Our four (really, three) days in Rome!

It’s hard to believe, but we had gotten to the end of six whole weeks in Italy and were capping it off in Rome. I actually had planned to go to Rome back when I ended up going to Capri instead, so I was excited to see the city. Just to warn you, since it was our first time in Rome, we definitely did all the touristy things.

Day 0: Chillaxing and relaxing

We got to Rome quite late after stopping by the Saturnia thermal baths (and had a beautiful view driving in) and checked into the apartment we had booked. We realized pretty quickly that even though the place had listed that it had air conditioning, it barely worked, and Rome was really hot (read: 100+ degrees Fahrenheit). But it was late and we were sleepy, so we settled in for the night and decided to deal with it in the morning.

In the morning the situation wasn’t much better so we made a game-time decision to head to a hotel. We’ve been really enjoying staying in apartments and having a kitchen and all that, but I just needed to be in a place with good air conditioning, strong wifi and people who would fix things that weren’t working. We moved to the Westin and spent our first full day just relaxing, watching Netflix and having some much-needed downtime. We’ll just call that day 0 in Rome J

Day 1: Spanish Steps, a little shopping and a bunch of wandering

After a rest day we were ready to start exploring Rome! We took the first day pretty easy, just wandering around, doing some shopping and hitting up a few of the tourist spots.

Our first stop was the Spanish Steps. We decided to walk from our hotel, which was only about 15 minutes away, and man, was it hot! So we decided to stop on the way and get some lunch. We ate at a panini place called Gina, which was so good. I wish I could eat that chicken and pesto panini every day. I didn’t get a picture of my sandwich but I did get one of the cute water bottle they gave us!

We then headed to the Spanish Steps. The Spanish Steps are located at the Piazza di Spagna and were built in the 1700s to lead up to a French church in Rome. We wandered over there because we thought “When in Rome…”, but aside from being a cute Italian piazza, with a cute fountain, I’m not sure what all the hoo-ha is about for the Spanish Steps. Also, it was very crowded (which is the theme of this blog post).

After the Spanish Steps we basically just wandered around and did some shopping on Via del Corso. We needed to replenish some things (a shrunken workout shirt, undies) and also got a bathing suit for Damian!

Day 2: Vatican, Pantheon and Trevi Fountain

Our sightseeing picked up quite a bit on our second Rome day! First on our agenda was visiting the Vatican. The key to this was buying tickets in advance. We actually bought our tickets more than a week in advance (which is a rarity for us) and bought a guided tour directly through the Vatican’s ticket office so we could have a specific time to get in without waiting in the (2+ hour!) line. You can buy reserved tickets without the guided tour, but thought this was a good place to learn things.

The Vatican is its own sovereign state but is only 0.44 square kilometers! We showed up a little after noon, had a snack and headed in. The tour starts with the guide showing you a poster of the Sistine Chapel and what to look for when you are in there (the guides don’t enter with you because it is supposed to be a quiet and sacred space) and then you go through the Vatican Museum, ending in the Sistine Chapel.

This place was insane crowded. Just hordes of people everywhere and no time or space to stop and look at things because you had to keep moving along. It was neat to see but I’m sure we would have appreciated it more in the off season. Here’s an area outside of the museum (but where you still had to have tickets to enter) and it basically was shoulder-to-shoulder people.

We toured through a number of different galleries and the artwork and detail were stunning. It’s amazing how much religion can inspire people to make beautiful things (I’m not saying this facetiously). The two coolest things were (1) seeing the apartments of previous Popes and imagining them hosting world leaders in the rooms and (2) walking down a hallway with intricate ceilings and huge world maps on the walls (you can see them on the edge of the last photo below) – the maps were made in the 16^th century by sailing and lookout points and all that, and they are accurate to a T to the ones made today. Pretty neat!

Then, we finally got to the Sistine Chapel! The guides don’t go in here with you because it is supposed to be a quiet place of reflection, with no talking and no photos. Well, it was super loud and so I decided to take some photos (sans flash of course, I’m not a total monster)! It is pretty amazing what Michelangelo created – and this was after he initially rejected the Pope’s request because he didn’t know how to paint! It was really neat to see a piece that is so revered and important in religious history.

And then, friends, this is where I made a grave mistake. Our guide told us that at the end of the Sistine Chapel we should exit right so that we could see St. Peter’s Basilica without having to wait in line. I’m the idiot that took us left, making us wind all the way through the museum, out the exit and then to the outside of St. Peter’s Basilica. Where there was a two-hour line. We decided to skip waiting for it but I still feel like a moron about it today. We will just have to make it happen next time. We did get to see the cool guards standing outside though! #travelfail

We decided to take a quick pizza break and then headed to our next stop – the Pantheon. The Pantheon is a temple that is 2,000 years old (from 27 BC), but was taken over and turned into a church in the year 120 AD. It is free to enter and built as a huge dome with a hole in the top for light to enter. It is a stunning feat of engineering and it was fun to just look up and marvel at it.

