I’m currently sitting in a little courtyard at John Cabot University whilst my friend attends her conference this afternoon.

I’ve been to Rome a couple of times before (in fact it’s the foreign city I’ve visited the most), but the heat surprises me every time.

It’s boiling hot here – at least by English standards – according to my app it’s 31 degrees (or 88 if you prefer Farenheit). This is my view right now:

We’ve spent the last couple of days doing typical sightseeing things such as the coliseum, forum, pantheon and so on. On Tuesday we woke up to lightning and heavy rain, but luckily the storm cleared really quickly and we were able to enjoy the rest of the day wandering around.

The Coliseum

Inside the Pantheon

Water falling at the Trevi Fountain

Learning Italian isn’t going especially well, but I’m picking up the odd few words. It’s lovely to be able to relax – I find it impossible to relax at home because there’s always more to be done. The heat and the atmosphere makes it impossible not to relax here, which is definitely what I need after the past few months.

The centre of Rome is pretty crowded and hectic, but it’s nice to just walk around at our own pace and nip in to lovely air conditioned shops when the heat gets too much. As we’re staying in an apartment, most of the money I’ve spent so far has been on food. We’ve cooked pasta and pizza in the apartment, and eaten breakfast in. My diet mostly consists of various cheese and tomato related products…but that’s fine by me! I’m also enjoying the gelato very much, although I’m choosing light, refreshing flavours such as coconut, lemon and pineapple because of the heat. I’ll be sorry to leave on Monday, but hopefully England will be a bit cooler – I think somewhere between 18 – 25 degrees is my preferred functioning temperature! As the apartment is four flights up, it’s not fun to climb the stairs at the end of a long hot day…but the coolness of the apartment pretty much makes up for it.

I’ve had some very strange looks from people watching me take photos of tree bark and various floors, but they’re so good for Photoshop textures they’re hard to resist!

It’s been a pretty casual and relaxing holiday; it’s more like experiencing life as a temporary student in Rome. The campus is very cosy and there’s plenty to do, especially at night when it gets cooler. It’s been a great trip and I love Italy, but we’ve both decided that Rome isn’t our favourite place. I’m not surprised that half of Rome packs up and heads for the beach in the summer months; it’s just too hot for city living. Pro tip: visit Rome in slightly cooler periods!