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After we finished our beers in the Vatican City, we made our way to Pantheon. It’s about 30 minutes walk. Most of the areas were well lit at night, but we did have to walk through a couple of dark streets. There were still lots of people walking on the streets even at 10:30 pm, so we didn’t feel unsafe at all.
We were not planning to get inside at this time of the day, but we can still check out the outside. The temple is majestic. It is located in a small plaza (Piazza della Rotonda).
We were getting hungry since that was hours ago we had dinner. We decided to share a pizza and some charcuterie. Our first pizza in Italy! You might have seen food pictures with Pantheon in the background on the Internet. Well, I tried to take a similar shot, but there is no way to get a picture without someone standing in my way. What are all these people doing here at midnight?!
After the late night meal, we wandered over to Trevi Fountain, which is eight minutes walk. It was still very crowded at 1am…many people were just chilling by the fountain to enjoy the summer night. We hanged out for about half an hour and decided to call it a night. Our hotel is about another eight minutes walk from the fountain.
The next morning we woke up to a big day! We were going to see the Colosseum (Colosseo in Italian)!
We checked out with our hotel after enjoying some delicious pastries and much needed espresso. Our stay was paid with my points (it was around €150/night if we were to pay cash), but we did need to pay €11 city tax (€5.5/day). The hotel offered luggage storage, but instead of putting them in a limited access area, they just left the luggage by the window right in front of the reception desk. Maybe it is easier for the staff to keep an eye on them.
Colosseum is about 15 minutes walk away.
We booked a self-guided tour on Viator with Palatine Hill and Roman Forum.
It included skip-the-line entry to the Colosseum, an hour free time inside, and entrance to Palatine Hill and Forum.
We met our tour guide, a beautiful blonde lady with an Eastern European accent, at the bottom of the arch. She gave us a brief introduction of the history and background and led us to the skip-the-line entrance. She explained locations of restrooms and water fountains and asked everyone to confirm the meeting time at an hour later. She needed to take the group through the entrance to Palatine and Forum. If you decide to skip those two and stay in the Colosseum for more time, that is okay too.
Our tickets did not include the underground, but we could still see the cells from above. We could also see the arch and the Forum.
The Colosseum is full of uneven grounds, and some of the stone steps are steep. There are two main floors excluding the underground. Definitely plan to wear comfortable walking shoes and plan to walk plenty steps! Check out what we packed and my choices of travel shoes here. They do offer an elevator for people with mobility concerns.
An hour went by fast, but I felt that was enough time to see everything. We walked around all areas available and didn’t feel rushed. Colosseum, one of the world’s biggest attractions, attracts tourists from all over the world, so it is always going to be crowded. And everyone is trying to take their pictures at the good spots, so we tried to quickly snap a few pictures at each spot and moved away so others could do the same.
We met with our guide at the arch again and headed towards to Palatine. It was a short walk and once inside, the guide briefed us with the history again and said goodbye to us.
Palatine is called Palatino in Italian. It is a HILL! After having another 5 miles in, we were giving up to check out the Forum. The Roman Forum is the foundation of Rome, it is a pity that we did get closer to it. But in my opinion, Palatine is gorgeous to spend some time walking around.
We walked to everywhere in Rome thanks to the convenient location of our hotel. We easily had over 10 miles every day in the two days we were in Rome. We didn’t have much planned out after Colosseum and Palatine. We were thinking to check out the Spanish Steps, but at that time, we were getting tired of all the walks. (Don’t judge us! We both have office jobs and we might be just a little out of shape. Just a little!) But anyway, we decided to have lunch and head back to our hotel.
We walked for about five minutes away from the main crowded area and there were several restaurants along the street. We picked one with some empty tables and were served with a bottle of cold water right away. Note that water is NOT free in Europe, unlike in the US, usually it costs about €3-€5 for a glass bottle (I can’t really measure it, but my guess is 750ml). So lots of people do carry around their own water bottles and Rome is also known as the city of fountains. Water fountains are easily located every few blocks and they are all safe to drink directly from.
It was a hot day, higher 80s or maybe over 90 Fahrenheit. To help customers to cool off, the restaurants set up water spray in front of fans to create a nice and cool mist. For both days, we didn’t search for a popular restaurant and just randomly picked them. All servers spoke perfect English and we never had any issues with paying with credit card. Evidently, all places we ate at were near the major attractions, but language was definitely not an issue. We didn’t have a single meal in Rome that we didn’t like. All food and service were exceptional.
Since we were going on a cruise later, our cruise line Princess Cruise (check our full itinerary from the link) allowed one bottle (750ml) of wine or champagne per person to be carried onboard. No hard liquor or beer was allowed. We weren’t going to carry two bottles of wine all the way from the US. And we are in Italy! So it all made sense to shop for something when we were in Rome.
On our way heading back to the hotel, we passed by a tiny mart, which carried alcohol. We picked a Pinot Grigio (€12) and a bottle of champagne (€30) with some help of a store clerk. The clerks did speak very limited English as those tiny marts are served as neighborhood convenience stores.
When we were checking out, the cashier started to speak fast Italian to the clerk helped us with the champagne, and the clerk was running back to the shelf area and yelling back in even faster Italian. The cashier said something else and a third clerk was running back to the shelf to confirm something as well. As you can probably guess, we stood there, totally confused. I still have no idea even today what the conversation or situation was. I wonder if we picked a top notch champagne and the price was just wrong, thus the two clerks running back to double check. /shrug
Too bad I forgot to take a picture of the champagne.
We got back to the hotel and grabbed our luggage. We were ready to head over to Civitavecchia, the port city about 45 miles (70km) outside Rome. There is a convenient direct train option from Roma Termini for about €10 or less depending on time. Note there are actually two train options, one is faster and takes about 45-55 minutes, one is slower and takes about 1 hr and 20 minutes. Prices are not significantly different.
We booked a taxi with an app called Freenow, equivalent to Uber or Lyft in Europe. Instead of getting a private vehicle like Uber or Lyft, Freenow calls in an actual taxi. From our experience in Europe, the fees through the app usually were a little cheaper comparing to the actual meter, but the differences were not significant. The taxi ride from the hotel to the train station cost about €15-€20.
I checked the train schedule ahead of time and there were trains every 30 minutes to an hour, so I decided not to purchase the tickets in advance. The ticket booths are not difficult to locate. They are bright red.
We got our tickets for the fast train for 4:20 pm. Our train tickets were €11 each. We had a little bit over an hour, so we decided to get an ice cream and some cold beer. Restaurants and shops are located on the second floor of the station. Information boards are located all over the second floor, even inside the restaurant seating area, so you won’t miss your train. Platform information was not available though until 10-15 minutes before the train arrived, but it was easy to locate the platforms once known on the first floor.
Boarding the short-leg train also meant that it came to an end for our time in Rome. It was a short yet memorable two days. Rome surely has lived to her reputation and did not disappoint! We will be back!
Next, we were about to start our cruise trip, and my biggest panic moment during the entire 18 days…
To be continued…
Wander the World 
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