Istanbul to Rome (1371km)

We flew from Istanbul to Rome with Alitalia and our flight went smoothly - as smooth as is possible when you have to get up at 3am to make it to a 6am flight.

After a few bad experiences with taxi drivers in Bangkok and Istanbul we decided to book a private car service to take us from the airport in Rome to our B&B. This was well worth the few extra euros as our driver was waiting for us at the airport on time and he took us straight to his car which was nice and clean and he didn't smell bad,

he gave us candy and didn't try to rob us. He also knew exactly where our B&B was and did not get lost so the whole trip was much more stress free than if we had taken a taxi.

We arrived early at the La Stella di Roma B&B so we just dropped our luggage and went out for a walk and to have some breakfast before checking in. The neighbourhood we were in was quite nice, mostly residential and hardly any other tourists around but also close to the bus stop and walking distance to our favourite attraction the Colosseum. On our first day we were pretty exhausted from our early flight so we relaxed and took a nap then had an amazing Italian dinner at a local restaurant. The wine was my favourite part of the meal but the arancini was also particularly delicious!

Next morning we were up bright and early to visit the Colosseum. We booked online and printed our tickets the night before as we had read about nightmarish long lines to buy tickets at the Colosseum. This turned out to be a great decision and we only waited about 10 minutes to get in - although I then had to line up for about 20 minutes to use the ladies toilet which was easily the most popular attraction of the day.

The Colosseum was even more spectacular than we had imagined. By the time we left we couldn't believe we had spent 4 hours exploring the different levels with our audio guide in hand, the time just passed so quickly and at no time did we feel bored. Even with a lot of other tourists keeping us company we still felt absolutely humbled to be standing in the Colosseum. By comparison the Roman Forum which we visited later in the day was somewhat less impressive as the ruins are not well preserved and without a tour guide or a visual aide it is really hard to try and imagine the Forum as it once was. Plus it is an enormous site and we were pretty tired from looking around the Colosseum so we called it a day.

For lunch that day we grabbed a slice of pizza from a little diner at the train station which was pretty good and cheap and we just took our pizza and our beers and sat and ate with a view of the Colosseum. We just never got sick of looking at it. I was also pretty excited about the water fountain at the train station which dispenses not only free clean and cold still water but also dispenses sparkling water!

(Photos: the Colosseum; Roman Forum).

That night we enjoyed another delicious and authentic Italian meal with amazing wine and Italian craft beer, but we didn't realise that you needed to order sides separately from the main dishes so we both had our meals without sides, just meat basically. Matt loved his veal saltimbocca.

We noticed that the tiny smart cars are very popular in Rome city due to the limited parking and congested traffic conditions. There also seems to be ample recharge stations for the cars so although they are really ugly and impractical for families there are thousands of them on the streets in Rome. Smart cars also seem to really open up options in terms of parking as per the photos!

On our second day of sightseeing in Rome we took a bus into the city centre and saw the Pantheon, again with the aid of an audio guide. The Pantheon was amazing as it one of the only Roman buildings that has been consistently in use since it was built 2000 years ago and so unlike most of the other Roman buildings we have seen it is perfectly preserved in and intact. On the same day we saw the Vittoriano Emanuele II monument what Matt just loved and we also saw the Trevi Fountain which certainly lived up to the tourist hype. We were unsure about going to the fountain because we read that it would be so congested with tourists and it is known for pickpockets etc. but it was close to the Pantheon so we decided to go and take a look and we were glad that we did. It is truly beautiful and very impressive although we couldn't help but laugh at all the tourists pushing and shoving to throw their coins in the fountain and take the perfect selfie. Having more dignity than that, we just took a few snaps, absorbed the view and then moved on with all of our belongings still in our possession.

(Photos: the Pantheon; Vittoriano Emanuele II monument; Trevi Fountain).

That night we were exhausted so we ended up getting some takeaway for dinner and eating it in our room. We got kebabs from an Egyptian guy with a little store just downstairs from the B&B and Matt was so happy because he liked his kebab better than the kebabs in Turkey. Now he wants to go to Egypt. I also cannot get enough of the arancini balls which are my new favourite thing.

Next day we check out and got ready to take our train to Sicignano Degli Alburni in the Campani region of Italia for our WWOOFing placement.
We prepared for the worst as we had to take a taxi to Roma Termini station which is notorious for being the worst pick-pocketing spot in Italy. We definitely had our guard up the whole time but not a single bad thing happened to us, our taxi driver was decent and we boarded our train without incident.