Three weeks ago I was on holiday in Italy. I have various excuses for why it's taking so long to sort my holiday photos out (illness, being busy doing important life things like finding a new job, etc etc) but you can probably mostly blame laziness.

We started off in Rome, where the sun was shining and it was 30° plus.  Definitely gelato weather, yum.

We purchased Roma Passes, which covered all public transport, 2 free tourist attractions and discounts on many others.  I think we probably got our money's worth out of it, and it was very convenient too.

Colosseum

You can't really miss this one! It's very big and very famous.  You also can't miss the long queues outside, because obviously it's a popular place.

On the first Sunday of the month a lot of museums and tourist attractions are free, and this happened to be the day we choose for our Colosseum/Forum (it's a joint ticket) visit. You get your ticket from the booth, then join the queue.  Or, if you're feeling sneaky, you join the separate much shorter line for Roma Pass holders, and then use your free ticket at the turnstiles anyway (the queues all merge into one big rabble at the security scanners).  Another way of avoiding the queue would be to cave in to one of the many people hawking guided tours...

We paid for an audio tour, which had six points of interest and a few other bits of general information about the history, the games, etc.  All very interesting, and at no point did it feel like it was 'dragging on'.  There's a nicely air-conditioned souvenir shop, and several water fountains.

Inside the Colosseum

Forum

There is a lot going on in the forum, and I found it quite difficult to take it all in and try to visualise what it would have looked like. Again, we got an audio tour which had almost 60 points on it.  We never managed to find #1-5, and by the time it came to wandering around Palatine Hill I was seriously flagging in the heat/sunshine despite frequently refilling my water bottle, so we skipped quite a bit of it in the end.

there is a lot of history in this photo

From Palatine Hill you can look down on the Circus Maximus, which was half fenced off in preparation for a David Gilmour concert.

Later in the week we visited the Museum of the Imperial Fora and Trajan's markets, which explained a lot of the history and really helped me understand it a bit better.  Particularly good audio guide here too.

Everything Else

We ticked off a lot of the other main tourist attractions, including the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Spanish steps (closed for maintenance) and Trevi Fountain.  The latter was horrendous because there were about a million people in a very small space all desperate to take a selfie and chuck some money in.  Which is pretty much... continue reading »

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I had another birthday this week.  I'm long past being excited about birthdays, but this years was extra dull because I wasn't feeling particularly healthy thanks to the boyfriend sharing his cold germs with me a few days earlier.  We basically spent the evening coughing and sneezing in front of the TV.

However I did manage to make a cake - raspberry, blueberry and lime (without the drizzle).

I've done this one as a birthday cake before, but I wasn't really feel like trying anything new and I remembered it being very yummy.  It didn't get iced, and I forgot to take any proper photos (hence potato-phone quality pic).

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For a slight change of local dog walking scenery we headed up Cleeve Hill.

It's a popular spot - easy access, great views and lots of options for walking, cycling, horseriding, kite flying, climbing, etc etc.  It also has two trig points.

One is in the middle of the golf course, at 317m.  There's a toposcope next to it too.

The other is near the radio masts, and at 330m marks the actual summit.  Apparently it also makes a very good scratching post for the many sheep on the common.

As you can see it was a lovely sunny afternoon.  Unfortunately this meant I ended up with nice pink arms, because SPF 15 wasn't enough.  Oops.  Gelato in Cheltenham on the way home made it slightly better though.

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