Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri was designed by Michelangelo and is the only Renaissance style church in Rome.

The temple, located very near Piazza della Repubblica, is one of the most surprising and unique in the city thanks to its ruined façade that contrasts with its vast and sensational interior.

The site where Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri was erected was where the Baths of Diocletian had been founded, an impressive demonstration of the glory of the Roman Empire until, in an intent to conquer Rome, the Goths cut the water supply of all the aqueducts of the city, and the baths had to be abandoned.

When neglected, the baths were taken over by bandits and courtesans until the Renaissance, when the grounds were bought by the French cardinal Jean du Bellay, who commissioned the construction of a beautiful villa and its gardens.

A Sicilian priest suggested building a church on the site of the Baths of Diocletian, in honour of all the Christian slaves who died while building the baths.

Several decades later, in 1560, the priest’s efforts were rewarded by Pope Pius IV who commissioned Michelangelo to transform the baths into a church.

The interior of the church is remarkable and completely unpredictable from looking at its bare façade. With an impressive dimension, the temple is beautifully decorated with vast frescoes on its walls and enormous coloured marble columns.

On the floor, visitors will be able to see the meridian solar line built by the astronomer and philosopher Francesco Bianchini in 1703. Bianchini’s meridian would tell when noon was throughout the year, the arrival of the solstices and equinox, as well as a calendar.

We woke up on time and left the Premier Inn. It was raining lightly (as it often does in Manchester) when we stepped out of the building.

After travelling to the airport, we checked our car into the meet and greet service which also gave us fast track through border control.

After checking in our luggage, receiving our boarding cards and proceeding through border control it was time to relax a little and enjoy breakfast. My breakfast, an almond croissant, was delicious but Mr C’s cooked breakfast was underwhelming.

We boarded the plane on-time but shortly afterwards the Captain announced that there would be a slight delay due to Air Traffic Control congestion. We took off 25 minutes late but the Captain was able to regain some of this time during our flight.

We cleared border control without any problems but the baggage reclaim was stressful. Some bags arrived on the conveyor belt and circled round and round without anyone claiming them but many bags did not appear. Just after Mr C’s case appeared (and was retrieved) some airport baggage handlers started randomly removing cases from the conveyor belt. Mine was one of them so we rushed to reclaim it.

Luggage retrieved; it was time for us to pick up our transport to our hotel. We were greeted by two Jet 2 reps who guided us to a place to wait for our driver. Eventually we were joined by a family who had been held up due to the baggage reclaim confusion.  Now that the travel party was complete, we embarked on a long trek up and down stairs and escalators before we arrived at the car park where our minibus was located. This wasn’t the end of our walking journey It was also a long trek across the car park before we arrived at our taxi.

Our journey to the hotel ran smoothly and our room was ready. We dumped our cases in the room and ascended to the hotel’s roof top garden for lunch. We chose to share a plate of charcuterie and cheese accompanied by focaccia. Whilst dining we were constantly misted with water jets fitted into the pergola.

Comfortably replete we walked into town passing a couple of lovely fountains, arriving at the Basilica of St Mary of the Angels and the Martyrs. The church is beautiful and refreshingly cool inside giving us respite from the 90-degree heat outside.

Back at the hotel we showered to remove the afternoon’s heat before dining in La Locanda Di Bacco where I chose seabass accompanied by roasted rosemary potatoes. This was followed by a shared tiramisu which was delicious.

We returned to our hotel for a nightcap in the roof top garden.