Roaming Rome

We couldn't have chosen a better place to start our 10-day journey than Rome. Not only is it an exciting, beautiful, classic Italian city, but it's also so jam-packed with things to do and places to see that there's no way we could have survived if we placed this city at the end of our trip.

To be honest, we did so much in Rome over three days that it's a little hard to go into extreme detail of this unique and inspiring city. But I'll give it my best...

One of our favorite things to do in between visiting places like the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps and the Circus Maximus (old chariot racing stadium), was simply just wander around Rome. This is a historic tour in itself without even trying. One of the coolest, most unique things about Rome is the fact that you can take a stroll down a boardwalk with bustling people and street artists playing the electric guitar and suddenly stumble upon ruins that date back to 100 BC. Rome is literally built around ruins from a completely different era; it gives off the vibe of a fun, modern city mixed in with beautiful and extraordinary history.

Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon is still one of the best-perserved ancient Roman buildings and is the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome.

I really don't have too much to say about the Spanish steps except that they are at the start of a really great shopping street...Oh and they remind me of a scene in the Lizzie McGuire movie.

I was so glad I wore my gladiator shoes on this day. This is me just casually sitting on the old chariot racing grounds, where over 150,000 spectators used to come to cheer on the races.

We also liked wandering around because it not only led us to cool ruins, but also really good food...Probably no surprise to anyone, but on almost every street corner in Italy you can find a pizzeria or gelato shop. Let's just say we took full advantage...

Unlike a few other cities in Europe where you go to blend in, eat at the small local places and "do as the locals do," in Rome, you're doing yourself a disfavor if you don't go into full tourist mode. By this I mean take advantage of every gelato and tourist attraction that the city has to offer. You can't leave Rome without visiting the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel, walking through the forum and going to the Coliseum.

After we awkwardly stumbled around the embarrassing question if we needed our passports or not to get into the Vatican (FYI, you don't...), we finally made it into the Vatican through crowds of people. This little country in Rome has more tourists walking around than its own citizens (a little over 800 people).

But what was even more crowded than the Vatican itself? The Sistine Chapel. This photo is not of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, but of one of the gorgeous hallways leading up to it. Walking through a sea of 100 people in every room is worth finally arriving at the Sistine. Trust me.

This is what I'm talking about when I mention stumbling upon old ancient ruins in the middle of the city. The Forum seems to pop out of no where as you're walking down a busy street in Rome.

It's amazing to walk through the remains of an entirely different culture.

The Coliseum=best blood bath arena I've seen yet=very, very, very, very BIG.

See what I mean?

What's cooler than the Coliseum? The Coliseum at night.

Now you're probably wondering, "Why hasn't she mentioned anything about the Trevi Fountain? I mean isn't that one of the biggest landmarks in Rome?"

Yes, it is. And that's why we were super disappointed to discover that the Trevi was under complete construction while we were there, and has been for about three years. When I say construction, I mean there's literally no water in the fountain. Nothing. I actually saw someone try to throw a coin in and could hear the cling at the bottom of the concrete pit.

But hey, we went, we saw and we got to save our coin for some extra gelato later that day.

Us at the Trevi Construction.

On our last night in Rome, with blisters on our feet and five different worn-out maps stuffed in our purses, we went out to dinner with a few people we met from our hostel (or the hostel associated with ours). As we ate our pizza and sipped on red wine, we talked about how Rome is such a stunning and breathtaking city with so much history. Normally three days is more than enough in one city, but we all agreed that we could hang out in Rome for at least another week.

However, as much as we wanted to stay, we were also super excited for our next move: Naples, Italy!

#travel