ROME a la MOXIE

Well hello guys. I know I promised posts about Italy, and I probably should have had them up already but it has been a little bit of a whirlwind since we got home, just trying to settle back into routine and work. And when you skip out on three weeks of work, there is a lot of catching up to do.

But here we are!

So I wasn’t’ sure how to break down every part of our trip so I’m just going to do it by cities, and then I’ll probably do a post with basic details on things I wish I knew, how we went about planning etc too!

I’m going to start with Rome because that was our first stop. OK. So to whoever told me I might not like Rome or you didn’t like Rome or I’d only need a day and a half there, I’m so sorry, but YOU’RE CRAZY. You guys. Rome was UNREAL. Like um how do you not love a bustling city with so much history and where you turn a corner and oh LOOK, there’s the freaking COLOSSEUM. Don’t even think about skipping out on Rome. Yes it’s busy and somewhat crowded but that’s part of what makes the whole experience. Other people said it was dirty too, but in my opinion, for how many people are there, it didn’t seem dirty at all to me! Granted I just spent the day today driving the streets of Los Angeles so that’s my comparison but even then, I wouldn’t call it dirty.

Alright so let’s get to the deets.

WHERE WE STAYED

We stayed at Airbnb’s for almost all of our trip. This is the one we stayed in in Rome. We spent four nights there. It was a little ways from the main area of the city but we actually ended up loving the location.The apartment is super updated and clean, and the host was amazing! We actually left our jackets in the Airbnb on accident when we left Rome, and the host was SO kind to meet up with us two weeks later before we flew home out of Rome. If you stay there, there’s a really cute little place down the street called Cappuccino Doc to get a croissant and a cappuccino. AND the best place ever for pizza a few blocks away called Portofluviale!

GETTING AROUND

The Colosseum was about a mile away from our Airbnb, but you end up walking everywhere for the most part anyways so we didn’t mind! Make sure you bring SUPER comfortable shoes (Adidas are always my go-to) and good socks, like ones that go slightly over your ankle even though it’s not as cute. Trust me you won’t care about cute.  Also, just FYI, there’s an app called My Taxi that is basically our equivalent of Uber, that is available in Rome, and we also used that to get around from our Airbnb if our starting location was going to be more than a mile and a half walk. We liked knowing up front what we might pay for our taxi and not worrying about getting scammed by just hailing one off the street. You can also use the app to pay so you don’t have to worry about having the right amount of cash. Rome is more spread out than everywhere else we went so just be prepared for some walking. But honestly it’s so fun because you turn a corner and see a random castle or an old building from thousands of years ago. Or find little cute places to grab a spritz to go.

WHAT TO DO

Ok obvi numero uno: the Colosseum and the Vatican.

For the Colosseum, we decided to to do a guided tour. It was about three hours, and it took us to Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum, and the Colosseum, including the arena floor and the underground which you can only get to with certain tours. (Which I highly recommend.) We did this tour through Get Your Guide. The tour was incredible and even though  I’m sometimes not that into tours, this one was amazing, and I loved learning about everything! And it was so cool to be able to go onto the arena floor and see the underground of the Colosseum.

Next is the Vatican. If you can plan your trip where you can be in Rome on a Wednesday morning, DO IT! Every Wednesday at 10am, the Pope, like THE Pope, does a public mass in the courtyard. It’s conducted in maybe 10-15 different languages, and it was SO cool to see.

For our Vatican tour, we opted to only buy Skip the Line tickets (if you don’t do this, you will literally be in line for HOURS!). Then for the tour, we dowloaded this free app called Rick Steves Audio Europe. You literally put in wherever you are, and he has an audio guided tour! It’s so cool! We just used my phone and shared earbuds and got a full tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel and didn’t have to pay extra money or shuffle through with a group and were able to go at our own pace! When you’re done seeing everything and get to the tower, climb the stairs all the way up to the top. The view is amazing. And yes the stairs go on forever. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The Pantheon. OH EM GEE. I don’t know what it was but I was obsessed with this building. Architecture is my thang, and I just thought it was so cool. Also is it time to find a synonym for cool? Probs. But oh well. We also did a Rick Steves Audio Tour for The Pantheon. Basically anything you want a tour of in Rome (and a ton of other places), he’s got it.

Then there’s the Trevi Fountain. It’s super crowded but it’s HUGE! Go there, throw your coin in and take a picture. 😛

Spanish Steps. Same as the Trevi Fountain. Minus the coin toss. But also not to be missed.

Those are the main things to see but then there’s other little historic places which you’ll probably just run into or some light research will lead you to!

Go to Campo di Fiore to look around at the vendors and eat at one of the little restaurants.

And to Piazza Novona.

WHAT TO EAT

To be honest, Rome wasn’t the place in Italy we had the best food (just wait for Florence, I’m still drooling), but there are several places you can’t miss!

Like I mentioned before, Portoflivale by our Airbnb had BOMB pizza. (Aka we ate dinner there 3 of 4 nights) That was where we first had marinara pizza. It’s literally just dough with sauce and basil and some spices, but it ended up being our go-to order everywhere we had pizza in Italy because it was just so dang good. Portofluviale was also pretty reasonable, which was great considering I thought our dinners would be pretty pricey most nights. I was actually pleasantly surprised that we got out of most places for dinner around 30 or 40 Euros, sometimes even only 20 euros! Considering when we go out here for dinner, our bill is easily $80, I was happy to know we wouldn’t end up spending our life savings on pizza in Italy. Although pretty sure it would have been #worthit.

GIOLITTI FOR GELATO. Can’t say it enough. I don’t even know how many times we went. The line is long but there’s a reason, and it goes fast.

Pizza at Dar Poeta! In the coolest little area.

Another stop for gelato is Gelateria La Romana. Also walking distance from the Airbnb.

We had lunch at a yummy place called Obica in Campo de’ Fioiri. Order the zucchini flowers.

When all else fails, YELP! Besides getting suggestions from all of you, we found a lot of the places we ended up eating at on Yelp!

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