Maddie’s European Travel Diaries: Rome day 1

Bongiorno! This morning we woke up early to pack up and catch our high-speed train from Florence to Rome. The Italian countryside was beautiful and this was overall a great experience, super easy to navigate and a smooth ride. When we got there, we waited for the bus for our luggage then walked to the hotel, where we got to check in and freshen up quickly before we set out on our walking landmark tour. We stopped at the Spanish Steps:

Trevi Fountain:

and Pantheon:

My first impression of Rome was that it is VERY touristy. I knew going in that it would be a bigger city than Barcelona and Florence, and that it would be more touristy, but i didn’t know to what extent. Especially at the different landmark stops, it was almost body to body and difficult to get around. However, Rome is beautiful and I enjoyed seeing everything. It’s really nice to travel with a group with reservations so you can skip the long lines. I will say that I expected the pantheon to be a bit different, we were walking down a narrow street that emptied into a plaza and there it was! Right in the middle of the city. Nevertheless, it was very intricate inside and quite a marvel of architecture at that time. After this tour, we had some free time to walk around and check out the shops in that area, pickup some gelato (are we noticing a common theme yet?!) and view an area with original Roman stone that was preserved underground.

We took a quick break back at the hotel before heading out for dinner at a family owned restaurant. We were served salad, veal, and potatoes, as well as a really good fruit cake/tart for dessert. We were exhausted after dinner and headed back to the hotel, crashing almost immediately after showering. Rome is a lot of walking and metro and bus rides with LOTS of people, which was a bit of a change of pace from our last two cities. Tomorrow is our last day in Rome and Europe, and a busy one! Stay tuned!