The Spanish Steps in the sunshine is the ideal place to relax – the steps are a real sunspot for sun worshippers – or retreat inside Babingtons teashop for some civilised relaxation.

The ideal spot for a gelato is seated round the Barca fountain, where you can enjoy the sunshine and shade as the sun moves round Piazza di Spagna.

Piazza di Spagna and the Spanish Steps have always been a hub for new arrivals in Rome – including the poets Keats, Shelley and Byron. What better place to start your trip round the Eternal City!

 

ROME ALONE

The sun was shining. She slid down a side street off the Via Vittorio Veneto and into the Via Sistina. She walked slowly up the steep slope, gazing in all the shop windows. She avoided her own reflection – the hotel mirror in the bathroom exaggerated her jowls every time she looked. At the top of the road, a small square and the apex of the Spanish Steps. She leaned against a wall, jostled by the other tourists, and gazed down upon Rome in the sunshine.

Bee descended the Spanish Steps in the sunshine, weaving past students and tourists already crowding the Piazza di Spagna. She remembered her own student days, when her first boyfriend Rick had grabbed her hand and dragged her down the very same steps at breakneck speed, so she had missed all the views from every angle, except his auburn hair like a burnished cloud in the sunshine as they ran down the steps. She felt hot and conspicuous in her expensive pea green coat. Youngsters were splayed all over the steps, drinking cola and playing guitars. One group performed a Mexican wave for their appointed video diarist, filming from the bottom of the steps. She paused so as not to spoil the shot and then continued. The September sun was hot now. Rome was drying out from the night’s rain. She could not feel happy, but she did feel more buoyant. At the foot of the steps, she found a place by the small fountain and sat on one of the stone benches. She watched young couples with their arms round each other – a girl standing excitedly outside a shop window, before being dragged away by her boyfriend. She wondered how she and Max had reached the place they were now at.

ROME ALONE is free to download at Kindle Unlimited – or for just £1.99 to buy.

Adult content – five-star Amazon review.

Enjoy Rome and the the Spanish Steps without leaving home! Buon viaggio!