Hello fellow budget hunters
This is the start of a new series I’m about to do – this will be based on what we saw during our 72 hours in the city of Rome.
Day 1
Arrival, hopefully in the morning or the night before. Our first day was a Sunday which limited which churches we could visit but we couldn’t decide whether to go to the Pope’s address or the Colosseum. Eventually, our lack of religion made the choice and we joined the long queues. If you are a more prepared traveller, you would have bought your tickets online but as we were under 25s we wanted our reduced fares. It was 7 euros each and we bought one audio tour for 5.50.
You can easily spend an hour to 90 minutes inside the colosseum but there is a maximum capacity – which was the reason for our long queues so I felt after that amount of time it was time to leave. For us, we decided to find some lunch and had a menu for 10 euro lunch around a 15 minute walk from the Colosseum as nearby restaurants are very touristy.
After lunch we visited the Roman Forum and the Palatino – which are included in your ticket. From there we explored other ruins and nearby buildings. Including Napoleon’s Mum’s house (one of my favourite random attractions) and an eternal flame guarded by police.
By this point we headed back to our accommodation and freshened up from walking around in July heat in Rome. We then ate near to our hotel and could have ventured back onto the metro to the city but seeing as we had 2 more full days – we decided to leave the excitement for another day!
Day 2
This was our main sightseeing day – I wanted to see the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish steps and the Pantheon. It was a busy time and in peak July, we were struggling at times to move for tour groups. As a laid back couple, we didn’t want to join that rat run that was the tours, instead moving at our own pace.
We went to the Trevi fountain first, then the Pantheon before locating some lunch. I’m a travel addict who is a massive foodie – food can dictate our adventures and we got a lovely pasta lunch. Then we went to the Spanish steps followed by the Piazza del Popolo nearby. We walked up some steep steps from there into a park with a beautiful view over Rome. We walked into every church we saw, including ones containing Da Vinci paintings, Rafael’s and artwork that was so amazing, there are no words.
I loved just exploring down little streets and into churches but some people like to be more organised with their plans – it doesn’t matter! Just go for it!
Day 3
Vatican city – Who doesn’t go to Rome to see another country inside it? This day we went in the morning to the Basilica di San Giovanni – by far the most beautiful church I have ever seen on the inside. There is gold on every surface and despite it being slightly further out the city (near to Termini) I would recommend to everyone to make the journey there!
Next we went to the Vatican museums – We did go to the square initially and enjoyed how surreal it all felt. I would recommend buying the tickets online before, we got to go in past the queues. The rooms of the museums are fascinating and if you love ceiling art then feel free to spend the whole day there!
That is how we spent 72 hours in Rome – There is of course hundreds more things to see and do. However we decided to just explore and chill out rather than see every single thing on a list of 50 sights you must see in Rome. I would recommend a visit and 72 hours is just enough time to see the main attractions, spend enough time seeing the sights and try enough Italian food in the capital.
Happy travelling!
TheGreatAmbini
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I also wrote these posts about Italy :-
