The Eternal City.

We rented an apartment about 3 blocks from The Colosseum. We couldn’t get enough of sticking our heads as far out of the window as we could whenever we were there to take a look at this beauty!

While in Rome we’d planned to see as many fountains as we lucked up on, eat, explore Vatican City, eat, walk from one end of the city to the other and eat.

Although Rome has a public transportation and metro system, our AirBnb host Bruno told us that we would be better off walking as the buses are not regular outside of tourist season and the metro is not complete. He told us that every time they go to finish one metro line, they find ruins that halts the project.

Everything we had to eat in Rome was delicious. We tend to try our best to avoid touristy areas but most of Rome seemed touristy to us. Touristy isn’t always bad but we were definitely concerned about getting an authentic Italian meal. We learned quickly that that was unlikely in this big city – better luck next time in the smaller cities and less traveled Italian destinations.

The Vatican Museum tour was great. And exhausting. We learned so much (with audio guides, of course). There is so much to see in the museum which eventually led to the Sistine Chapel. We didn’t take any photos of the chapel just because we were too busy gawking. It’s definitely something to behold and worth spending significant time in. We chose the earliest tour we could get and avoided the long line that was already circling around the building before 8am.

Because our museum tour as so early, we also got a chance to see St. Peter’s Square and Cathedral basically empty. It was so serene and beautiful. Again, no pictures of the inside as we were told this wasn’t allowed. I am also super sensitive to respecting religious places and monuments even though it seemed like everyone else was taking photos of the inside. If I’m being candid, the inside of this cathedral is intense. I didn’t see all of Rome but it’s easily the most over-the-top place we visited in Italy. By far. Everyone should experience it.

We walked an average of 6 miles a day when in Rome. And when you eat as much as we did, walking that much can only be a good thing! We loved Rome but not as much as Venice. I look forward to returning to Rome some day as well as exploring more of Italy. I also didn’t get to go nearly as many museums and parks as I would have liked or saw any of my favorite Italian artist’s work – Caravaggio.

We will return to Italy one day, Rome in particular. Sometimes you visit a place and just know that you’re going to visit again some day.

Have you ever been to Rome? Tell me your experience and thoughts in the comments!