Travel Adventures- Rome, Italy

Rome is a city that is pretty close to my heart, and one that I'd not only been to before, but know kind of well because I lived in the central city for a week whilst on exchange, and also visited about 3 other times on that same trip. But there is always so much to see, and it never gets old or uninteresting, so I was excited to go again. A really lovely thing to do whilst in Rome is catch one of the Hop On Hop Off buses because there's a lot to see, but it is all quite far apart and not everything is within walking distance from each other, so that's a nice easy way to see it all. Otherwise, the metro is pretty easy to understand and use, and the main attractions are indicated at the various stops where you need to get off, so that works as well (just watch and hold onto your bags). 

One of my favourite attractions in Rome is the Trevi Fountain. It was absolutely packed due to the usual summer tourists, but the sculpture work itself and beautiful blue water is really so pretty, and worth seeing. A lot of lovely shops and restaurants are located quite close to the fountain, especially in the back alleys/roads in and around that area. Also, a close-by 15 minute walk away is the Pantheon, which is a huge building with a large round hole in the centre of it's roof. I'm afraid I don't know too much about its' history, but it's pretty cool to go and see. Also, in one of the roads up from the Pantheon is a very well known ice-cream shop with some of the best gelato I've ever had and over 100 flavours!! 

Another lovely attraction to go and see is the Spanish Steps. The walk up is a little tiring but completely worth it to see the lovely view of the roof tops and skyline of Rome. In the main road across from the steps is the main road for all things expensive and high-fashion shopping with Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Givenchy and the works- great for window shopping, not so much for the budget! 

The Roman Forum and Colosseum are also a must-see if it's your first time in Rome. From my experience, the queues to get into the Colosseum are nightmarish, so go at a more quiet time, or early morning, but it's definitely worth a peek inside, and the history of the building is absolutely fascinating. The Roman Forum is a big region outside the Colosseum with ruins from ancient Rome, it is not ideal for a hot day as it is a lot of walking and standing around, but if you're a history-lover, it's definitely for you. 

Another must-see in Rome is The Vatican. Specifically St. Peter's Basilica, which is free to the public and is honestly one of the most overwhelming and stunning buildings I have ever been into. Make sure to wear clothing that covers your shoulders, midriff and knees though. The basilica is huge and has the most stunning sculptures, mosaics and embellishments I've ever seen. It is also completely stunning to walk up the 1000s of steps to the top of the basilica's dome to see the completely-worth-it view over the whole city of Rome. Also in The Vatican is the Sistine chapel, which is also absolutely stunning- the painting on the roof is completely awesome and definitely something worth seeing despite the hours of queues. In this area, there are also a lot of touristy shops if you need to do some gift shopping and some lovely restaurants with delicious authentic Italian pizza, pasta and bruschetta, just to name a few (oh my goodness, I love Italian food). 

Rome is quite overwhelming in it's size and expanse, and also how much history it has and the loads of tourist attractions there are to see, but they definitely are all worth it. Everytime I have been there it has been absolutely sweltering, as that's what you get when you combine European summer with a huge city, so be prepared for a lot of walking and sweating, and also an absolutely wonderful city with loads to do and see. 

Pics of the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain: 

Pics of The Vatican 

St. Peter's Basillica

View from the top of the dome of St. Peter's

Pics of the Colosseum and Roman Forum

Travel Adventures: Korcula & Mljet, Croatia

I've put these two towns together because both are super small and cute and we pretty much just chilled, ate good food and explored a bit while there because there wasn't too much else to do, so I didn't end up taking that many pictures unfortunately.

KORCULA
We first visited Korcula and spent one day there. Korcula is famous for being the home to Marco-Polo, so whilst there it is quite cool to check out his childhood home, which they have kind of made into a little museum/historical tour- it's crazy seeing how small and different the houses were back then! Close by there is also a bell tower, which you can go up and get a full view of the town and all the pretty red rooves clustered together. Korcula is kind of like an oval shape (if that makes sense), so you can wander along the promenade at the water's edge all around the "oval" and just take in the beautiful views and clear waters. There is also a cocktail bar there that is up a few stories but right on the water's edge, and they are famous for lifting your drinks up to the top with a cable car type mechanism, which is pretty cool, but unfortunately it was closed when we went as it was a bit early. This was just a really cute little town that we had a lot of fun exploring and wandering between the little cobbled streets and into the local shops and museums. 

MLJET
Mljet is a separate island (so not actually on Croatian mainland), that is actually quite small and private, as the vast majority of the island is the Mljet national park. A cool thing to do there is either to hire bikes and cycle around the big lake near the middle of the island, or to take a hike through the really pretty wilderness of the national park and catch a little ferry boat across the lake to a small island. There is some cool Croatian name to describe that this is an island on an island (cause it's within the lake on the island of Mljet). We chose the hiking option cause it's a cool way to get some exercise but also to take your time to get there and enjoy the fresh air and beautiful views of the forest and the lake. In the evening we went back to the main road of the town, which is by the water's edge where we were docked, and found a little place with some deck chairs to sit and watch the sunset. We then had delicious pizza for dinner and a really nice, more laid-back relaxing night.