Just when the chill in the air and the constant bad weather was beginning to slowly suck out my soul, by a stroke of good luck my exam-less exam week coincided with Dawn and Toby's half term. So plans were made, flights were booked and out they flew to see me.
I was so thrilled to hear they were coming, knowing we were in for a really fun week. What with me and Dawn having spent some years away from home at University and me never really managing to stay in one place for longer than a week, it's felt like I haven't been able to get to know them in the recent years. In fact it was such a shock to see my brother so tall, and hear him speak of such grown-up things (sometimes)! Equally hearing my sister speak about her full-time job, her colleagues and her grown-up friends.
Where have the years gone?!
But as we were reunited at the airport, not all that much had changed, and our conversations were still as stupid and hilarious as ever.
After an afternoon in a café in Parma doing not much in particular, followed by a questionable but delicious meal of Horse-meat Gnocchi (a sort of haphazard "let's put everything together and see what happens" kind of meal), we struggled out of bed the next day and took the five hour long train to Rome.
Our first day was spent rushing round the vatican then enjoying the sun and sunshine so much we strolled towards the castle and had a peek around.
After a nice dinner, an embarrassingly early night (where we stumbled upon Harry Potter 7 in Italian on the TV) and a nice lie-in, we were up and out with the mission of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum right at the top of our to-do list.
First stop, breakfast:
An interesting moment was when Dawn asked for a fork and it came in a glass of water... and I was pretty sure I'd mastered most of the customs here!
The Colosseum absolutely blew us away and we whiled away several hours enjoying all the other amazing structures planted all around us.
We headed to the Spanish steps just in time to see a marvellous sunset.
We gobbled up a gelato in Piazza Navona, one from one of my favourite places - Grom. Eco-friendly and totally delicious. We asked the very lovely man behind the counter to take an extremely touristy photo of us.
The next day, having decided that we'd seen everything we wanted to see apart from the Pantheon, we took a leisurely stroll into the city centre via a coffee shop for a delicious breakfast and headed to the last attraction on our list.
And thus we concluded our fling with Rome. We headed back to the station tired but happy, and ever so much looking forward to the five hour train journey back...
It was so wonderful seeing my family here in Italy - for both of them it was their first time. I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend a free week than with the people I love!
Here's us in the Colosseum and in the lift up to our hostel (which was so small we often had trouble closing the door...)
Come again soon!
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