Our first day in Rome! Decided to visit the top historic sites of Rome. This was a great way to get right into the Roman lifestyle and completely accessible by foot. We visited the sites as follows: A.) Colosseum, lunch, B.) Roman Forum, dinner, C.) Opera at St. Paul’s Within the Walls, gelato, D.) Trevi Fountain, and E.) Spanish Steps. As you can see, we did the classic alternation between sight seeing and eating. It was a nice and easy walk of just under three miles (about an hour) over the course of the day.

A.) Colosseum

Classic site of the ancient gladiator games. This architectural marvel is an impressive first site to experience in Rome and ideal for reciting quotes from the film Gladiator. The best thing about picking this stop first during your day in Rome, is that you can pick-up a Roma Pass here. With the Roma Pass you can ride Rome’s public transportation network for 48 or 72 hours (depending on the pass). It also allows you to enter two museums or archaeological sites for free. At the Colosseum, you can use the Roma Pass to bypass the line and the entrance fee (and that of the Villa Borghese) are the most expensive, giving you more bang for your buck.

B.) Roman Forum

The surviving structures of the ancient Roman Forum are located adjacent to the Colosseum. This forum was the center of ancient Roman public life for centuries and now provides a nice area to stroll around and relax. There is also a great viewpoint of the city if you want to make the hike. For lunch or dinner, there are plenty of reasonable places that you can find if you’re willing to walk a few blocks from the Colosseum.

C.) Opera at St. Paul’s Within the Walls

We thought it would be a fun experience to see some sort of musical performance, so I got tickets ahead of time on Classic Tic Italy. I ended up getting tickets to see Verdi’s La Traviata at St. Paul’s Within the Walls ($20/each). It was a really cool experience to be inside a historic church like St. Paul’s. I surprisingly recognized a lot of the songs from La Traviata and we had fun guessing where the plot was going. But with the jetlag, we did get quite sleepy and need to get gelato stat!

D.) Trevi Fountain

On our way to Trevi from St. Paul’s, we went to Gelateria Cecere (one of the top gelaterias in Rome). On our first day in Rome, it’s surprising we held out on eating gelato until nightfall! I got some delicioso salted caramel. This was a nice consolation prize after discovering that the Trevi Fountain WAS CLOSED!! I suppose this means I will just have to return to Italy again one day.

E.) Spanish Steps

After some meandering around Trevi we ended up at the Spanish Steps, which is quite a popular hang out spot at night. We even saw a couple who had just got married singing songs with their friends. We climbed to the top and found that the church was hidden by a giant ad as it was under renovation. From there you can grab the subway and make your way back home. We went back to the Colosseum and took a taxi back to our AirBNB in Trastevere.

View of the Roman Forum from our AirBNB in Trastevere

Have you ever been heartbroken over a closed site? Have you seen the Trevi Fountain fully operational? How breathtaking was it?