Rome: Day One

Rome Itinerary/Tips and Tricks

9:00: Breakfast

11:00 Colisseum

12:00 Lunch

2:30 Vatican/Sistine Chapel Group Tour

7:00 Dinner

9:00 Explore Your Area

 

I decided to go on a last minute trip to Rome with one of my friends.  As I've explained before, I have a love/hate relationship with Italy and after my last trip to Milan two months ago, I was more on the hate side.  I guess hate is a strong word.  I didn't hate Milan by any means but I also didn't love it. I decided to go to Rome if anything for the food and to maybe get back some of that love I needed to feel for Italy. 

Here is a basic itinerary of what I did in Rome on day one. Keeping in mind that I only really spent two days there because the other two days were spent traveling back home to Germany.

Roma Pass

The first thing we did was go to the train station (though you can find Roma passes everywhere) and purchase a Roma Pass. This is the first city pass I'd ever bought but I figured Rome was a good time to try it because we had a lot of ground to cover and I knew I'd be using a lot of public transportation.  The Roma Pass can either be for 48 hours or 3 days.  If you pick the 48 hour pass you get entrance into one free museum with discounts on tons of sights.  The three day pass entitles you to 2 free museums and both offer free transit on buses, trams, and trains.  Our method of transit was bus.  We used the bus to get everywhere and this seemed to work fine, except for the fact that they can be extremely crowded to the point where people are packed like sardines and sweating even in the middle of October.  That aside, the bus was an alright method of transportation. What we didn't factor in was that we bought the passes on a Saturday and the buses were free on Sunday, then we left the next day so we probably could have done without the full 3 day pass.  If you'd like to book the Roma Pass, you can do so on site or here.

 

The Walk to the Colisseum 

Our room was located on Via Merulan which was great because it was located near the Termini (main train station) and the Colisseum.  We headed towards the Colosseum by foot, along the way snapping all the pictures below.  What's amazing about Rome is that you feel like you have stepped into another world.  There are so many ruins, castles, churches, and historical monuments that you could visit attractions in Rome for months.  There was a ton to do and see.  All of the architecture, though Roman, is built during different time periods using different styles. It's a sight to be seen.  And if you notice all of the naked statues everywhere, they have little fig leaves covering their parts.  But if you actually look from a different angle you can see that many of these leaves were added later.

The Colosseum

We got to the Colosseum around 11:00.  The city even in mid October was packed.  There were tourists everywhere, I mean everywhere.  And then people trying to sell you these weird selfie devices to use with your iPhone and honestly I cringed at the people using them. 

Though the line to get in the Colosseum was packed, we had our Roma Pass and not only did it entitle us free entrance, but also we got to skip right ahead of the line.  That right there made the whole pass worth it.  We opted not to do a guided tour or hear and audio guide and just walk around the Colosseum instead.  It's mind boggling to be there and imagine all of the bloody battles between men and even animals that went on. Now, the floor has been destroyed but you can see the underground area where men and animals were held before a fight.  Only an hour is needed to see this sight and afterwards we stopped at a nearby restaurant for lunch.

The Vatican and Sistine Chapel
The Vatican and Sistine Chapel was luckily something we had booked in advance.  We booked a guided tour that included both the Vatican and Sistine Chapel.  The cheapest tickets I could find for that tour were here. I'm so glad we booked in advance because the line to buy a ticket was wrapped around the corner and hundreds of people were waiting in line.

We still had to wait in a small line to turn our vouchers in for tickets and wait for the tour to start, but if we would have had to wait in that line then forget about it.  I feel like the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel are must-sees in Rome, but if I am being honest, I did not enjoy my tour.  I don't know what it was about mid October, but the place was packed.  I'm talking shoulder to shoulder packed, even though we reserved a tour.  You had earpieces to hear the speaker and and she held up a scarf, but honestly there was no room to see anything because swarms of people were just pushing by.  The tour guide was way ahead at times and the audio would cut out.  I started feeling hot and claustrophic.  I couldn't believe how many tours they were letting in at once, it was a nightmare.

Then you get to the Sistine Chapel and it's nothing like I expected in a bad way.  There were tons of people in the church, you couldn't take pictures and the image everyone has in their heads of Michaelangelo's The Creation of Adam or touching hands scene is so hard to see.  Nothing like the amazing experience I had seeing Da Vinci's "Last Supper."  But to its credit, maybe I would have liked it if it wasn't packed like a high school gymnasium.  The tour can potentially take 3 hours, depending on how long you want to spend at the end looking at the contemporary art.  At that point, I had already had enough and wanted out.

Dinner in Rome

Around 7 we decided to have a nice dinner.  Italy knows how to do pasta and pizza and wine, so that was all on the menu.  At the end of the day, I can't deny how good the food is in Italy and Rome was no exception. Then we decided to walk around a bit to explore things at night before resting for the next day.

I'm curious, have you been to the Vatican?  What was your experience?

And stay tuned for Rome: Day Two where I explore Castel Angelo, The Catacombs, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and eat more deliscious Italian food!

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