Roma - Rome, Italy - Part 2 Fav 5 {Travel Guide}

Fav 5 {Travel Guides} are a short list of the best things I've found to do, see, eat, or drink in a particular location. This guide is for Rome, Italy. 

This Travel Guide covers my second trip to Rome. See Roma - Rome, Italy - Part 1 {Travel Guide} for even more of the Eternal City. 

Look no further for more posts about International Travel and additional Italian cities including Florence, Naples, and Palermo.

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Rome is a dream. It's the Eternal City. All roads lead to it! When in Rome, do as the Romans do, whatever that means.  

Rome feels like the center of Italy, Europe, and even the world. It's the first city we touched down in during our first big trip out of the country and a place that I will always gladly return to. ​

Just two years after Bryce and first I visited Rome we went back, again, with my parents. We weren't quite seasoned travelers but we knew enough to make the most of a few short days in the Eternal City. We had a well oiled plan for our visit including many of the historical sights, a visit with the Pope, and so SO much delicious Italian food.

What says Rome more than St. Peter's Square and the POPE?

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1. The Colosseum at Night

Bringing my parents to Rome felt like a lot of pressure! I had to make sure we had solid plans and that everyone was entertained and well fed. On our previous visit Bryce and I had been to the Colosseum during the day and were happy to return. This time we wanted to be able to walk on the platform above the arena floor! 

We found the Colosseum Underground Tour at Night which includes visits to both the Roman Forum and the colosseum at night. You get access to the arena floor (sweet!) and the underground (!!). The four of us giddily made our way to the heart of Rome on our first evening there. 

The tour is exceptional and tiptoeing around Roman monuments at night feels like super secret spy stuff! You sneak into the colosseum, in the dark, after the thousands of other visitors have left for the day. You feel like a super VIP while you walk right out onto the platform above the arena floor! Eventually you'll descend down into the unground level where the fighters and animals awaited their big moments. The underground is cool, damp, and super creepy.

Typically I laugh at the tourists in groups wearing headsets but on this particular evening I was excited to be one of them. My parents are so spoiled to have this experience as their first visit to the colosseum. I'd go back again in a heartbeat, either during the day or at night. You cannot go to Rome without visiting the colosseum!

We made it on the platform!

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2. The Food Tour

We'd hoped to take a cooking class but it didn't work well with our timing in Rome. Instead we found the morning food tour in Rome's historic center via Cook with Us in Rome.

We followed the instructions to wait in a piazza and anxiously awaited for tour to begin. We were hungry, under caffeinated, and excited!

Our guide was Julia, the sweetest and most knowledgeable human around. We gladly followed her into every nook and cranny of the outdoor market and nearby stores and restaurants. We visited a coffee shop, a pizzeria, a bakery, a gelateria, a store filled with cheese, and a meat shop with its offerings hanging from the ceiling. We enjoyed cappuccinos, cured meats, Italian pastries, Roman "walking pizza," cookies called brutti ma buoni (which means ugly but good!), gelato, so much cheese, and the most delicious fried artichokes. We saw all of the freshest produce and tasted authentic olive oil and balsamic vinegar. 

You can certainly find these things on your own but having Julia to explain the history and preparation of each to us was invaluable. It didn't hurt that she knew the owners and vendors and did all of the ordering for us, too! And yes, we were totally stuffed at the end of the tour.

The food tour began with this perfect breakfast of cappuccino and Italian pastries

The tour zigged and zagged through the market

Cookies called "brutti ma buoni" meaning ugly but good! Totally true on both accounts.

Gelato, gelato, gelato.

This fried artichoke was the best!

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3. Papal Audience

We planned our whole visit to Rome around the Wednesday Papal Audience with Pope Francis. He's known in Italy as Papa Francesco!

The Wednesday audience is held outdoors in St. Peter's Square. The brief service consists of prayers, teachings, and a blessing from the Pope which are projected on huge screens and translated from Latin into many languages, including English. 

​Tickets for this are free and the website explains exactly how to get them. (It also says you can go even without a ticket!) You can arrive up to three hours in advance of the start time to get a good seat and catch a glimpse of the Pope cruising through the audience in the Popemobile! 

We were running a little bit late on that Wednesday morning and when we jumped out of a cab and walked into St. Peter's square we immediately stole a glance of Pope Francis in the Popemobile RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! It was perfect timing and the closest we ever got to him. 

My parents and I are all products of Catholic educations so getting to see a Pope is something we are all humbled and grateful to be able to do in our lifetimes!

The whole spectacle is so well done. The crowd is respectful, the setup is perfectly laid out so you know exactly how to get in and out, and the AV ensures that everyone can hear and see what's going on. 

The Papal Audience at St. Peter's Square

We made it to see the Pope!

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4. Pantheon 

Visiting the Pantheon is a breeze! You don't need a ticket or a reservation, you basically walk right into the ANCIENT church and a slice of history. 

I don't have a vocabulary for architecture but I can understand that this building is amazing. The sun shines through a circular opening at the top of the rounded room and hits the different altars throughout each day. Everything inside is a tiny masterpiece of its own with perfect boxes in the ceiling and religious shrines and sculptures all around. 

​This is a quick visit that you can't miss! 

The Pantheon

It's AMAZING inside the Pantheon

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5. Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountain was under construction when Bryce and I first visited. We were overjoyed to see the fountain in all of it's glory when we returned again! This is another landmark with no tickets or entry fee. 

This iconic fountain is located in a very dense part of the city. You can feel the energy building as you get closer to it, before it's within your eyesight. You'll turn a few street corners then BAM - you'll see it! This can be a crowded and exciting place for visitors. We saw what we think was an adult son surprising his Mamma there. (It was a happy surprise of some sort and I definitely cried despite my uncertainty of the circumstances!) I'm sure that thousands of marriage proposals have happened here!

The legend states that if you throw coins into the fountain you will return to Rome again.  Let's hope so! 

Rome's famous Trevi Fountain

We made it back to Rome and to the Trevi Fountain

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GRAZIE AMICI (thank you, friends) for visiting Rome with me. During this unique time of Covid-19 quarantine for us in the USA, as well as Italy, I can only hope to return to Italy again. 

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