With our crazy travel schedule, it’s difficult for us to spend more than a couple of days on vacation. But we don’t let that hold us back! When we get those rare moments when we can travel for fun, we try to make the most of it. Earlier this month we flew through Rome on our ways home from Bulgaria. We had never been to Rome before, so we decided to make our layover three days long. It was three days well spent. Read on to learn the best way to spend 3 days in Rome.
Day Zero
I won’t even count this as a day since it was only a few hours! We knew we only had a short 3 days in Rome, so we decided to start our trip with a cocktail party. We arrived on Monday late afternoon from Sofia. Immediately after getting settled in our apartment, we jumped over to Piazza Trilussa, in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome where we were staying. We had a small lunch and a couple of cappuccinos to pick up our spirits… we were exhausted from our Sofia travels! The flight is only 2 hours long, but getting through Sofia’s Terminal One is a nightmare. If anyone has ever survived through an Eastern European old world terminal adventure, you know exactly what I’m talking about! (HINT: give yourself extra time to survive the chaos!)
Anyway, after our much needed caffeine hit, we changed and headed over to a beautiful apartment building not far from Rome’s famous Piazza Navona. There, on the rooftop looking out over Rome, we enjoyed a cocktail party with 7 other people. The host, a Roman native, gave us a list of the best breweries to hit in Rome, since beer tasting was on our list, some of the places to find good pizza and gelato, and some tips for viewing the monuments. Like… don’t bother paying for an expensive tour of the Colosseum! The most impressive part of the Colosseum is the view from the outside, anyways.
This was a great way to start our trip and get some insider tips. The view from the rooftop was amazing and we were treated to a picture-perfect sunset.
Day One
The first of our 3 days in Rome can be summed up with one word: WALKING! Lots and lots of walking.
We started our morning by heading into the center of Trastevere and enjoying a cappuccino, bottle of water, and pastries for breakfast. From there, we crossed the Tiber and plunged ourselves into the heart of Rome.
The first big monument on our trek was the Vittorio Emmanuelle Monument, what Romans call “the wedding cake”. The sheer size of this enormous monument is breathtaking! We climbed to the top to take some pictures of the view.
Next on our walk was the Pantheon. I’m a history fanatic so this ancient church deeply moved me. Even more so, I was shocked to learn that the entire Pantheon was built from cement! I know how heavy cement can be, which is why it’s not often the preferred building material. But the Romans somehow mastered this tricky material.
After the Pantheon it was a quick jump over to Piazza Navona, where we found ourselves a little brewhouse not far from the fountain. We enjoyed a tableau of meats and cheese and a couple of cold Peroni’s in the hot summer afternoon. It was the perfect diversion before heading off to Castel St. Angelo, just a fifteen minute walk up the street.
The Vittorio Emmanuele Monument awed us, but the Castel St. Angelo remained our favorite site of the day. The Emperor Hadrian originally built this castle as his burial place. With our strong dancer legs, we decided to climb every step to the very top. A fantastic view of St. Peter’s Basilica and lightening bolts as a Roman thunderstorm lit the skies gave us a special treat.
It was a brave 20 minute walk back to our apartment in Trastevere, but after a couple of hours nap, we hit the neighborhood in search of beer! While enjoying some beer in front of the fountain at Piazza Trilussa, a man set up speakers and a microphone and gave an impromptu concert. He was good, I have to admit. Drinking beer on the steps of a Roman fountain listening to live music? What could possibly be better?
Day Two
I was personally excited about the second of our 3 days in Rome, although Simeon… not so much. We booked a private tour of the Vatican at 8:30am, an hour before the normal opening times! Ok, there were a lot of private tours at that time, but I can attest that it’s definitely worthwhile to go an hour early. We visited the Vatican on a Wednesday. Therefore, the Pope was giving his Papal Address in courtyard of the Basilica. That meant at 11:30, when our tour finished, the walkway between the Sistine Chapel and the Basilica was closed, for security purposes.
So we went out into the courtyard and enjoyed the sun and a coffee while we waited for the walkway to reopen. At 12:30 we dove back into the art-lined halls of the Vatican… and it was a madhouse! What a difference a couple of hours made! Luckily we knew exactly where we were going and we wove our through the crowd, down the passageway, and finally into St. Peter’s Basilica.
What a work of art! I was far more impressed with the Basilica than I was with the Vatican itself. The level of detail in the artwork and marble-work inside the Basilica was one of the most astounding things I have seen in my life. Simeon and I both left feeling overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the Basilica.
