back to life

Much as I love travelling with family and friends, I really wanted to do some solo trips and thought that Europe was a good place to start.

For my first solo adventure I decided to go to Rome as I had visited many times before and knew my way around pretty well. That said I did make a conscious effort to visit places that I hadn’t seen before on previous trips, including the aqueduct park, the catacombs, Tiber Island, Trajan’s market and Circus Maximus. I went on a lovely boat trip and met the very cute resident coypu named Caterina. But also visited old favourites; the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Castel D’Angelo and St. Peter’s Square.

On all my previous visits to Rome I have gotten out of the city, I’ve been to Pompeii and Ostia Antica twice. Anyone who knows me or has read this blog will know what a history nut I am. So I hopped on the train to Naples to catch the little circumvesuviana train to Sorrento with a little pit stop at Ercolana to visit the ancient city of Herculaneum. I’ve wanted to see this site for many years and it didn’t disappoint. Just a little walk from the station down the main street of the small town is the most compact and perfectly formed roman city. The streets, houses, shops and port are so amazingly well preserved, partly to do with it’s position in relation to Mount Vesuvius, so it faired a little better than it’s neighbour Pompeii. I loved wandering around and looking at the fabulous murals on the walls, the colours still quite vibrant even after all these years.

Onwards on the most scenic train journey for another couple of hours I made my way to beautiful Sorrento, another place on my hit list for quite some time. Due to my stop off at Herculaneum I only had a couple of hours at this lovely coastal resort, but long enough to enjoy a bit of a walk around and some gnocchi and a glass wine while watching the glorious sunset.

Originally I had only planned to go to Herculaneum and back to Naples for a look around, but when I got off the train from Rome and walked to the station to get the next train it smelt so strongly of urine that I decided to go further down south to Sorrento. I’m sure it was a one off and Naples is a lovely place to visit, I just didn’t fancy it that day!

A short time before my holiday I had already been informed by Easy jet that my flight was delayed and I had an extra day in Rome, luckily my Air BnB hosts were able to put me up for one more night. What I didn’t know though was my cousin Amelia and her family, Ged and Sophia, were also going to be arriving in Rome on my last but one day. I found out when I posted online while sat on the tarmac at Bristol Airport, Amelia saw it and messaged me. So after a morning of mooching around the site of Nero’s Golden Palace and the Roman Forum, I met them at their hotel on the Via Nationale. After sharing a pizza and trying to catch up on a lot of family gossip, we made our way to have a look at the mighty Coliseum. We enjoyed a lovely evening together reminiscing about the last time we met up in Rome, another totally unplanned event when we both decided to come to Italy as a birthday treat quite a few years ago, my birthday is the day before Amelia’s. She was staying outside of Rome that time with my Uncle and Aunty and we all met at the Spanish steps.

The next day I managed to fit in the Trevi fountain, the Spanish steps and one last coffee with Amelia and co before making my way to the airport for my flight home. We decided that Rome was some kind of special place for us and I believe that is true, I really feel comfortable there and felt safe all the time, even when I was returning to my apartment late at night.