Rome and Florence – The Limoncello Diaries

Okay, so firstly, I am a massive fan of Italy. I love ancient history, food, drink, culture and I definitely long for La Dolce Vita. So this trip was like hanging out with my long time crush for a week…

Me and my flatmate, Ellie decided we definitely needed a break – my master’s degree was stressing me out and she’d just moved jobs, so it was getaway time. We found this twin-centre trip through Broadway Travel on Broadway Travel via TravelZoo – they sorted the two hotels, flights, the train in between, and a Rome by night tour for just over £300 from Manchester for 6 days.

First up was Roma. Ellie had been before but when she was younger, so all the key tourist sites were a must.

Sidenote: when you only have 3 days in the Eternal City, trainers are a must. We got as must as was humanly possible done in those 3 days; the Vatican, Colosseum, the Forum, Palatine Hill, Trastevere, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, the Trevi – all the hotspots. Basically, if there were hordes of people selling tourist maps there – we’d seen it.

You know how some holidays are to relax and others aren’t? This was certainly the latter.

So after a couple of hectic, very touristy days in Rome, we hopped on the train to Florence. This was a bucket list city for me.

As it’s a lot smaller, we weren’t doing as much walking in Florence, but we did manage to get in the majority of the sites. I wandered around the Uffizi, whilst Ellie sat and read on the piazza (she’s not a big fan of galleries, but this wasn’t something I was going to miss). We went to so many markets – the popular ones in the centre of Florence and the smaller ones on the other side of the river, in Santo Spirito, towards the Boboli Gardens.

For the whole trip, Santo Spirito and Trastevere were my highlights – they were more relaxed, away from the typical tourist traps. They were a lot cheaper and you got way more for your money. Everywhere claims to have the best cacio e pepe, or the best pizza in the city, but over in those areas, it was way closer to the best food I’d ever had than in the main part of the city.

Also, wine and limoncello were way more value for money in these places – and you know how I like my alcohol deals…