Ciao, Roma! To wrap up our Italy trip adventure series, I am sharing the breakdown of everything we did in 3 days in Rome. Being in Rome is like stepping into a time machine and being catapulted back to the days of gladiators. You’ll just be walking down a regular street and there will be ruins of the Roman empire on the side of the road. Everything about the Roman Empire is so interesting–which by the way, apparently my husband thinks about multiple times a week (ICYMI: a TON of men think about the Roman Empire on an almost daily basis… I have no idea why). Just like Florence, I’m certain you could spend a couple months in Rome and still not see it all– but all we had was 3 days! Despite the short time line, I feel like we were able to cram in A LOT of sights and even find some hidden gems along the way.
We were coming from our two-day stop in Florence to get to Rome. We utilized the train again to get us from Santa Maria Novella station to Rome Termini in just under 2 hours. Once again, the train was so easy and comfortable! We booked all of our train tickets through Omio and I had the Omio app on my phone to make it really easy to access our train tickets.
We stayed in an area known as the Jewish Ghetto region of Rome. Instead of booking a hotel, we booked THIS apartment through Booking.com. The apartment was great and it was actually really nice to have some extra space to spread out our stuff. Plus the host of the apartment was very communicative and helpful!
The apartment was right above a little Kosher deli and adjacent to several lunch and dinner restaurants. It was so convenient to a lot of sights, bus stops, everything! Despite it being close to a lot of restaurants, we never had any issues with noise or anything. The building only has like 4 apartments in it, and we never felt unsafe in the area.
The Jewish Ghetto is super close to Tiber Island and the Trastevere area of Rome which is a really cute area to explore.
One thing that I found particularly interesting about the Jewish Ghetto is that you start to notice brass cobblestones on the streets mixed in with the regular cobblestones. We actually had one directly in front of our apartment building.
While you will find these all over Rome, they are especially common in the Jewish Ghetto. This is because the brass plaques are placed in front of the last residence of victims of the Holocaust. As the name Jewish Ghetto would imply, the area historically has a larger Jewish population, so during the Holocaust, there were Jews and other victims who were deported to concentration camps. The one in front of our building was someone who lived in the apartment below ours and was killed at Auschwitz. It’s pretty somber, but I thought it was a really lovely way for the memory of these victims to continue to live on in their home and neighborhood.
Rome is a lot more spread out than Florence, so we did have to utilize the public transportation here (we avoided taking expensive Ubers and taxis our entire trip!) which was SO easy. We never used the metro while in Rome, but the bus system couldn’t have been easier. There’s a main bus station at Rome Termini (the train station) and we were able to take a super quick bus to a stop very close to our apartment.
We arrived in Rome on day 1 around 2pm, so one we got off the train, we jumped on a bus and headed right to our apartment so we could drop off our stuff and make the most of the day!
Just steps away from our apartment was the Theatre of Marcellus and Portico d’Ottavia. This is some Roman ruins, the former being a open air theatre. When we were walking by, they were actually setting up for an outdoor concert and there was a woman playing a piano. This was the first of the Roman ruins that we came across and we just thought it was so cool that they were basically turned into a public park.
We knew we had some time to kill before our big activity of the day, so we started our wandering! Some of our favorite things that we come across when we travel are things that we just stumble upon when deciding to mindlessly wander. We decided finding gelato was a good step, so on our way, we walked past the Roman Forum. This was actually something that we didn’t buy tickets for nor did we intend to visit, but I’m glad we were able to at least walk by just to say we saw it!
Then we found some gelato at Flor. This one was really good– I think I got the tiramisu flavor.
While eating our gelato, I pulled up the maps to see what was nearby. We saw that the Basilica of San Pietro in Vincoli was pretty close, so we headed in that direction. When we walked in, there were other tourists on the wings just looking around, but we noticed that there was a lot of people in the middle of the basilica. All of a sudden, music started playing and a wedding started! It was such a cool thing to crash!
This church is really beautiful too and actually contains the Moses statue by Michelangelo. If you are nearby, it’s definitely worth checking out!
After some more wandering, we made our way to Diadema Restaurant Rione Monti to get some dinner. I got the gnocchi al gorgonzola and Garrett got a mushroom pizza. Both were really good and their outdoor patio was so nice.
Naturally, we had to finish the meal by pre-gaming with some limoncello.
