During February half term, my family and I traveled to Rome for a four-day weekend break, primarily to watch Italy vs. Ireland in the Six Nations Rugby. I was of course particularly excited about the match, since that was the main reason for going, but also at the prospect of discovering the beautiful, historic city of Rome.
On Saturday (game day), we set out at a respectable time of 9am and ventured towards The Stadio Olimpico, all the while relying on a map, which had been outdated and was missing new streets! My mum would definitely have been lying if she had said that she knew where she was going, but one of the most notable things about Rome is that wherever you go you always feel like you are surrounded by important buildings, so it did us no harm at all. We ended up in a lovely little restaurant in the Campo de’ Fiori, where we had our first Italian pizza of the trip and it certainly didn’t disappoint. After this we got a taxi to the stadium, which was an experience in itself! The match was thoroughly enjoyable from an Ireland supporter’s point of view, with the score being 63-10 to Ireland.
The next morning we walked to St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican City where we attended the Pope’s Sunday morning blessing, which, despite the fact that it was all in Italian and Spanish, was an inspiring experience. The rest of Sunday was mostly taken up by eating and talking to friends who were coincidentally there at the same time.
Monday was without doubt the most history-filled day, as we visited the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain, as well as going on the bus tour. I must also mention an incredible little hole-in-the-wall restaurant called ‘La Prosciuterria Trevi’ which we stumbled upon. They didn’t have a restaurant license so we had to set our own tables and get our own water from a fountain in the wall. The food was typically Italian and all for a great price.
On the whole, my visit to Rome was fantastic and I can’t wait to go back to see the likes of The Sistine Chapel and Pompeii, which you can buy a day ticket for. I believe that, had we not met up with our friends, we would have had enough time to at least go to the Sistine Chapel, but we spent too much time talking! Rome is great in the sense that it is actually quite small so essentially you could walk everywhere. Furthermore, February is an ideal time to visit because there is nice buzz without it being too busy, and it was on average a pleasant 17oC.
By Roisin McEvoy
