Hogwarts Express Store

There has been a new opening in Rome - a shop called The Hogwarts Express. So I, as a proud Potterhead, had the moral obligation to go and check it out.

It is situated in via della Reginella, approximately ten minutes walking from the Pantheon. Quite easy to reach. You know you're in the right place when you notice the entrance - I assure it is noticeable from afar.

I was super excited to go there! I started giggling as soon as I saw the banner.

I have to admit, I was expecting a bigger space. In fact, it is quite small for a Harry Potter store, but still enjoyable. As soon as we entered we noticed a broomstick floating - it was a Nimbus2000. I'm not sure whether you can spot it adequately in the following picture.

There were all sorts of items about the Harry Potter saga. Just like the store in King's Cross Station! They had robes for each Hogwarts' house. You can spot the Hufflepuff rob and scarf right before the entrance - the others were inside.

Let's start from the left wall - that's where we began the "tour". There were the golden trio wands - Harry's, Ron's, Hermione's - alongside with the ones of the Order of the Phoenix's members. At the bottom shelves there were Hogwarts houses' scarves - I wanted to take the Gryffindor one, but then I gave up.

Going on, there was a shelf with bottles of ButterBeer. We couldn't resist taking one. Since it wasn't exactly the cheapest thing in the world, we decided to take one bottle and share it. It was exactly like the ButterBeer I tasted during my visit at the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studios! Maybe it was a bit more liquid, but the flavour was the exact same.

The nearby shelf was full of boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. We took one of that too, we just had to! We tried them right after going out of the store - they had every imaginable and unimaginable flavour, for real. Guess who got all the disgusting beans? Me, of course. But it was funny.

Here's the proof that I'm not lying.

Going back to the store, attached to the middle wall there were robes, sweaters, hats, every sort of gadget of the Hogwarts houses - all of them, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. It looked like the section of the Studios where all the clothes were stored.

The right wall was divided in three sections. The first one had four shelves, each one full of Horcruxes. There was the cursed ring that Dumbledore wore until his death, the Slytherin locket that Dolores Umbridge used to wear, Tom Riddle's diary with the basilisk's fang stuck in it, Ravenclaw's lost diadem, and the Hufflepuff's cup. The sword of Gryffindor was missing though.

The second section shelves had all sorts of scholastic gadget - pens, pencils, notebooks, diaries, bookmarks, pencil cases. I would have probably bought everything, if only I had enough money to afford it. Especially the pens, they were carved incredibly well. In fact, I had to think thoroughly whether I really needed the Gryffindor pen or not for about ten minutes.

The last shelves held the Deatheaters' wands and all the other characters' wands too. For the whole time of our stay inside the store, I felt like I was in the Warner Bros Harry Potter Studios in Watford again. They had even put the Harry Potter movies soundtracks on. It was a magical experience, I definitely recommend it!