Weekend Getaway to Rome, Italy

Hard to believe it has been two weeks already since we spent a weekend in Rome! I tell ya, I was having lunch with a friend right before we took off for this vacation and were discussing our plans for the upcoming week and when the words "Oh, ya know just going to spend the weekend in Rome" came out of my mouth we both looked at each other and just took a minute to take in the fact that this is our life. We are lucky enough to get to live this dream.

Anyway, enough gushing...our weekend in Rome!

To see all about what we packed for the trip click here.
To see what we ate while we were in Rome click here.

We started off by planning with our friends we were meeting there. We booked a rental on Airbnb, we booked this particular location: Coliseum Artistic Home. The owner, Luis, was fantastic. He booked a car to pick us up from the airport which was a few dollars cheaper than a cab, and when we arrived he had laid out chocolate and champagne for our friends who were on their honeymoon. The place was exactly as we had expected we just had one less large towel, so it is a good thing I am small and took the smallest towel. The other thing was the 2nd bed was actually a trundle bed so that meant each night one couple had to sleep on separate beds...weird, but definitely not a vacation ruiner. All-in-all everything was as we wanted it to be...close to all the major sites and a lot of good food and wine ;)

Day 1

Arrived and changed, then headed out to check out some ruins. The first thing we saw was the Roman Forum.

Man, those columns!

Next we went on to walk by the monument with the fallen soldier.

I always try to grab a photo or two of the local flag of where we are visiting. Here you can see the Italian flag.

This is the monument which houses the Unknown or fallen soldier. It is guarded 24/7..It is funny though because during the day the soldiers are very stoic, but when we walked by late one night (after midnight) you could tell the guards were chatting and moving around a bit. When they saw us they stopped, but it was very cute.

Next we moved on to this area. I didn't write down the name of these ruins, but someone mentioned they believe this may be where Caesar was murdered....I can't be 100% but of the research I've done it looks like archaeologists believe this was it. Pretty amazing to think of the history that happened in this very spot.

After that we needed something a little less serious and we grabbed some food to go and a bottle of wine and sat in Piazza Navona for a little lunch.

This is Fiumi Fountain...or Fountain of the Four Rivers. We were lucky enough to gaze upon as we ate and caught up with our friends.

As we wanted to make our way to The Vatican we passed by the Pantheon.

This was hilarious...I took a few panoramic photos while there and our one friend kept saying, "Oh watch out, Kate is spinnin' again!" hahaha

This altar was stunning! When we go back I want to attend a mass here.

This was a place to light candles. It was right next to the altar of Jesus Christ. I am pretty sure this thing hasn't been dusted since the beginning of time lol The picture totally does it justice too, in fact I think the picture actually highlights all that dust. Do they not dust the Pantheon?

We then made our way over to The Vatican.

We just walked around the plaza outside. The line was ridiculously long and it was too hot to think about changing to pants and a sleeved shirt. I did think the stations of the cross along the tops of the buildings were amazing though. Very well done.

After the Vatican we walked over to an area that is really high up...it is quite a hike, especially when you are tired...but we did it and we had some time to relax and managed to see a sunset.

I think this sunset was probably one of the best parts of the trip. Just relaxing and enjoying the city as it cooled off. There were a lot of people up there so if you just stepped back and weren't too concerned about getting photos it was very romantic.

We ended our day looking around and finding a fairly cheap place for dinner. It wasn't very good but we got to sit down so that is what mattered most to us! ha! When I say we covered the entire city that day I kid you not. Take a look at the city map and go East/West then South/North and that is where we walked. We were exhausted. 

Day 2

Since this was our last full day we were up {fiarly} early. We got dressed and went for coffee.

The coffee bar's here are definitely exciting. I could never have coffee that way every morning, but it was a fun experience going up to the bar and downing your coffee. I did have a stomach ache after though because drinking a latte fairly quickly is not the way to go haha But, it was fun watching the guys behind the counters pull the espresso and work in such a fast paced environment and keep everything organized.

After a delicious breakfast we had tickets to a tour of the Coliseum. If you spend money anywhere in Rome this is the tour I recommend you get. We were able to get access to areas you won't get to with just a basic ticket. We were able to go underground and see where they kept prisoners and whatnot. Very interesting. I just wish our tour guide spoke better English. Well, I shouldn't say that her English language skills were very good, but her accent was so thick it was impossible to understand her. We saw many other tour guides who were better though so we sadly just got the worst of the bunch.

The views from the top of the coliseum were amazing. It was such an amazing thing to be standing in the midst of all that history.

After the Coliseum we walked over to some other ruins that our ticket was good for and checked those out.

Horse training grounds.

Stairs to...

This thing of water...which was below...

This giant plant holder.

I forget who had lived here, some ruling body of some type. It wasn't quite as old as many of the other ruins, but old enough to be impressive!

After this we walked home, grabbed some wine and got ready for a night out.

This is the only picture I have from the night. We walked over to a less touristy area for dinner. We walked along the river and over a bridge and passed this amazing building along the way...NOT the Coliseum believe it or not totally looks like it though!

So, that is the recap of our trip to Rome! We had such a wonderful time. Now I need to run off and plan our next adventure!

Have you been to Rome? If so, what was your favorite part?