Top 5 of 2016

1. Siam Park Tenerife –This is the awesome water park in Tenerife, spend all day walking around soaking wet in your swimming costume and you’ll never feel cold!
2. Walk Through Kirkby Stephen- This was our little November outing for boyfriend’s birthday, so it wasn’t super warm and there wasn’t an abundance of beautiful foliage but it was his special day.
   
   
3. Glasgow Eateries- Naked Soup and Topolabamba
   We found a couple of fun places to eat in Glasgow when we went to visit sister in March, Topolabamba was particularly yummy I seem to recall.

4. Rome Colloseum and Roman Forum- Probably the most impressive and recommendable was the Roman Forum and Colloseum in Rome.
5. Walk from Settle to Stainforth- And one of our summer walks, just a shame that weeks of heavy rain made it a mud bath in parts.

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Top 5 Things About Rome

I really liked Rome, it’s a big bustly city with lots to see and do.  The buildings are beautiful, and there’s lots of history you can see just by wandering around.  The sunshine and yummy food didn’t hurt either.  Here’s my Rome top 5:

1. Roman Forum and Colloseum
   I really liked the Roman Forum, I guess most people visiting Rome will head to the Colloseum which is worth a visit but the Roman Forum next door is an amazing example of the history of Rome.
2. Gelato!!!
   Why is ice cream in the UK so lame compared to the Italian gelato?  Why can’t we do it how they do, I guess that, in a country where 23 degrees is cause for celebration there is less of an investment of time in ice cream technological development than in Italy, but still.  It’s worth going to Rome just for the gelato!
3. Olympic Stadium
   The former Olympic stadium is a bit out of the way, but I enjoyed my visit.  A bit niche this one as it really for us Olympic nerds trying to collect stadiums but it was interesting to see all the old Mussolini propaganda in mosaic form.
4. Rome Zoo
   We spent an enjoyable few hours wandering around the Rome zoo, where all the animals were hiding from the the hot mid-day sun.
5. The Vatican
   It’s hard to avoid a trip to the Vatican, but the queues are pretty epic.  If you’re planning to visit bear that in mind, entry to the Basilica is free but we paid to jump the queue and got an audio tour.  The Basilica is very impressive inside but full of other tourists, and a few nuns being religious who almost seemed out of place in the tourist throng.

 

 

 

 

Rome Vs Barcelona

I’ve been to Barcelona twice and recently come back from Rome (I’m a lucky girl!) and really enjoyed them both.  I think Rome was my favourite but there’s plenty to do and experience in both cities.  There are a lot of similarities too, but some differences…

Rome                                    Barcelona

Both cities are historic and full of beautiful architecture.  But not much (in Europe) beats Rome for antiquities, some of the structures in the Roman Forum date back to the 7th century BC.  The city of Barcelona purportedly dates from 250 BC but some of the most striking architecture in Barcelona was designed by Antoni Gaudi from the 19th century.

Rome                                 Barcelona

One of the reasons I liked Italy better than Spain is because getting vegetarian food was sooooo much easier!  Of course it depends where you go but there wasn’t a single place in Rome that I struggled to find a delicious option, and it’s hard to go wrong with pasta, cheese, and pizza.  On the other hand I spent most of my time in Spain buying overpriced cheese sandwiches.  But it did force us to find some vegetarian restaurants and get some dedicated veggie cuisine.

Rome                                    Barcelona

Of course I visited the Olympic stadiums in both cities.  As you can see the biggest difference between the two places is that Rome was ridiculously hot and in Barcelona it was pissing it down.  It’s hard for me to remember the Barcelona stadium without just thinking about how soggy it was.  We couldn’t go into the Rome stadium which was a shame, especially because it’s kind of out in the sticks but at the least the stadium is still being used for football matches.  In Barcelona, it all seemed somewhat neglected.  But there is a little Olympic museum next door and terrible cafe.

Rome                                Barcelona

And both cities had odd quirky things, Rome had a elephant statue while the good people of Barcelona were keen on cats.  And I like standing in front of animal statues and pointing.

 

Rome Bioparco/Zoo

We spent our last afternoon in Rome at the zoo, which was 16 euros each.  There was a exhibition on fish which was an additional 3 euros but we didn’t bother with that.  The zoo is quite extensive, and has a wide range of animals so we felt like we got a decent amount for our money.

Rome- Colleseum, Forum, Palatine Hill

The Colosseum (or Coliseum) is one of the main tourist attractions in Rome, and its not surprising.  It’s from around AD80 and in pretty good nick, obviously changes have been made since then, in 1200 it was fortified as a castle, and in the C19th there were various restoration projects to spruce it up a bit. There was a major restoration from 1993 to 2000 which cost about 40 billion lire (20.6 million euros), so not surprisingly you have to pay to enter!  We paid 12 euros for a combine ticket to the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill.

Rome! Visiting The Vatican

We deliberated about visiting the Vatican since we’re not religious, and had heard the usual horror stories about the queues, but since we were in Rome we thought we would check it out.  It was a bit confusing trying to figure out what you needed tickets for, how much it cost, and what we needed to do.  You don’t need tickets for St Peters Square or St Peter’s Basilica (the big church) but if you get there late the queue is pretty big, and inside pretty crowded.