The Eternal City

Chapter 9 began back at Christmas. Under the tree sat a card which started a treasure hunt around the house devised by Anna to find out what my present was. The hunt took me to our printed book of our first blog, to day 16, the infamous day in Rome. Anna had arranged the hotel and flights to Italy for our Feb half term holidays, the rest would be over to me (covid passes, plans, spending money etc).

With an early start from Dublin Airport, we enjoyed a night out in Dublin with Nicky, who kindly agreed to leave us to the airport at 4.30am. Nicky has never read a single one of our blogs but thanks anyway for the lift! He even managed to get a ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ from Anna before I did…

It was nearly a solo trip to Italy for Anna as going through security, I was stranded at the gate with Anna daydreaming and walking on with my phone and boarding pass, before hearing me shouting at her to come back.

With a bit of food and some milk for Anna before boarding, I thought I was fresh enough for the journey but it was only an hour into the flight where I regretted that last glass of wine. I was really struggling to the point where I was dripping of sweat and nearly head banging the seat in front of me. I soon felt better and was able to relax again as we arrived in Rome, flying over the city before landing to see all the sights from the air.

No fuss and no problems at the airport and we were on the train to Roma Centrale. Despite not getting covid checked at the airport, two police officers asked to see our covid pass at the train station. I thought they were just coming up to say Ciao, welcome to Rome!

With the rain starting to pour, we got a taxi to the hotel but this was prematurely ended. A protest in the centre of Rome had caused a number of streets to be closed off, and the taxi driver had to abandon us 20mins away from our hotel. It wasn’t all bad as we crossed the piazza with our yellow suitcase, protesters on one side the police on the other.

To be fair to Anna, she found an amazing hotel in the heart of Rome. 15 minutes from most sights, Relais Santa Caterina Della Rosa is a small hotel attached to a Catholic Church. Up tiny winding stairs and through a door with more stairs, our huge suite overlooks the church which thankfully hasn’t been open since 2015, although they still do private visits and leave the lights on so you can see from our ‘bedroom windows’.

After we checked in and got settled, we took a short walk around our hotel and included a visit to the Pantheon, grabbed some lunch and also visited Santa Maria in Cosmedin, where the skull of St Valentine is displayed. We thought that if there was any day of the year to visit here, today would be it. Romantic isn’t it?

It had already been long day so a siesta before dinner was in order. Dinner tonight was in a rooftop bar overlooking the Trevi Fountain and the latter was the sole purpose of the whole trip. The last time we visited Rome, the Trevi Fountain was under renovation and all Anna wanted to do was to see it filled with water, and throw a coin in it Lizzy McGuire style.

In the weeks before we left, Anna was scoping out hidden gems for dinner and drinks, becoming friendly with the barman at The Trevi Rooftop Bar, and who kindly managed to reserve us the best seats in the house to look over the fountain. Thanks Luca!

With wine, truffle bruschetta, pizza and some Aperol spritz, we watched on as 5 couples got engaged by the fountain. That was all in 2 hours so I wonder how many others there would be have been there today!

Straight home after a long and luxurious day in the ‘Internal City’ – Anna kept getting mixed up between Eternal and Internal, but it was Valentine’s day so who am I to argue!