Leaving Santorini was tough, but we were looking forward to spending the next 3 weeks exploring Italy. Andrew had never been to Italy and I had only been once; 10 years ago during a stopover on a Mediterranean cruise with my family. The first city on our Italian adventure was Rome!
Luckily we were able to grab a flight directly from Santorini to Rome. Upon the hotel’s recommendation, we got to the 1-terminal airport in Santorini with plenty of time to spare, so we grabbed a quick lunch at a nearby cafe before our 2 hour flight to Rome. The airport in Rome is about 30 minutes outside of the main city, so we were able to hop on the local train, which dropped us off about 5 minutes from our hostel. As we were walking along the streets to our hostel, we weren’t too keen on the area, as it didn’t appear that there was much around, but it ended up working out since we were located close to the Metro/Train station.
Our room at the hostel had 4 beds in it and we lucked out with some great roommates for a majority of our stay. We stayed with a girl from Portland who was finishing up 7 weeks traveling abroad on her own, as well as a guy from Perth (Australia), who was finishing up 5 months traveling abroad on his own. It was great to exchange a few stories with them throughout our stay.
On our first night in Rome we decided to go get some local Italian food and then went on a mission to find what we read was one of the best gelato places in Rome. We figured both of these excursions were appropriate for our first night in Italy. The gelato place we ventured out to was called Via dei Gracchi and we thought it was pretty good. It turned out to be close to Vatican City, so we walked over and caught a great shot of St. Peter’s Basilica before it started to rain pretty hard, thus sending us home for the night.
St. Peter’s Basilica
One of the advantages of staying in this hostel was the free breakfast included with every morning of our stay. The coupon was for a coffee and pastry at a nearby cafe. We ended up going to try it out. While it was delicious, the large pastry was a bit too sweet for both Andrew and I that early in the morning, so it ended up being the only morning where we had breakfast at that cafe. As most people know, I don’t even like coffee, but figured “when in Rome” I should attempt a cappuccino. Still not a fan.
We had gone to the market the day before to pick up a few things for lunches, so we packed a lunch and headed out for the day to explore the city on our own. We spent the morning walking the streets of Rome before making it to the Trevi Fountain. I had visited this fountain years back when coming to Rome with my family, but the fountain had been drained for restoration, so I had never seen it filled with water. We managed to get some good shots of the iconic fountain and made a couple wishes as we tossed the coins into the water!
Walking along the streets of Rome…
The Trevi Fountain
We found a spot to enjoy our lunch and then ended up walking over to the Spanish Steps in Piazza di Spagna. We were told that the steps had gone through a renovation project that took place over the entire summer, and they had only opened them up to the general public a few days prior to our visit. We felt fortunate to be one of the first to check out the renovated steps!
The Spanish Steps
We then checked out a few other sites and walked along the bridge over the Tiber River.
Piazza del Popolo
Walking over the Tiber River
We had been told the Trastevere neighborhood had some great authentic Italian food, so we wanted to explore the area and find a good place for dinner. We were pretty hungry by the time we headed out to dinner, however, we ended up getting a bit held up. First we had some issues with the ATM and our banks (all good now), and then as we were walking through the station to get to the Trastevere bus, my sandal completely broke so we had to go back to our hostel so I could change shoes. Needless to say, we were both a bit “hangry” at this point, but luckily we ended up finally making it out there. We found a pretty authentic Italian restaurant that had some live entertainment and was very busy for 10pm on a Sunday evening. We were surprised at how many young kids stay out with their parents for these long dinners, even on school nights. Very different traditions here, which is always interesting to see. Dinner turned out to be very enjoyable and we headed back to our hostel shortly after since we we wanted to get some sleep before our full day tour the next day.
The next morning we had signed up for a full day tour of Rome, which was going to take us by all of the major sites in about 8 hours. We did the tour through the company Walks of Italy and it turned out to be a very good and informative tour, minus the bit of rain we got in the morning. We learned a lot of Roman history and saw some pretty incredible sites throughout the day. We spent the morning checking out the Colosseum, Forum, and the Pantheon, and even made a stop at one of the local gelateria’s for some delicious gelato. After breaking for lunch, we spent the afternoon checking out Vatican City, which for those that may be unaware, is technically a separate state that is not a part of Italy. We were able to check out the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel with our tour, and then once the tour ended we checked out St. Peter’s Basilica.
The Colosseum – Andrew’s favorite site in Rome
Our tour guide told us we were in for a treat on this day because we were able to walk in the entrance where the actual gladiators exited when they held the fights here years ago. Apparently this entrance is usually closed off, but they open it to specific tour groups on certain days, and luckily we had come on one of those days!
What used to be the actual seats in the stadium:
The “floor” of the Colosseum, which used to be underground and was where all the gladiators/prisoners were held before their fights:
Panoramic Shot inside the Colosseum
Panoramic Shot of the Roman Forum (Ancient Ruins)
The Pantheon – Church
Inside the Pantheon – Incredible dome at the top
Piazza Navona
Entrance to the Vatican Museum – Marks the point between Italy and Vatican City
We’re official!
Inside the Vatican Museum – Showcased a number of artists’ works including Raphael and Michelangelo
Hey, I recognize that paining – On our ticket! It depicts Plato and Aristotle as the central figures:
Unfortunately pictures aren’t allowed in the Sistine Chapel, but it was pretty incredible to see one of the most famous “frescoes” in the world.
Before entering St. Peter’s Basilica, we were reminded that Pope Francis (unexpectedly) had declared 2016 a holy year, so the holy door remained open at the entrance, when it is usually shut. We were able to walk through the holy door on our way into the beautiful church.
St. Peter’s Basilica
Holy Door:
Inside:
Guards outside of St. Peter’s Basilica, I told Andrew he needs to get a similar outfit:
We were pretty exhausted from our tour, but before heading back to our hostel, we stopped at a local cafe for some IPA (which Andrew was craving) and a delicious meat/cheese plate.
Overall we were able to see A LOT in a short amount of time, and loved that we bypassed all of the lines since we were part of an official tour group. We definitely recommend doing a guided tour if you come to Rome to check out the sites, as the lines get quite long. We waited about 15 minutes to get into the Vatican Museum, but the regular line to get in was about 2-3 hours long!
While we have enjoyed exploring the historic city of Rome the past few days, we are ready to head to our next city in Italy! Ciao!
Andrew + Allison Around the World 