Italy has always been on our travel bucket list. There is something about their food, wine and culture that made Italy seem attractive. After booking our trip nearly a year ago, the time had finally come for our vacation and I couldn't wait!

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Part 1- Rome

Part 2- Sorrento, The Amalfi Coast & Capri

Part 3- Florence & Tuscany (Coming Soon)

Part 4- Venice (Coming Soon)

Part 5- Key Learnings & Tips (Coming Soon)

Since we live in central Michigan, we typically fly out of Detroit for most of our trips. When traveling to Europe, I really enjoy flying on Lufthansa airlines. I often find that their planes are clean, in great condition and their flight attendants are friendly and provide great service. At any given time, it seems as if the flight attendants are offering soft drinks, beer, wine, coffee, snacks or a meal. I took advantage of this by having several glasses of wine which allowed me to sleep like a baby and prepare myself to hit the ground running once we landed in Rome :).

Part 1- Rome

Day 1

After a short layover in Frankfurt, Germany we arrived in Rome around 9:30 am and it was HOT! Since I knew that the cab fare from Rome's FCO airport into the city center is around €48, we decided to save some money and use public transportation, which would cost us around €20. While waiting for the next scheduled train, I ordered a cappuccino and drank it in typical Italian style by drinking it at the bar. We took the FL1 Regional Train to the Trastevere train station and then took a public bus in order to get us near the hotel. In hindsight, after a long flight and dealing with jet lag and the heat, we probably should have just paid for a taxi to get us to our hotel.

I was really looking forward to this first leg of our trip because some of my family were going to meet us in Rome for 3 days! For most of them, it was their first time to Europe and I was excited to share a part of this experience with them. After dropping off our luggage at the hotel, we headed to the Roma Termini train station to meet my family who were coming in from Venice after spending 2 nights there.

We decided to stay at Hotel Residenza In Farnese, which is located near Piazza Farnese. I thought the location of this hotel was perfect. It's located on a quiet street, and is a very short walk to Campo de' Fiori. In addition, it's also pretty close to Piazza Navona and Trastevere.

After checking into the hotel and freshening up, it was time to explore the Eternal City by foot. Our plan was to spend as much time outdoors with the hope that the sunshine would help us fight jet lag. We started off by walking to Piazza Navona and checking out one of the most famous piazzas in the city.

From there, we walked all the way up the main street of Via del Corso until we reached Piazza del Popolo. We continued on to the Borghese Gardens and took a leisurely stroll until our scheduled entrance time into the Borghese Gallery. The Borghese Gallery is a beautiful art gallery that houses a substantial part of the Borghese collection of painting and sculptures that belonged to Cardinal Scipione Borghese dating back to the 1600s. This is one of the most popular museums in Rome and usually requires a reservation to enter.

As we started our journey back to the hotel, we stopped at the famous Spanish Steps and joined all the tourists and locals by sitting on the steps and people watch. While you're here, beware of the the people trying to give away "free" roses to females. After they hand the rose to a female, they ask their boyfriend/husband for a small donation for the gesture; no matter how small the amount. When I told them I didn't have any money on me at all, they got upset and took the rose back from my wife! Haha.

Before calling it a night, we walked by Piazza Venezia and then decided to stop at Campo de' Fiori for an aperitivo (a refreshing pre-dinner drink) and dinner.

"Campo dei fiori" by myrabella  is licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 — "Campo dei fiori" by myrabella is licensed under cc by-sa 3.0

Day 2

After a good night's sleep, we were well rested and ready to do what's commonly known as the "Caesar Shuffle". This includes visiting the Colosseum, Forum, Capitoline Hill and the Pantheon. Because I might have slept a bit too well (overslept), we had to take a taxi to the Colosseum instead of walking as planned in order to make it on time for our scheduled Underground Tour.

"Wow". That's all that I could say when we first approached the Colosseum. It's hard to comprehend that something like this could be built so long ago without the modern technology that exists today; it's truly unbelievable. The Colosseum was built around 60-70 AD, and so I can't even imagine the "larger than life" stature this must have had nearly 2000 years ago! Chills entered my body as we walked in the Colosseum and began to look around. I imagined what this place would have looked like with 65,000 roaring people in the stands while two gladiators battled each other, or watching a gladiator fight a beast that was brought in from a conquered land.

If you have the opportunity to book the Underground Tour of the Colosseum, I HIGHLY suggest that you do so! It was amazing and well worth the few extra euros for a guided tour that granted you access to certain parts of the Colosseum that's restricted to the general public. As an added bonus, you also get to skip the long line of people waiting to get in. During the tour, you're able to walk underneath the arena floor to see where the gladiators and animals were kept before going into battle. Our tour guide said that they were kept in dark and uncomfortable quarters without much food or water so that they would be angry and aggressive once they entered the arena. As part of this tour, you're also able to visit the third ring of the Colosseum, which is the highest level that's still standing and also restricted from general admission. Being a big fan of stories, movies and shows that took place in the Roman era, I found the Colosseum to be fascinating!

If you're interested in booking the Underground Tour, you can do so by visiting the official website of the Colosseum. The price for general admission into the Colosseum is €12, and the underground Tour is an additional €9. Tickets for this tour usually go on sale in 3 month increments with the next 3-month window opening up 15 days before. For example, if on January 1st tickets went on sale for January 1st through March 31st, then on March 16th tickets would go on sale for April 1st through June 30th and so on. These tours typically sell out in a hurry so try to book them as soon as you can!

