Rome is a great city, probably one of Europe’s finest. Because there’s a lot to share about Rome and we haven’t written thorough updates on our travels in a while, I’m dividing this into two posts. The first will focus on the tourist sites we visited, like the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and the Vatican, and the second will share our experiences walking around and dining in Rome.
Roman Ruins
On our first full day, we went to the Colosseum, which requires a timed entry. I think they began requiring tickets with timed entry due to COVID, and it made the experience unexpectedly nice. It was not nearly as full as I feared it would be.
Because it was the weekend, we think, the main road leading to the Colosseum was closed to traffic. It was barricaded with military personnel guarding what seemed to be bleachers being dismantled. We walked to the end on one side of the barricade, thinking we’d be able to cross the street at the end, but a solder told us we couldn’t. It didn’t really make sense—the first of many occurrences in Rome that made us scratch our heads, it’s not that we mind following rules, it’s that many of the rules didn’t make any sense—but at least this one didn’t make sense to the other Italians walking with us. One Italian man said “thank you so much, you’re so kind” very sarcastically to the soldiers.
After a small backtrack, we made it to the Colosseum. The security guard let us in over 30 minutes before our scheduled entry time. I had decided to pay a little more for the “arena floor access” pass, which I have to say I recommend.1 It was much emptier on the arena platform compared to the viewing platform on the other side that is open to everyone.
The Colosseum is amazing. I mean, just look at the photos below.
We took a break for lunch and then walked around Palatine Hill and the ruins of the Forum—actually Fora, since there is the Roman Forum, Caesar’s Forum, and Trajan’s Forum. On Palatine Hill, the highlight was the ruins of the Stadio Palatino.
As I had opted for the more expense ticket, we also had access to SUPER sites, which is an acronym standing for “Seven Unique Places to Experience in Rome.” The first SUPER site we stumbled upon was closed and the Palatine Museum, another, was undergoing renovation, so when we finally found an open one, the House of Augustus, I suggested we go inside to take advantage of our access to it. Well, that was a mistake. We had to wait 20 minutes to get in because they timed entry. We thought that was a little weird, but it became clear why once we were finally let in. A voice began playing over a speaker (luckily, in English!) as the shades dramatically descended over the doorway. We had to walk through the house as a group while listening to the voice and watching projections added onto the walls to show us what the tiles and paintings would have looked like centuries ago. It would have been more efficient if we could have walked through as quickly as we wanted, and the projections didn’t add much. All in all, it was pretty weird.
We were pretty tired and hot by the time we made it down the hill to the Forum, but we wandered through that for a while too. I’m not really sure what all the structures we saw were, but it’s difficult not to be awed by everything.
At this point, we were/ very tired and hot and eager to take a break at our hotel. This leads me to our next head-scratching occurrence; we could not figure out how to leave. One exit seemed to be permanently closed. We asked if we could exit at another entry point and were told no, it was an entrance only, for seemingly no reason. Dragging ourselves back to the entrance where we had first entered, we realized we had missed an entire section of the ruins, Caesar’s Forum. We turned off to walk through that, not knowing if we’d eventually be able to exit that way because there was no sign saying if we could. Why not? Who knows, it’s Italy. After snaking back and forth through that section, we walked through Trajan’s Forum, ending up near Trajan’s Column, and mercifully, an entry point that we were allowed out of.
Other Historical Sites and Ruins
As amazing as the Colosseum and surrounding ruins are, a special feature of Rome is that ruins are everywhere. In fact, they keep digging up new ruins as they try to finish expanding a subway line.
Obviously, there’s the Pantheon, which is around two thousand years old. The dome is amazing, but it’s hard to retain that amazingness in a photograph.
But there were so many other ruins I hadn’t heard of. For example, we walked by the Temple of Adriana, whose façade is preserved as the front to the Italian Stock Exchange.
There’s also the Largo di Torre Argentina, which is near the spot where Julius Caesar was murdered. These days, it’s home to a colony of ~90 cats looked after by a nonprofit organization. On one of the nights we walked by it, there was, hilariously, a Deloitte conference happening in the theater across the street.
On our last day, we walked up to the Campidoglio, a piazza designed by Michelangelo. It afforded us a good view of the Forum, and we stumbled by even more ruins on the way there.
The Vatican
Rome is a 2-for-1. In addition to visiting Rome itself, you can walk to the world’s smallest country, Vatican City. While neither of us is Catholic, we of course had to visit St. Peter’s Basilica, the world’s largest church. We lined up for close to an hour to get inside. (Tip: Try to go in the late afternoon/early evening. The line was basically nonexistent when we left the Vatican Museums around 5 pm.)
The Vatican said online that they enforce a strict dress code to enter the basilica and the Sistine Chapel, which is inside the Vatican Museums: no shorts, no exposed shoulders, no hats, and no otherwise promiscuous or offensive clothing. Well, this, like many other Italian rules, was not enforced consistently. Many people in line with us were wearing shorts or above-the-knee dresses, and I didn’t see anyone get turned away. Similar dress codes were enforced at the Western Wall and synagogues when I was in Israel, so I’m honestly surprised that the seat of the Catholic Church was okay with all those people’s exposed shins and knees.
The church is very, very large—to quote one of guidebooks I looked through, “to call it vast is like calling Einstein smart.” We accidentally visited when mass was happening, which was both a little frustrating (the apse was closed off) and interesting (we got to hear some of the service, including the organ).
Because the line for the basilica took longer than we realized, we headed directly to the Vatican Museums for our timed entry. The Vatican Museums are a series of 24 museums and galleries. We mostly followed the route suggested on the map, starting in the Museo Gregoriano Egiziano (Egyptian Museum) and weaving our way through other galleries.
The place was mobbed. Alex, who was in Rome about a decade ago, had warned me, but I didn’t realize how unenjoyable the experience would be. It’s simply impossible to have a nice experience with that many other people around.
We did find a few less-visited spots. Hardly anyone else bothered to go upstairs to the Etruscan Museum. We were glad to finally find a bench there, too. The Braccio Nuovo was also a bit emptier than others.
Egyptian artifacts are always fun, and there were some nice sculptures in some of the Greek and Roman collections. I quite enjoyed the Gallery of Maps, a gallery whose walls are painted with several detailed maps of Italian regions. The Rafael Rooms were so full that we unfortunately struggled to enjoy them.
The Sistine Chapel was also packed. I really enjoyed The Last Judgement fresco, and the ceiling is, of course, magnificent. They had recently done some restoration work, and the frescos looked colorful and bright. You are not supposed to take photos of the Sistine Chapel, and we respected those rules so no photos from us! Yes, this is me casting judgement on all those other people we saw unsubtly take photos of the ceiling with their phones in selfie mode.
We were quite exhausted (and sweaty and smelly, if I’m being honest) by the time we reached the Sistine Chapel, but we were planning to continue onto the other five or six galleries listed on the map. We followed the hallways through many unmarked galleries and finally landed in the food court. There seemed to be nothing else to visit, despite our map suggesting there was. We were very confused and ultimately gave up, assuming that some galleries were closed, and they hadn’t bothered to inform us, which also felt about right for Italy.
It was very, very difficult to figure out what ticket to buy to both the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums from the dozens of options. Alex and I opted not to pay for a tour guide in either location, but we agreed it might be nice to do so upon another visit to Rome. The Colosseum ticket also comes with entry to the Forum and Palatine Hill.