And then, our final spot for the day was the Trevi Fountain! This fountain was built in the 1700s and the legend is if you throw a coin into the fountain you will return to Rome again one day (about 3,000 euros worth of coins are thrown in each day – the money goes to charity!).

We weren’t expecting much of this fountain, as it is another big tourist spot, but when we saw it we were in awe! It was one of the few moments on this trip where we just had to stop and take it in. It’s much bigger than we anticipated it being and has beautiful intricate work in and around it. We really enjoyed our time here (but dang was it crowded)!

After this long day we strolled home to our hotel through the cute streets of Rome, took showers and rested our little feets. We both were tired and ready for bed. And, it seemed that Damian was getting sick, since he wanted to nap and rest, which he never does!

Day 3: Colosseum and Tiber River

We were really excited to see the Colosseum! It is such an iconic piece of Rome history, and our time at the Colosseum was our favorite part of visiting Rome. We also decided to get tickets to this about a week in advance, as if you want a reserved time to enter before 2pm (and not to have to wait in line), you need to do a tour. In addition, we wanted to be able to go all the way up to the 4^th and 5^th levels of the Colosseum, which you can only do with a tour.

There is another tour where you can go down underneath the Colosseum as well, but those sell out weeks and months in advance (basically as soon as they go on sale), so we weren’t able to get those. But it’s ok, as soon as we walked up to this crazy structure that was built two thousand years ago, we were in awe.

Rome’s Colosseum was finished in 80 AD and was built to hold 50,000 people to watch gladiators fight each other and animals (though it is possible that, with “standing room only” situations up to 80,000 or even 100,000 people may have fit in). It was really awesome to have a tour (as opposed to just seeing it ourselves) to understand more context and history about the place.

If you look at the picture below at the far end you can see a reconstruction of the stage. That stage would have covered all the area below it and animals, fighters, props, stage sets, etc. were stored underneath and came up through openings in the floor. I would not want to be caught near the tigers when they were being moved!

Also, apparently the rumor is that for one of the very first shows they filled the whole bottom area with water and had a water show (they couldn’t do it again later because too many of the elements were made of wood). It’s like it was the original Cirque de Soleil O show!

Then, on the rings there were marble seats going all the way around for spectators to sit and watch (all the marble has been plundered since). As you went higher the classes of people were lower and lower, until you got to the 5^th level, which was reserved for the plebes and … women (insert eye roll here). The floor itself was covered in sand to soak up the blood of human and animal competitors and there was a canvas-like cloth that was strung across the entire top of the Colosseum to help block out the sun.

Getting to go on the tour to the upper levels was really neat too because we got some beautiful views from the higher viewpoints – both inside and outside the Colosseum (including looking down into the Roman Forum!)

After the tour we had some silly fun in some of the Colosseum’s corridors as well. I mean, what fun is a sports arena if you can’t practice some of your gymnastics?

We left the Colosseum excited, tired and hot. We actually watched the Gladiator movie a couple days later just to be able to bring our tour to life and we would totally recommend that to everyone! It’s an epic length but it was so fun to see it right after learning about all the things.

We decided to take a quick stroll down to the Tiber River, which was super cute (and also flowing really fast). We tried to go to the optical illusion at the Palazzo Spada, but it was closed on Monday, so we had to miss it! And then we took the bus back to our hotel and just rested and relaxed. Damian was feeling especially ill so he slept basically from the late afternoon until the next morning while I packed up and got us ready to move onto Croatia!

Rome wrap-up

There is so much more we could have done in in Rome – both touristy and non-touristy. But with Damian getting ill and me needing downtime, we’re happy with how we spent our time there. I’m guessing we will back again someday and we’ll be excited to more exploring when that time comes!

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Read more about our time in Italy using the links below:

• Italy Country Recap – What we loved (and didn’t love) in our six weeks there
• Italy – The plan for our six weeks here
• Italy – Visiting Pisa – the Leaning Tower and the Luminara festival
• Italy – Our day in Lucca
• Italy – Life on an agriturismo in Italy Part 1: Montecarlo (Tuscany)
• Italy – Four days in Bologna
• Italy – Life on an agriturismo in Italy Part 2: a vineyard in the Chianti region (Tuscany)
• Italy – Wineries and wine tasting in Chianti
• Italy – One day in Siena!
• Italy – Life on an agriturismo in Italy Part 3: Emilia Romagna
• Italy – Parmigiano Reggiano cheese factory and Balsamic Vinegar producer tours
• Italy – Hiking Cinque Terre
• Italy – Our three days in Florence
• Italy – Brunello wine tasting and visiting thermal baths
• Italy – Our three days in Rome (you are here!)