bongiorno! the first stop on our euro trip was rome. our cruise left from the port of rome on a saturday. we knew we couldn’t go all the way here without spending a night. so, we decided to arrive a day early. i studied abroad in italy (and have visited rome). but this was tony’s first time! tony loves both history and religion, so i knew he would love rome. i was right.

rome wasn’t built in a day. but can rome we seen in a day? yes! squeezing rome into 24 hours is absolutely doable. having been there before, i knew the ‘must-sees.’ to maximize our time, i planned a full itinerary for our 24 hours in rome. and i included it for you below!

i’m not typically an ‘organized tour’ type of girl. that being said, in rome it’s a necessity. some of the sights will have a several hour wait. looking at you vatican. when you book one of these tours, you get to skip the line. yes you heard that correctly. skip. the line. and with only 24 hours, skipping the line is crucial. we booked both our tours through this company. but i have heard great things about others too.

day 1

we arrived in rome shortly before noon on ‘day 1.’ we checked into our hotel and grabbed lunch. tony had “the best pizza of his life” that day. we then walked towards the colosseum. shortly before the colosseum is the vittorio emmanuele monument. in the interest of time, we did not climb the steps. i would if you have time! worth a stop to see this “controversial” rome monument.

we met our tour group at the colosseum metro stop. not a bad view from a metro stop!

our tour guide for the colosseum was out of this world. his career (and life’s passion) has been the restoration of the colosseum. it was an interesting perspective from a tour guide. typically the tour guides are into religion, art, etc. vincenzo (our guide) knew everything there was to know about the actual marble and bricks. super impressive.

hey cutie. we wore headsets throughout the tour. this allowed us to hear our guide from probably 50 feet away. we could go off on our own or stop for a few extra minutes and still hear the guide.

after the colosseum was palatine hill and the roman forum. it’s a short walk to this area, but a separate admission fee and tour. again, vincenzo was top notch. we continued to be extremely impressed with his knowledge and passion. 

after the tour, we walked from the colosseum (historical area) to the trevi fountain and then pantheon. the sun was starting to set, which was a beautiful time to see the trevi fountain. we both made wishes and threw coins over our shoulder. here’s hoping for a trip back to rome!

day 2

i think an entire day should be allocated to the vatican and st. peter’s. this might not be for everyone. but we’re catholic! and when in rome. 

we did another skip the line tour for the vatican. this is absolutely essential. the wait to get in to the vatican museum is at least two hours. we booked the tour that started at 7:30am. this way we could not only skip the line, but get in before everyone else. totally worth it. the vatican museum showscases the breathtaking sistine chapel. it truly is amazing and something you absolutely must see. that being said, the rest of the vatican tour is a little heavy in art history. but maybe that’s your thing. for us, after the sistine chapel we were ready to get out of there!

st. peter’s basilica was a very special experience. as i mentioned, we are catholic and going to st. peter’s was very meaningful. however, the other tourists drove me crazy. there were people taking a million photos. posing in front of the holy water. very irritating! am i being unreasonable? please tell me. it’s like, yeah i’ll wait for your photo in front of the holy water so that i can actually get some. ugh. there is a code of conduct for visiting churches, right? i tried to ignore everyone and take advantage of the experience, but man! okay. rant over. 

it was about noon after our vatican tour. and almost exactly 24 hours after arriving in rome, we were off! we took an uber to the cruise port and we were ready to set sail. well there are no sails, but you know what i mean. cruising the med here we come! can’t wait to share.