Roma: La Bella Vita

It was SO nice to finally have a hotel room instead of staying in a hostel with random other people that we didn’t know! And the bathroom, ahh…so nice to have a private bathroom that was big enough to MOVE around in. Its the small luxuries that make the biggest difference these days! After showering and getting ready, we headed out to explore as much of Roma as possible since we were only going to be there for two full days. After lunch at an Italian cafe, we headed directly toward the Colosseum, where we spent a little while walking around the ruins and imagining what it must have been like in its heyday. It was pretty spectacular to see in real life…

After that, we stopped by the Pantheon to take a few pictures before heading to see (and climb!) The Spanish Steps. Next, we made our way to one of the most recognizable spots in Roma: the Trevi Fountain. We tried gelato for the first time (AMAZING!) and spent some time by the fountain, soaking up the sunshine along with so many other people. It was clearly a popular spot to hang out! Maybe I’ve been putting way too much emphasis on pop culture, but I found Rome extremely exciting to see in reality because I’d seen so many of its famous sites in movies and on TV shows. haha. Lizzie McGuire Movie, When In Rome, etc….? 😉

Our next and last full day in Rome, we set out for Vatican City. We decided to take the subway to get to the Vatican, where we spent pretty much the entire day. There was SO much to see, and it was so interesting! We toured the Vatican Museum and then saw the renowned Sistine Chapel, where I slyly snapped a photo of Michelangelo’s famed fresco paintings, including “The Last Judgment.” After that, we walked over to St. Peter’s Square to visit the Basilica and climb to the top of the dome. That in itself was impressive. I found that visiting the Vatican was even more amazing than I thought it would be, and it easily became one of my favorite parts of this entire trip!

After spending the day in Vatican City, we walked to the “old town” called Trastevere for dinner, because of a recommendation by the fellow Americans who we met in Munich. Although we found the restaurant they recommended, we ended up choosing another one nearby because the recommended one only had pastas….and I was NOT leaving Italy without ordering an authentic pizza! We had an amazing dinner, and the food definitely did not disappoint. Afterwards, we continued our walk back to our hotel, stopping for some more gelato on the way there….”when in Rome,” right? 😉

We had an early morning ahead of us the next day, as we planned to take a 6:15am train to Pisa in order to see the Leaning Tower on our way to Nice, France. After a nearly four-hour train ride through Tuscany, we made it to Pisa, where we headed directly for the tower! We probably set a record for the shortest amount of time spent in Pisa, but it was worth it just to see the tower in real life! After taking the typical tourist pictures with the Leaning Tower, we hopped on a train headed for Nice. Although the train ride was anything but pleasant (think overly crowded and too warm…oh yeah, and no seats left!), we made it to Nice around 8pm. I’ll save our stay in Nice for another post, because its definitely post-worthy 🙂 

We’re headed to Madrid, Spain next, by way of Montpellier, France and Barcelona, Spain, so we have a good amount of train rides ahead of us! Next post will be from Montpellier, hopefully…as long as we can find some wifi! 😉