While in Rome we felt as though we accomplished more than any other Italian city. Every day was comprised of a different sight/long walk/activity.

Day one: General look-around. We saw the outside of the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and a lot of smaller sights, including the spot where Julius Caesar got murdered, which is now a cat sanctuary.

Day two: Self-guided tour of the Colosseum and Forum. This was amazing and really showed how phenomenal the Romans were at building for their time. The arena itself could probably host twice as many people as Vicarage Road, home of the mighty Watford FC, so it’s huge. After the Colosseum, we walked up to the Forum, which was great. First, we walked up Palatine Hill, which had a number of really well-preserved Roman ruins and a spectacular view of the Forum. After that, we explored the Forum itself, which was equally spectacular.

Day three: Spanish Steps. There’s not much to say about these really, other than they’re really aesthetically pleasing and complex. They’re less fun to walk up, though.

Day four: Pompei. We got the train to the city of Pompei before exploring the archaeological exhibition of the ancient city, Pompeii (don’t ask us why they took away an i, must have been lost in translation from Latin to Italian). The exhibition was so interesting. We explored the whole place and it took all afternoon. It was so perfectly preserved and showed exactly what life was like back in Roman times. It also had a great view of Mt. Vesuvius (which is unsurprising, really). After leaving, we walked towards the train station and had a coffee before catching the train back.

Day five: Vatican City. The Vatican was really beautiful. The artwork displayed was stunning, every wall was either painted with insane amounts of detail, or covered in paintings/tapestries with insane amounts of detail. The tour took us to the Sistine Chapel, where we got to experience first-hand the really famous ceiling, painted by Michelangelo. The panel in question is smaller than it seems, and is part of a much larger image, but was still a little like seeing a celebrity in public.

Day six: Trevi Fountain. We walked up to the fountain which, like pretty much everything in Italy, was spectacular, and had a coffee before heading back to the apartment and packing, ready for our flight to Iceland.