So overwhelmed, in fact, that we decided to skip the next stop on our itinerary for that day. We originally planned to walk over to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps…. But after 5 hours of shuffling on marble floors, our feet screamed at us to take a break. We limped back to Trastevere and snuggled down in bed for a three hour nap.
That night, we not only found more taphouses in Trastevere, but trekked down to the neighborhood just on the other side of the Tiber from Piazza Testaccio to seek out another cool taphouse. The beer there, by the way, was amazing… but not my favorite. So far, we had tried seven different taphouses and our favorite was right next to our apartment! Joy! Naturally, we stopped there for another beer on our walk home. 🙂
Day Three
This was our favorite day of our trip. For the first time, we made use of Air BnB’s Experiences. Experiences are certain activities put on by locals in the city you’re visiting! I can’t recommend this service enough. Most of the experiences were very small groups. In fact, for our experience on Day Three, we were the only ones! That meant a lot of one on one time, which we really enjoyed. If you’re getting ready to travel any time soon, I would really suggest checking out Air BnB Experiences before you go! It’s worth it!
We wanted to sweeten our 3 days in Rome with something special. So, we booked a cooking class with “Mamma”. It was a private cooking class held at the teacher’s apartment in central Rome, literally on the steps of Piazza Testaccio. Her son was there and helped translate and guide us through the process of making pasta FROM SCRATCH! And did I mention that we made it all by hand? We also learned how to make Tiramisu from scratch, and she gave us her special recipe for aranciello, which is exactly like limoncello but made with oranges instead of lemons. (I like aranciello way better, I discovered.)
After we finished cooking the pasta, her daughter arrived and we all ate together like a family. It was such a wonderful experience and I would totally recommend it to anyone visiting Rome in the future! Here is the link to the direct experience on Air BnB!
When we mentioned we wanted to see the Colosseum next, they gave us the route and told us about a walled garden on the way to the Colosseum. Naturally, we went in search of it. The garden surpassed our expectations. It’s off the beaten path, so there were very few tourists there. Mostly, it was just students and someone playing a guitar in the shade, with an incredible view over downtown Rome. A special treat. For those of you who want to know what this garden is called, look for the “Orange Garden”.
By the way, did you know that Rome has its very own Egyptian pyramid? Seriously! During the years when the Roman Empire had extended into Egypt, the Romans took one of the pyramids, dismantled it, and re-erected it in Rome! Naturally we had to go in search of it. Since it was near Piazza Testaccio, we found it with ease. Pretty cool, huh?
After strolling across the Circo Massimo and the Palatine and enjoying the view of the Colosseum, we dipped into a wine shop literally in the shadow of the Colosseum and treated ourselves to a “bubbles” wine tasting. We were the only ones there for the wine tasting, so we got the full attention of the wine shopkeeper. Plus, he cracked open a very special bottle of rose bubbles called Frecciarose. He poured an extra glass for himself, his wife, and the bartender! We learned a lot about bubbles at this wine-tasting. For instance, we never knew that Prosecco needs carbon dioxide added to it to make it bubbly enough!
One last taphouse still remained that we wanted to visit before leaving Rome. Since this was our last night, there was no better time! The problem was… we were already a bit tipsy. We had had Prosecco, wine, and aranciello during our pasta cooking class. Then about 5 glasses of bubbles during our wine tasting. The 35 minute walk was definitely not enough to work off all that wine… but hey, we were on vacation! So we made one last stop at our favorite taphouse!
We needed to pack and get to bed early. Since our flight was scheduled for 6:00am the next morning, our driver was picking us up at 4:00. We behaved! By 8pm we went to bed… only for a thunderstorm to jolt us back awake at 1am! And let me tell you, thunderstorms in Rome impress! Because the streets are so closely packed with stone buildings and the entire city in surrounded by hills, thunder echoes tremendously throughout the city. Although we were slightly annoyed that our sleep was interrupted, we laid in bed and watched the room light up with lightening flashes, marveling at those massive thunderclaps.
Goodbye to our 3 days in Rome
As we finally boarded our plane, we felt so relieved to head home. We had been gone for three weeks and we were badly missing our puppy. But all said and done, we had a wonderful time in Rome. Unfortunately we did skip the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps and the Borghese Gardens. But that just means we’ll have to come back again! I have a whole list of places to visit on our next trip to Rome!
Have you ever been to Rome? What were your favorite sites? I’d love to hear about it, please leave a comment below!
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