from the bridge

So there we go that was the main places visited while staying at Lake Garda, I know Venice isn't part of that area, but It's a must see place to visit. I'd definitely go back there to see more of the areas. I hope you found this helpful and enjoyable.

Thanks Aimee

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