Lucy and I took the train from Florence to Rome for the final leg of our Italian trip.

We quickly got to familiarise ourselves with yet another city and we took in the sights by doing a hop on hop off bus tour.

Rome is remarkably bigger than anywhere we'd ventured to previously so it was a little overwhelming.

The next day we got up early for the must see Vatican. We had organised to be part of a tour group which takes us into the museum, the Cystine chapel and Bascilica di San Pietro itself. The place is ginormous! You could easily spend a week in the place and still not cover everything. The marble floors to the gilded ceilings to the remarkable art work. It was breathtaking.

We got some history too so it was well worth it and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The church is remarkable too, so intricate, so much history. We went on a Tuesday which is the quietest day as the Pope is not in residence. The buzz around the place was still electrifying though.

From the marvellous Vatican, we decided to explore Rome on foot. We headed to the Spanish steps, a prime people watching spot. Just as popular with Romans as it is tourists.

From Plazza di Spagna we wandered the wee streets to the Trevi Fountain - made famous by La Dolce Vita - but we found it was under maintenance! Disappointed but not deterred we keep going and headed along some more tourists spots before soaking up some sun and atmosphere alongside the Pantheon - a remarkable building to say the least.

We then took a break for the next two days by heading to the coast, to the beautiful seaside town of Anzio. Up and out, we caught the train to arrive early, and we headed straight to the beach.

There was hardly a soul and the water was so calm. That night we went into the centre for a lovely fish dinner, which made a nice change from all the pizza and pasta we had been eating.

We were greeted with a lightening show and when we arrived back at hotel, the storm started and lasted till 1pm the following day. Typical! Only our luck to get rain by the beach in Italy.

The next day, we decided it was definitely warm enough to beach again so that's what we did. That evening we went back into harbour area and had possibly the best meal of the holiday at a lovely wee restaurant called Oltre Mare. We got a bread basket (we rate restaurants on this now) and a complimentary taster, basically a four course meal. It was immense! A delightful way to end a chilled couple of days. We spent our last few hours in Anzio on a wee wooden pier by our almost private beach. Bliss.

We returned to Rome and back into the crammed city centre. Certainly a change of scene again but we were glad of the rest we had. We had a quiet day as we were saving ourselves for the finale.

A tour of the Colosseum and the surrounds. Taking a step into ancient Rome as soon as you set foot in the giant amphitheatre. Such a magnificent credit to the Romans and it's not difficult imagining what the fully constructed arena would be like. It was truly remarkable, I really enjoyed the tour. However it didn't stop there, we head to Palatine hill and to the Forum, crossing over large paving slabs, some of which are originals imaging how many sandals have walked the way we did. I have to say I loved this side of Rome. I'm pleased we saved it for our last full day.

Personally I found Rome underwhelming compared to Florence, even Venice but I would not have missed it and it was still incredible, perhaps it was because it was back to a big city and because there were only pockets of character, seeing as most of Rome still lies unexplored underground, that thought however is quite wondrous. I think finishing here has captured my imagination though, letting the inner history geek surface for a few days.

We finished our Italy adventure by a square, with lovely food, drink, people to watch and we had a giggle at the memories, compared the cities and tried to choose our favourite days.

So number 24 cheery Anzio and number 25 the wonder that is Roma. My time in Italy has been phenomenal with plenty of memories and laughs to cherish.

Thanks to Lucy too (the girl with more bites than the man on the bus had pockets) what an awesome travel companion.

Grazie and ciao Italia.