Photo of the week: Ciao Roma!

Have just returned from a five day visit to the Italian capital of Roma. In short, it was the best holiday I have had in a long while!

Rome is a beautiful place and I left with an ache to see more of the country - perhaps Venice, Florence and/or Tuscany next time. The weather was fine throughout our stay, making it the perfect experience to enjoy the countless precious historical sites. And because it was winter, there were very few tourists to compete with at entrance lines, ticket booths and restaurants. If you ever want to visit Rome, please consider winter, especially close to Christmas time. You'll get to see Rome without the heaving weight of tourists, and enjoy the many brilliant Christmas decorations!

There aren't enough words to describe how incredible Rome is. I stood in awe at every street corner as I gazed at each quaint Italian coffee shop or pizzeria, and marveled at the architecture of the various ages of Rome - from classical, to medieval and finally to the age of renaissance.

The trip itself deserves a much longer review but for now, I leave you with the best birds-eye view of the place that I could find. This was taken at the top of the Spanish Steps as we were making our way to Villa Borghese. We chanced upon the most unique cloud formation I had ever seen, seemingly to highlight the powerful and unique quality of the city below - with its old crooked streets lined with colourful buildings and dotted with ancient monuments dedicated to a life centuries ago when this was the centre of the world.

Until I write again.