What did we have to pregame for, you ask? A nighttime Colosseum tour! Spoiler alert: I didn’t have my Lizzie McGuire moment at the Colosseum 🙁
This is the specific one we booked:
It was a really awesome way to see the Colosseum. Not only is it going to be less crowded, but seeing it lit up at night was cool. It is a guided tour, which I think is the best way to go. You will learn so much more about it that way, rather than just going without any information. We did a few other things during our trip without a guide, and we ended up just having so many questions and wishing we had more information. The Colosseum is so special, that you will not regret paying for a guide!
On our second day, we did have the totally un-fun activity of having to take a bus back to the train station, then taking a train to the Rome airport and back in order to pick up Garrett’s lost bag! What should have only taken us a couple hours ended up taking 4 HOURS, but we got it and decided we were going to cram the day full of as much stuff as we could to turn the day around.
We had a list of tourist attractions that we wanted to go to, but knew that we would probably deviate to see anything that looked interesting along the way! First thing we did was go to the Pantheon which had an insane line. We decided that we would try to come back to the Pantheon later in the day in hopes that the line would die down (hint: it did!).
On our way from the Pantheon to Navona Square, we came across the Church of St. Louis the French, so we decided to pop in. Like most of the cathedrals in Italy, it’s really stunning and beautiful to witness!
This is a popular square for tourists to visit because it has some significant fountains and statues in it. Plus, the square was built on the remains of the Stadium of Domitian which was a 1st century stadium built by the ancient Romans.
Adjacent to Navona square is another cathedral: Chiesa Sant-Agnese in Agone.
This is a really beautiful church and definitely worth checking out if you are stopping by Navona Square. When we visited, they were holding mass, so that was cool to witness!
By this point we had worked up an appetite and found ourselves at Elle Effe. This place ended up being super good! I got lasagna and Garrett got cacio e pepe and I highly recommend both.
Obviously a big priority in turning the day around was getting gelato at Giolitti! Giolitti is supposedly the oldest gelato shop in Rome and so there tends to be a LONG line! The line moves pretty fast though and it’s a little chaotic at the ordering counter, but the gelato makes it worth it! I got the Italian Opera flavor and the caramelized fig. HIGHLY recommend the Italian Opera one! I think it is a mixture of nuts (pistachio, almond, hazelnut, and pine nuts).
This was another place that we just stumbled into because it was near Giolitti. The Temple of Hadrian was an ancient Roman temple dedicated to emperor Hadrian built in 145 AD. It is actually now the building for the Italian stock exchange! It’s completely free to go inside, and while there’s not a ton to see, there is an informational video inside to watch if you want to learn more!
No trip to Rome is complete without making a wish in the Trevi fountain! This place gets pretty packed but if you go REALLY early in the morning, it won’t be so bad!
If we weren’t tired enough by this point, we decided why not climb the 135 Spanish Steps?! Was I about to collapse from exhaustion by this point? Yes. Were the views absolutely worth it? Yes.
At the top of the Spanish steps is Trinita dei Monti. Just like all of the other basilicas, this one is stunning, and if you’re planning on climbing the Spanish steps anyway, be sure to pop inside to check it out!
This one is a minor basilica but one that we just happened to walk by and figured we would pop in. There was zero crowd here which is always nice!
Finally we made it to the Pantheon! Here’s a tip– the lines for the Pantheon are going to be the worst when they first open and through lunch time. If you want to get a shorter line, you should either get in line 30 minutes before it opens or go about 45 minutes-1 hour before closing. If you go before closing, just know that you likely won’t be able to rent the audio tour (that was the issue we had), but the line was so much shorter and went so fast that it made it worth it!
The Pantheon used to be free admission and in just the last couple of months, they started requiring 5 euros per person admission. BUT! If you go on the first Sunday of the month (which we did!) it is free! This is one of the best preserved ancient Roman structures because it was turned into catholic church in the 6th century.
It was one of our favorite things we visited in Rome, it definitely needs to be on your list to visit!
By this point, we had crossed the River Tiber and were looking around the very small Tiber Island. There’s not much here but there is another minor Basilica on the island worth checking out!
We worked up the biggest appetite and had some amazing pizza and supplì at a place called Dar Poeta in Trastevere. This place was recommended to us by friends.
Supplì is similar to arancini but the difference being that supplì generally has tomato sauce in it. We got 2– one traditional supplì and one supplì cacio e pepe (which had no tomato sauce).
But obviously the pizza is the star of the show! This was the best pizza we had in Italy!
