We Missed the Colosseum... Does Our Trip to Rome Even Count?

Rome... not for the ill-prepared! (like us)

October 22, 2018

Tomorrow morning, we leave Italy… time has been flying! Rome has been a super cool city with tons of exciting sites to explore. Our apartment here had a gorgeous terrace overlooking the Vatican and Rome!

On our first day, we started wandering around and passed by iconic sites like the Trevi Fountain, Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and more. The next day, we ventured into an older neighborhood called Trastevere and enjoyed a great pasta lunch! Unfortunately it took a while, so that’s pretty much all we did that day.

The following day, we decided to visit the Pantheon, and it was absolutely stunning! The level of detail in its architecture was mind-blowing. Then, on another day, we stumbled upon a site with ruins of a massive bathhouse that wasn’t crowded with tourists! In between our planned site visits, we wandered the city and discovered so many little historic sites scattered throughout the city.

Rome caught us a little off guard with the level of preparation required to visit though. It’s incredibly busy here… we couldn’t imagine being here during peak season. We tried booking tickets to see the Vatican (waiting in long lines isn’t our thing), but they sold out as I was entering my card information. So, we spent a Saturday leisurely exploring and reserved a nice dinner, and enjoyed some quality time together.

On Sunday, we initially planned a day trip to Florence but found out that reasonably priced high-speed train tickets required a Eurail pass. So, we spent most of Sunday enjoying wine and pasta while relaxing. (Did I mention how exhausting constant traveling can be? 😂)

Today, Monday, we had tickets to visit the Roman Forum, Colosseum, and Palatine Hill. However, the train that had been reliable all week took twice as long this morning, causing us to miss our ticket’s time slot and miss out on the visit. 🙄

So we did not even get to see the colosseum!!!

Rome has been fascinating, but it left us with mixed feelings. I’ll definitely be back to Italy one day; it’s beautiful and super interesting… but Rome wouldn’t be my first pick! (Or… maybe it would! I really feel as though we missed out on the best of it!)

Maybe it was just our lack of preparation and experience!

Sorry if this post feels a bit scattered… I’m pretty scatterbrained right now trying to recall this week and prepare for our flight tomorrow!

I can’t believe we’re nearly done with our Europe trip!!!