After leaving the Colosseum, it was just a short walk to The Forum and Palatine Hill. For centuries, the forum was the heart and center of Roman public life. The forum was the site of triumphal processions, public speeches, elections, criminal trials and gladiatorial matches. Although only ruins remain, the remaining structures and columns give you a small glimpse of how beautiful this plaza was in it's glory days. Admission into the Forum and Palatine Hill are included as part of your ticket to the Colosseum.

As we were leaving the Forum, it started to rain! I bought a "super-mini" sized umbrella from a street vendor which was barely large enough to keep me dry. In order to get out of the rain, we decided to eat lunch at a restaurant in Piazza della Rotonda, near the Pantheon. After lunch, we walked over and visited the Pantheon, which is one of Rome's best preserved ancient buildings that dates back to 118-128 AD. Even almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome! Although the Pantheon looks nice from the outside, it's the interior of this building that impressed me the most. The Pantheon is free to enter.

View of the pantheon from piazza della rotunda

"Einblick Panorama Pantheon Rom" by Stefan Bauer, http://www.ferras.at - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Einblick_Panorama_Pantheon_Rom.jpg#/media/File:Einblick_Panorama_Pantheon_Rom.jpg

Day 3

We started our last full day by taking a taxi to the Vatican. As we exited the taxi, we were in amazement at the site of the number of people waiting in line to get in! This was another time that I was glad to have done my research ahead of time and pre-ordered our tickets to the Vatican in advance. The only mistake we made is telling the taxi driver to drop us off at St. Peter's Square instead of the Vatican museum, which is where we were heading. It's a nice little walk from the square to the museum entrance but it gives you a good opportunity to notice how long the line really is. I don't think I would be exaggerating if I said that buying our tickets in advance saved us at least 90 minutes of waiting in line. If you don't have an opportunity to purchase tickets or a tour in advance, there are plenty of people in St. Peter's Square that will try to solicit their services for a tour. Booking a tour allows you to skip the lines for the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica. The tours can be a bit pricey, but after looking at the long lines, you might consider it money well spent.

The Vatican Museum is filled with a variety of history, riches, sculptures and beautiful frescoes. If you're an art aficionado, you could easily spend the entire day wondering through the different rooms inside the museum. However, if you're like most people, you'll probably just stop and see the main highlights along the way as you follow the signs (and crowd) towards the Sistine Chapel.

The Sistine Chapel is the grand finale inside the museum, and for good reason; the room is absolutely stunning! Unfortunately, the hundreds of people that are jammed into the chapel make it a bit difficult to appreciate it's true beauty. While we were inside the chapel, we used the Rick Steves' audio guide app to help us learn more about the Sistine Chapel as well as the stories behind the paintings. Unfortunately, since I respected the rules of the Sistine Chapel, I did not get an opportunity to take any pictures of Michelangelo's masterpiece.

After leaving the Sistine Chapel, you exit out and enter into another queue to wait in line to enter St. Peter's Basilica. Here is where being part of a tour is beneficial again. There is shortcut entrance into the basilica that is restricted to only tour groups. This can save you at least another hour of waiting in line!

The interior of St. Peter's Basilica is breathtaking. The intricate details in the marble sculptures, paintings, engravings and mosaics make this building a true work of art. This church is so massive that it's difficult to capture it's beauty in pictures. Once again, we used the Rick Steves audio guide app to help navigate through the church.

One thing I found interesting is that there are markings on the marble floor in the center of the church to show off its size in comparison to the other largest Catholic churches in the world. Each marking specifies the name of the church and signifies the comparative length of that church if placed inside St. Peter's.

Once we were done at the Vatican, we decided to walk back through Piazza Navona and Campo de' Fiori for a couple of drinks . After a few Aperol spritzes, we headed over to Trastevere for dinner. Trastevere is located just across the Tiber River and was a short walk from our hotel. Although there is no bad time to visit this neighborhood, the area really comes alive at night. As we followed the crowd towards Piazza di Santa Maria, we noticed a countless number of restaurants and pubs to choose from. If we had more time left in Rome, I would definitely have spent a few more evenings exploring Trastevere. Once we arrived at Piazza di Santa Maria, we took a seat on the steps of the fountain and joined the locals and fellow tourists in people watching.

For dinner, we decided on Grazia & Graziella, which was a popular place with the locals. I had my heart set on sampling a few craft beers at Ma Che Siete Venuti a Fá, but after eating a pizza and drinking a few Peronis, I had no room left in my stomach for anything else.

While walking over the bridge back towards our hotel, we noticed that down along the river were a row of white tents. Looking closer, we noticed the crowds of people and began to hear music coming from down below. We decided to make a quick detour and head down the steps towards the river. The tents were filled with pubs, restaurants, hookah bars, souvenir shops, and carnival-style games. Live entertainment consisted of live music, theater and poetry readings. I later discovered that this festival is called Lungo il Tevere and runs between June and August. After exploring Lungo il Tevere for bit, we decided to call it a night since we had an early morning train to Naples the next day.

Trastevere was a perfect way to end our last full day in Rome!

Next Stop... Sorrento, The Amalfi Coast & Capri!