Birthday Celebrations in Roma!

Roma! Where do I start? Simon and I went to Rome for my birthday. I wanted to get a bit of winter sunshine and celebrate by doing what we love most...eating and drinking in a new country!!
We had a great 5 days. Saw so much, ate too much and spent too much....will be a lean Christmas this year!

We arrived on Saturday night and managed to find our accommodation quite easily, went for a pizza and then went straight to bed as it was about midnight. Thank goodness for late eating on the continent.
Sunday we went for a walk down the road and low and behold there was the Coliseum! So amazing to see it in the flesh after having studied it at school. It is every bit as amazing as I had imagined. So basically for the next 5 days we walked for miles and saw lots of ruins and lots of amazing architecture and LOTS of churches.

I'm so glad that we went at this time of year as there were no crowds and luckily for us Rome was experiencing a winter heat wave with every day in the late teens. I cannot imagine what it must be like in the summer as it was still busy when we were there. Although I have to boast and say that we didn't need to queue at all to get into St Peter's, in fact it was so quiet we went through about 4 times on account of getting a bit lost trying to find our way to the dome! The Sistine Chapel was another highlight that we barely had to queue for.

Simon, as usual, took lots of photos, all of which are excellent. I have posted a few on here for you to see. Was a great trip and a lovely way to celebrate turning 26.

Trajan's Forum

Vittorio Emanuele ||

Colliseum

Vittorio Emanuele ||

Collosium

Cross in Colosseo

Pantheon

Hole in the ceiling of the Pantheon

St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican




St Peter

View from the Dome of the Basilica

Bernini's Colonade at the Vatican

Gallery of Maps - Vatican Museum

Sistine Chapel Ceiling - sneaky photos as not really allowed


Raphael Rooms - Vatican Museum

Staircase at the Vatican Museum

Trevi Fountain

Tritone Fountain

Simon throwing coins into the Trevi Fountain

Keryn at Circus Maximus