After arriving at Ciampiano airport we got a shuttle bus to the train station then the metro to Tiburtina and walked the very short distance up the hill to the apartment. The landlady had waited for us despite the late hour and gave us lots of tips and info for our first visit to Rome. The quad room was clean and spacious with only a few downsides. One was the shared bathrooms (there is another three rooms in the apartment and all were rented out and twice I had to clean the shower tray before using it which is off putting. The lack of air conditioning made the nights uncomfortable. The July heat meant the single desktop fan in the large room was insufficient but if I do think if I had asked the landlady for another fan I would have got one. You should take earplugs with you as they empty the bins at around midnight and the Italian love of using the car horn constantly means you wake with a start most nights. On our third day the metro/bus/train drivers were on strike but if it happens to you, don’t panic. Find a restaurant order some pizza and beers and sit and wait until eventually some buses will run occasionally. The Roman way is definitely laid back and nothing happens fast.

Prepare to be screwed over by touts and fake Gladiators at the Colosseum but avoid the tours and don’t listen to the scaremongering about the length of queues. The Vatican City was amazing and well worth booking a vatican approved tour. Overall Rome is expensive but beautiful and the Roman B&B was a good base to explore the city on a budget but you will need at least two fans to make the quad room comfortable and a set of earplugs for the night noise. One gem is the ice cream parlour below the apartment which sells gorgeous Italian ices in every flavour imaginable and ended up being a nightly ritual of ours with the locals at 11pm every night – just gorgeous!