One of my dreams came true last weekend when we took advantage of the UK bank holiday to spend a long weekend in Rome! We visited Italy twice last year, Sardinia and Venice, and I was eager to explore more of the country I fell in love with. I was really looking forward to not only visiting this amazing city full of history and culture but also to spend some one-on-one quality time with my partner. And a little sun wouldn’t hurt after the long winter!
And it was lovely!
Because we only had three days and because I knew it’d be hot and I’m pregnant (less energetic than normally), I wanted to plan our three days well so that we could just enjoy the holiday once we get there. I started by asking tips from my friends and colleagues – no reason to reinvent the wheel!
Despite the inevitable masses of tourists, I really wanted to see the big sights such as the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Colosseum, the Pantheon… The best advice I got was to buy the tickets to Vatican and Colosseum online. With only 4€ more, we could skip the queues which snaked around the sights and where visitors were sweating for hours. I didn’t think this was possible – why wouldn’t everyone get the tickets if they were readily available!? I still don’t know. All I knew was that I was thanking my colleagues for the tip because it saved us time and energy! Especially the Vatican Museum is an undertaking in itself, being huge, and it was much nicer to go there at the slot allocated to us at 12:30pm after a good night’s sleep and nice breakfast.
We walked on average 20 000 steps each day exploring the city which is a lot! I was very happy we visited Rome now that I’m only three months along as I was perfectly able to walk around all day. Weather was beautiful, sunny and warm everyday. The only challenge was my rather frequent toilet breaks but it turns out people are quite understanding with pregnant women and their need to wee a lot!
For restaurants I trusted my friend Matteo who had given me a list of good options. On Saturday night we had dinner at a trendy seafood restaurant called “Fish Market” in Travestere. We queued for an hour to get in but did enjoy the atmosphere and the uncomplicated yet delicious food. Sunday’s dinner was an amazing pasta at Giggetto al Portico d’Ottavia, traditional Italian restaurant in the Jewish Ghetto.
My favourite however, was Frigidarium, a gelato shop on Via del Governo Vecchio 🙂 Which I visited twice – divine gelato!
After two days of bread & pasta-overload I was really craving for something fresh and we found the perfect spot for it – Ginger! Just look at this freshness:
Overall, our “mini-babymoon” was a success. Rome is such an interesting and beautiful place. Food was yummy and weather lovely. Highly recommend!
We are planning a proper babymoon for August when we have our summer holidays. Greek islands have been mentioned! Might also be on the lookout for a wedding venue… 😉
xoxoxo,
Sini