We flew into Rome from Ireland and transferred to an AirBNB right next to the Trevi Fountain. The apartment was huge, with two bedrooms, one with a king bed and the other with 2 king singles for Alex and Tona. It had a massive kitchen/lounge area and we were amazed at how large it was for central Rome.

We found a supermarket nearby and stocked up on supplies so that we could have a few meals in the apartment with the girls and put together a welcome pack with some prosecco, cold cuts and taralli.

The next morning we organised for our private transfer to pick us up from our apartment and take us to the airport to meet Alex as she flew in. It was so exciting to see her come through the exit. We must have hugged her for 5 minutes before we left. We took her back to the apartment but none of us could wait to see some Roman sights and so we went to Campo di Fiori, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain before we had to leave yet again to meet Tona at the airport. Tona came through the exit looking very excited, even though she hadn't slept for 36 hours. We took her back to the apartment and we all sat down for a lunch of antipasto.

After lunch, Tona was zonked, so she went for a nap. We woke her after an hour and a half and went out for a pasta dinner at Il Giardino di Albino, which was a restaurant Lidia and I had been to a couple of years earlier and enjoyed.

Over the next four days we walked 64 kilometres all over Rome in an average of 37 degree heat. Lots of gelati was required to counteract the temperature. Hot outside versus cold inside equals perfect balance!

The next morning, we started early, mainly because we all woke up at 5:00am. After breakfast we took Tona to see the Trevi Fountain. It was literally 100 metres from our apartment and we were there for only about 2 minutes before Tona was crapped on not once, but twice, by pigeons. Blam, blam, one on each shoulder. It was either two birds having a competition or one bird with a double-barrelled butt. She wanted to keep going, but we were hesitant to keep walking around with her, mainly because she smelled like a bucket of terds, and our attempts to clean it only succeeded in smudging yellowy-brown bird-bog all over her shoulders, so we had to go straight back to the apartment to change her shirt.

After we sorted that out we went exploring and took Tona and Alex to Testaccio. On the way we passed Piazza Venezia and the Mouth of Truth. Once we got to Testaccio we took the girls to the café that we went to with Linda and Dennis every day for our morning coffee. We then went to Volpetti Deli where our old mate Nicholas, who looks like Aquaman, took us through their balsamic vinegars and Tona bought a bottle to take home.

After this we went to the cat sanctuary and cemetery where John Keats and Percy Shelley are buried. Alex enjoyed seeing their graves. The cemetery also has a giant pyramid in it that was built by an Italian who went to Egypt and built when he returned.

We walked past Mount Testaccio and explained to the girls the story of how the mountain was formed by hundreds of years of terracotta jugs being thrown on a pile, and then we went to Testaccio market. We took them to our favourite pizza place and they agreed that it was the best pizza they had ever eaten. I had worn the white t-shirt that Marco from Giolittli Gelati Shop had given me on our last time in Rome. It goes without saying that when I took my first bite of pizza a cherry tomato fell off and rolled right down the front of my shirt. Luckily I spot-cleaned it masterfully.

The girls then had ricotta cannoli from Lidia's favourite cannoli place which they said was the best cannoli they had ever eaten. We finished off our tour of Testaccio with some Giolitti ice cream. This is why I had worn my Giolitti t-shirt that Marco gave to me and Dennis the last time we were there, but unfortunately Marco wasn't there. The ice cream was still amazing though.

Then we walked back along the Tiber river to our apartment.

The next morning we took off early to do an organised tour of the Vatican museums, the Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basilica. The tour was great, but at 4.5 hours long it was a little tiring. The tour guide, Francesca was great. You're not allowed to take photos in the Sistine Chapel, but I managed to hold my phone down and take a selfie of the ceiling. After the tour finished we looked around the basilica for a while longer. While we were in there, Tona tripped over a barrier and dropped the F-bomb. I'm pretty sure she's going to hell.

We walked back to our apartment from the Vatican. On the way we stopped off at a tiny family-run restaurant called Settimio. We had seen it on Jamie Oliver's Nonna special and wanted to try it, and just happened to chance on it on our way past. So we went in and had lunch there. The waitress was a 7-year old girl with a full face of make up and initially we thought she was cute. She turned out to be a little princess with an attitude problem. While we were waiting for our meals we heard a crash-bang coming from the kitchen. Lidia and Alex got their meals, but it took longer for them to deliver the pasta fagioli that Tona and I ordered. We wondered if maybe someone had dropped our meals in the kitchen and it turns out we were right. An old lady came out and yammered something at us in rapid fire Italian that even Lidia didn't understand, but we took to mean "Some dunderhead dropped your meals and we had to make them again".

The pasta fagioli was delicious anyway and after lunch we headed to Campo di Fiori so that we could have pizza for dessert. The oldest bakery in Rome is there and we wanted the girls to try it. It was delicious. We went back to our apartment after that.

Tona and Alex went out that afternoon and found a shop that sold all different types of liqueurs and came back with Limoncello, chocolate liqueur, peach liqueur and tiramisu liqueur. We started doing shots and then played Uno. Tona was so tired and smashed at the same time that she couldn't speak properly. Her nonsense included such gems as "I'm winning! No, I'm not, I am."

On our final day in Rome, we went to Piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps and the Coliseum. We walked around the whole coliseum and then kept walking into Testaccio for the second time. We had pizza for lunch again and more cannoli. We went back to Giolitti and Marco was not working again.

That night we took a taxi back into Testaccio to take the girls to Flavio al Velavevodetto for dinner. This is the restaurant built into Mount Testaccio with the windows in the back showing the layers of terracotta behind. We had a full-on pasta meal and then walked it off by going back to Giolitti for the third time in 4 days. Marco was there this time and he was really happy to see us. He remembered us from our trip with Dennis and Linda and I had worn my Giolitti t-shirt again, even though it still had a faint line of tomato down the front, so he was rapt to see me in it. I showed him a photo of Dennis wearing his t-shirt and he loved that too.

On the way back to our apartment we stopped to enjoy the Trevi Fountain for the last time. Tomorrow: Amalfi road trip!