Wednesday 1 August 2018

TRAVEL: How to spend 24 hours in Rome, Italy

How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay
How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stayHow to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay
How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay
How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay

Or, more to the point, how *I* spent 24 hours in Rome. Well, more like 36. After our wedding, we knew we wanted to get away as soon as possible, so we both booked the week after off and started looking for breaks from Monday to Sunday. We actually debated getting a relaxing all-inclusive break, and after precisely zero sleep on the night of the wedding, I definitely felt the urge to lie very still for a week, but that urge passed pretty fast. Because Italy is always a good idea.

Besides, we had Avios points to use up and not a lot of other opportunities to use them, which meant our flights cost next to nothing AND we got to fly business class. We had a few options of where to visit, but Italy wasn't a hard decision - we've both been before and both loved it. We decided to fly into Rome, spend a couple nights there then get the train to Naples for the rest of the week.

So... Rome. Rome is somewhere you could cheerfully spend a week - there's so much to see. Culture, history... oh, and amazing food, of course! We wanted to pack as much of that in as possible without feeling completely stressed and exhausted. And the best way to do that is to PLAN, kids.


How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay
Dress - ASOS | Bag - Urban Outfitters | Haivanas c/o Spartoo

Where we stayed
I discovered the Barberini Luxury Suites, and it was a great choice. Modern, spacious rooms, a great breakfast buffet and an amazing location. The Barberini Metro was 2 minutes walk away, and the Trevi fountain was about 15 minutes walk. We could get everywhere super fast, which meant we didn't exhaust ourselves by walking everywhere.

Where we ate
Hostaria Romana
On our first night, we got in about 6ish, headed to our hotel to change and drop our bags and then headed out to explore. We popped by the Trevi fountain, walked up the Spanish Steps and then went to Hostaria Romana for dinner, which we found in our guidebook. It was a good choice - casual but utterly delicious. We shared the Roman lamb and the suckling pig along with an excellent bottle of red wine, then headed back to spy the fountain in darkness before grabbing a gelato on the way home.

How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay

Divin Ostilia
We make carbonara a lot for dinner, and it's always something I consider a bit simple and never order when I go out for dinner, but I really wanted to try how the Italians did it. Turns out, not too dissimilar to us, although with a lot more cheese! The internet recommended Divin Ostilia and it was a great choice. A little pricey for what it was, but delicious - I loved the tomato and mozzarella salad, even though it was 9 euros!

How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay

Ad Hoc
Heck, it was our minimooon - I wanted to book at least one fancy dinner. So I hopped onto TripAdvisor and found Ad Hoc, one of the top rated fine dining restaurants in Rome which appealed to me because of its different tasting menus. I love the idea of a tasting menu, but as I don't eat fish I'm often not able to go for them (so many restaurants won't let you switch the courses!). But Ad Hoc had a land menu, a sea menu, a mixed menu and even a truffle menu (which sounded so rich that just reading it gave me a stomach ache). It was amazing - we went for the matching wines too, and had a relaxed, luxurious experience that made us feel super spoiled. And at £70 a head including drinks, it was a bargain in comparison to what a meal like that would cost in the UK.

How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay

Er Buchetto
Just before we hopped on the train to Naples (seriously you guys, the train network in Italy is so good) we grabbed porchetta sandwiches at Er Buchetto. I don't know how simple rolls of plain meat can be so good, but they really were. It's a tiny place that only sells these rolls for 3 euros apiece. We had two each, and the bread was fresh and crunchy, the meat tender and full of flavour, and... mmmm, basically.

What we did
There's absolutely tons that you can do in Rome, but with only a day and a half there's not a lot you can fit in. As I mentioned, we squeezed in the Trevi fountain and the Spanish Steps on our first night, and the other attractions high on our list were the Vatican and the Colosseum. So, before we went to bed on the first night, we hopped online to pre-book some tours.

How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay

At the big tourist attractions, queues can be up to three hours long, and as we had so little time it was worth it to spend a bit more money and pre-book. For a combined skip-the-line tour of the Vatican and the Colosseum, GetYourGuide was cheapest (a lot of tours were around £100, this was £75 - still not cheap, but worth it), and had a really useful app where you could pick tours and experiences and turn up with a mobile ticket. So handy for booking on the fly. It was a long day, but we got a lot out of it. And as it started at 8.30, we finished about 4.30 so had time for a little nap before dinner.

How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay

And that's pretty much it! Obviously there's lots more I could say about our trip - we spent the rest of the week in Naples, which I LOVED, but I'll write a separate post about that. It was such an amazing week away though, and I'm just desperate to go back to Italy again. It's my favourite.


How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay
How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay
How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay
How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay
How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay
How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay
How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay
How to spend 24 or 36 hours in Rome, Italy, what to eat, do and where to stay
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1 comment

  1. *sighs* I've never found a bit of Italy I didn't like but Rome is definitely my fave; Sorrento is a close second x

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