Rome, Italy
It’s probably wild that on my first trip to Italy, we didn’t even plan on visiting Rome. We planned for it to be a relaxing trip along the Amalfi Coast. However, we were ready for some more exploration as we got near the end (we discovered that 10 days is a long time to be in the same part of the country!) and the high speed train only takes 1 hour from Naples so we figured, why not!
The Colosseum wow-ed as expected. We luckily were able to secure tickets for the afternoon and we only wish that we had done more preparation studying the history as it spurred so many questions that we looked up later. Of course, I had to rewatch The Gladiator afterwards.
The Colosseum ticket includes access into the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, so it’s a great deal. We easily spent a 1/2 day on these three sights alone!
For lunch, we stopped by Pizza & Mozzarella for some no-frills counter serve pizza & arancini by the ounce. Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs but we have no regrets!
Since we only had a day, we quickly toured by the Altar of the Fatherland, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain & the Spanish Steps.
Lastly, a quick gelato stop at Gelateria Valentina. Their fruit flavors (dragon fruit & lemon sorbet) were sublime.
Overall, this Italian vacation was everything we dreamed and we’re so grateful for the time as well as my amazing in-laws for taking care of our kiddos so we could enjoy this time away. We’ll be back in Italy again I’m sure! If anything, it really scratched our itch to see more of the world. On my list…south of France & Japan ;)
See more from our whirlwind tour of Italy below!