Scenes from Rome, Italy

MORE ITALY!!! 😉 😉 I have to be honest and tell you that Rome was not my favorite city in Italy. Coincidentally, it was the city I took the most photos in! Ha! It’s because there were TONS of pretty things in Rome, obviously, and I definitely appreciated that. Otherwise the overall feel (crowded) and mood (rude) of the city as a whole left me unimpressed. But that aside.

The first night we arrived was spent walking around and going all heart-eye-emoji over the Trevi Fountain. It’s was so big and beautiful. Then we did laundry for the rest of the night because it was halfway through our trip and we smelled bad, but why am I telling you this.

We started our first full day walking from our Airbnb to the Colosseum, which only took 20 minutes. It was a really hot day and we had to stand in line for almost 40 minutes EVEN THOUGH we had already bought tickets to get in. There are no rules in Italy. also, hashtag sunburnt. It’s fine though, I had fun trying to decipher all the languages around me. Language-listening is even more fun than people-watching, probably because no one has a chance to catch you staring 😉

The Colosseum was underwhelming to me at first, but then I started thinking about just all that had happened within the walls, and also about how stinking OLD IT IS. Like SO OLD and it’s STILL STANDING. Ok, yeah, that part was impressive.

Next we walked over to the Roman Forum, which I think was my favorite part. Yes, it was. I’m committing to it. 

I liked the Forum a lot, mostly because I like to play make believe and it was really fun for me to envision how things were back then. It helped that we had Rick Steves in our ear the entire time, explaining every last detail about the buildings and history. Not that I remember any of it now.

One random/crazy part of this day was that while we were walking to the Pantheon, the whole main street area was shut down for 5 minutes to let an American motorcade through. And from our quick Google research, we learned that Joe Biden was in Rome at the same time as us! hashtag small world i guess. (That Pantheon was beautiful if you’re wondering, but I only took photos of the horses outside).
Our second day was spent mostly within the walls of the Vatican museum. The museum itself was huge and wonderful, albeit SO CROWDED. I definitely wanted to cry / wash my hands constantly because SO MANY people and their non-existent personal bubbles. Ugh. But still. So much art to experience. I don’t have a photo of it because I was too busy staring, but I loved the map room the best. And the many mosaic floors! Yes, we saw the Sistine Chapel! It was very tiring to look at haha. But obviously stunning. 

By the time we finally escaped left the Vatican, I was done. But Nate had one more thing he knew I would like. A VIEW. I doooo love me some views. And so does he. Win win. This was it: 

So good, right??! We were on top of a castle, by the way! 

All in all, I AM glad I got to see the pretty parts of Rome, but I wouldn’t go back again. That’s probably an unpopular opinion, but.. I’m sticking to it.

Stephanie