Then we had to finish off our BUSY day with cannolis and the best gelato we had out entire trip! This cannoli was also to die for. Have you seen a happier person eating a cannoli before? 😉
Today was a big day, so we started it off with an americano and some pastries from Antico Forno Roscioli. This place is really popular for pastries and later in the afternoon we saw a pretty long line for it. Highly recommend this place!
This was our favorite part of our trip which was visit the Vatican. Garrett and I are Christian, but we are not Catholic. That being said, I cannot imagine what it is like to visit the Vatican as a Catholic, because [despite being non-Catholic], Garrett and I were so in awe and so moved by the whole experience. If you are going to invest the money in ONE thing to do skip-the-line and a tour, it NEEDS to be the Vatican. The lines alone at the Vatican will take you all day. Especially if you are like us and only doing a few days in Rome, doing a guide and skip-the-line will really make the most of your time and energy so that you can get the most from the experience. Plus, once you get into the museum, there’s just SO much to see that having a tour guide explain and show you the important stuff really will make the experience so much more enjoyable. This is the exact tour we booked and our guide was great:
The tour starts in the Vatican museum which is actually the largest museum in the world. And believe me, it definitely feels like it. You could spend all day here, but having a guide is really invaluable. The museum is really cool because it has a ton of artifacts, but especially ancient Roman artifacts. Basically, when the Vatican was built, all of the statues and decor from the ancient Roman empire was removed from places like the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, and moved to the Vatican to decorate it!
We then went to the Sistine Chapel which is really incredible and I could have spent an hour staring at everything. Before we entered the Sistine Chapel, our guide explained everything about it, including what everything means, the history surrounding it, the different parts, the symbolism, etc. Once you get into the Sistine Chapel, you cannot talk or take any pictures, so it was important for her to explain everything to us before. In a way, I preferred this though because its so intricate that it would have been tough to take in everything our guide was saying and take in everything about the ceiling and the Last Judgement painting at the same time.
Lastly, our tour concluded at Saint Peters Basilica. This was by far the best part. No one prepared me for how amazing it would be and all of the detail. Especially compared to the multiple other basilicas we had visited earlier in the week.
We have friends who visited the Vatican a few years ago and they didn’t pay for skip-the-line or a tour, and they didn’t even get to see St. Peter’s Basilica because the museum, the Sistine Chapel, security, and waiting in line took them ALL day. The museum is amazing. The Vatican museum is the largest museum in the world and it took our breath away. The Sistine chapel is incredible. But St. Peter’s is so beyond anything I expected. Garrett and I were completely speechless at it. It was our absolute favorite thing we visited in Italy– words and pictures really cannot even capture it.
One of the real perks of doing a tour with skip-the-line is that you can do everything at the Vatican in about 3-4 hours. Obviously, you could spend longer there and try to see every single thing in the museum, but when you are only in Rome for a few days, doing a tour in the morning gives you time to do other stuff with the second half of your day!
We stopped for lunch at Hostaria Farnese as it was recommended on a guide that Garrett had read before coming to Italy. This place did NOT disappoint! This was some of the best pasta I had in Italy. I had the bucatini all’amatriciana. And the bruschetta al pomodoro was out of this world too.
Because the gelato at Fiordiluna was the best we had– we just had to come back for our last day in Rome!
While in Trastevere for gelato, we visited Basilica of Our Lady in Trastevere. This basilica obviously was a tough act to follow after we visited St. Peters just a few hours prior, but the mosaic work in this church was really incredible. All of that art in the dome and above the altar is mosaic. So impressive!
Lastly, this place is not necessarily a recommendation, but I am mostly sharing because this photo is just too funny not to. By this point in our trip, I was in desperate need of a vegetable and I told Garrett that I was just craving a good salad. We found this place near us with a bunch of different salads. I ordered one with prosciutto and this is what is looked like HAHA
It looked like just a mound of prosciutto and you can hardly see the vegetables below it lol
It was a fine salad, but we were just cracking up at how ridiculous it looked!
Last day in Rome before heading back to Milan! We stopped at Bar del Cappuccino before heading to the train station, and MAN we wished we had been coming here all along! Their coffee and pastries were some of the cheapest we had found but also some of the best. Rome isn’t cheap, but this place was a real bargain!
That’s a wrap on our Rome journey! This was one of our favorite trips we have done together and are so thankful for the opportunity to visit Italy.
PS. If you purchase anything or book anything through my links, I may earn a small affiliate commission at NO cost to you 🙂
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