October 2014
Italy had been on my to-do list for a very long time.
A school friend and I decided to make the trip this year, which was awesome, until we started to think about WHERE in Italy we would go to. Rome was top of my list, I forgot that she hates cities, and hence lives in the countryside in France.
We compromised on that holiday and went to La Rochelle together (August), which was a lovely trip, and also another story!
After the La Rochelle trip, I still felt the need to go to Italy, and for my travel plans not to be foiled because it didn’t work out with someone else – so I booked a trip on my own!
I admit, I was secretly hoping that one of my friends would decide to join me at the time of booking. At the same time, I was mentally preparing myself for travelling alone. My biggest question of course – how does one eat dinner alone!? However, after meeting a couple of cool travelers in Berlin (September) I was really looking forward to having some me-time and doing as I please on holiday!
SATURDAY
I arrived on a Saturday afternoon at Ciampino airport and took the Terravision coach to Termini station (affordable and easy). From there, I took the Metro towards my hotel.
Hotel – Best Western Hotel President
This was a very nice hotel about a minute from Manzoni Metro stop.
http://www.hotelpresident.com/
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g187791-d203094-Reviews-BEST_WESTERN_Hotel_President-Rome_Lazio.html
Dinner at the local pizza place – MISTAKE!
I decided to wander out and find some local grub. There weren’t too many restaurants, and I wandered into a little deli style pizza place and eyed up some delicious looking aubergine pizza. The guy working there was Bengali, we had a little chat and I grabbed a couple of slices and a little bottle of prosecco (prosecco to was down my pizza!) and headed back to the hotel room… where I discovered the base of this pizza was pretty burnt! Probably not authentic Italian pizza… however, it wasn’t all burnt and the topping of aubergine and cheese (mozzarella?) and the herby tomato sauce was really good. And I still enjoyed my fine pizza with prosecco dinner.
Pub crawl
Inspired by the cool people I met in Berlin who were travelling alone and went out to a pub crawl, I decided to do the same thing.
http://www.pubcrawlrome.com/
This was a cool organised night out which started with an open bar. I got talking to quite a few people and spent a lot of the evening with a couple of lovely Australian girls. Ended up partying until the wee hours…
SUNDAY
I missed the tour that started at nine, as I was dead to the world. I dragged myself out of bed to get to a tour by midday… and there was no one at the meeting point. I hung around for 15 minutes before having a leisurely walk back to the hotel. Luckily this was a very nice walk past the Colosseum and some other fab buildings – I can’t tell you what they were! There was also a little street market taking place.
I emailed the tour company, who said the tour guide thought the complete group was there so left and I must have just missed them. I was definitely there AT 12 though… grrrr. At least it got me out of bed and exploring Rome! And they did refund the booking fee I had paid.