Nikita’s Nomadic Notes

Rome! What an incredible city. I have spoken to many people who either loved or hated it, and I certainly fall in the former category. I thought the city was so vibrant and exciting, not only did it have a lot of history, but it was also full of great food, music and culture. Walking the streets, the buildings had such a neat vibe, and then you would stumble upon historic monuments. I must admit though, it was a very touristy city and everywhere was busy.

I spent 4 nights in Rome, allowing me 3 days to explore the city but one of those days was on a day trip, which only really left 2 days in the city itself. I easily could have spent another couple of days here. I must say though, visiting the attractions got very costly, but when in Rome right?!

On the first day, myself and a friend (Izzy!) got up early to make it to the Trevi Fountain before the crowds. We made it around 6:20, and there was already a decent number of people there, but no excessive crowds. Keep in mind, sunrise wasn’t even until 7:50am. The fountain was picturesque and it was nice to watch the sunrise, even as the people started to pack in. From there we visited the Spanish Steps, they weren’t all that spectacular. Then came Piazza del Popolo and the Tiber River.

Later in the afternoon we had bookings to visit the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill and the Colosseum. I was in awe of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill! The ruins were so impressive, and if it wasn’t 35 degrees in direct heat, I could’ve spent a lot longer strolling around reading the information. We were also on a deadline, with our Colosseum entry time slot looming. I also had a killer blister on the bottom of my foot from my much loved Birkenstocks. It left me limping to the nearest pharmacy to get plasters. I’ve had to wear a plaster, sock, sneaker combo since. The Colosseum was neat, and interesting, but it was a little underwhelming and overpriced. On that note, however, I’m glad I visited it. By the time we got back to the station it was late, so it was straight to bed for me.

The following day we visited Vatican City. It’s quite literally a whole different country within the city of Rome. Here I went to the Vatican Museum. It was interesting, but it wasn’t really my thing. A lot of of old, historic artwork and statues. The most impressive thing in the Vatican was visiting St Peter’s Basilica and Dome. The architecture of the Basilica truly was mind blowing, even from photos it is impossible to grasp the scale and beauty of the building. We climbed to the top of the dome, all 800 stairs, and reached the highest point in Rome! This was a highlight, the views were incredible, right over the city. Once again, it was another really full on day and I was exhausted at the end of it!

Our third and final day in Rome started at about 5:30am. It was an early start for our day trip that would take us all the way to the Amalfi Coast, Positano and Pompeii. Driving down the Amalfi Coast was stunning. The roads were narrow and winding along the coast. To get to Positano, we had to transfer from our large tour bus to multiple small shuttle vans, as the bus is too big for the roads. We spent a few hours in Positano, and for me that was enough. It was very busy, expensive, and small. But it was beautiful and I can see the attraction. Once again, I probably wouldn’t go back, but it was worth the trip.

The next stop on the way back towards Rome was at Pompeii, the ancient city destroyed by a volcanic eruption. The ruins were somewhat preserved by the volcanic ash, even as the nearby Mt Vesuvius destroyed much of the city and its thousands of inhabitants. It was so cool to see how well preserved some of the ruins were, we got to see bakeries, restaurants, entire villas including bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and dining rooms, we even saw a brothel. With only two hours to spend here, our guided tour barely scraped the surface of the city. The ruins span 66 hectares within the enclosed city wall. There is so much more that I would love to see, you could easily spend days here exploring different corners of the city. We had a guided audio tour for this, and that was extremely informative, I wouldn’t have know what I was looking at a lot of the time without it.

Overall, Rome and it’s surrounding areas were right up there in the list of my favourite cities I have visited so far. I really enjoyed the vibe and had a great time. It is definitely a city I would visit again.

~ Nikita’s Nomadic Notes