Going abroad can be an incredible adventure. It’s a chance to fully immerse yourself in a new culture – trying new foods and seeing amazing sights that you cannot see anywhere else. When there is so much to see and do, it can be a bit overwhelming and it’s hard to decide what to do each day, especially when you have never been there before. Therefore, since I have just come back from Italy, I thought I would help you guys out and detail how I spent my days in Rome. The best advice I can give someone who is travelling is to plan your days in advance because you don’t want to waste them, especially as there is so much to see and do, and the days really do go by so quickly!

Day 1 – Since we landed quite late in the afternoon, there wasn’t a lot of time to spend exploring other than to find the local supermarket in order to grab some food for dinner. However, we did have time to do a Guided Tour of the Colosseum since it is open till late in the evening and our accommodation was only a 5 minute walk away. It cost us 15 euros each for the Guided Tour, so it was not cheap, but it was worth it in that we got to understand the history behind the Colosseum whilst marvelling in its magnificence.

Day 2 – We decided to explore the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill for our first full day in Rome. The Roman Forum is a collection of ruins of what used to be important government buildings at the city centre which gives you an idea of what ancient Rome used to look like. The Palantine Hill is part of the Forum and gives you an incredible view over the whole of the Forum. It was hard work walking up the hill due to the fact that we weren’t used to the heat yet and there were a lot of steps, but the view was totally worth it!

Day 3 – We decided to visit the Vatican City today which includes The Vatican Museums, The Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica. We opted for an audio guide for the Vatican Museums so we could look around at our own pace since the museums take up a vast area. It is definitely a day trip rather than a quick pit stop. The Vatican Museums consist of a collection of art museums including both sculptures and paintings from various artists collected by the Pope and currently have approximately 20,000 artworks on display. The Sistine Chapel is part of the Museums and was decorated by Michelangelo and Raphael. We didn’t actually go inside St Peter’s Basilica since the queue was several hours long, but we did take the time to admire the outside from a viewing point of one of the museums. We then walked back to our accommodation via Ponte Sant’Angelo, which is a Roman bridge connecting the Vatican City to Central Rome.

Day 4 – We decided to get a 24 hour ticket for a tour bus for today. We didn’t really feel like we had seen much of Central Rome which the tour bus would allow us to see, as well as giving us some general history about Rome. The good thing about hop-on, hop-off buses is that you can get on and off as many times as you like and explore on foot places you want to learn more about. The two main places we decided to explore were the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

Day 5 – Today we decided to do a walking tour which we had found in a 2012 guidebook left in the Air BnB we were renting for the week. The first stop was Largo di Torre Argentina – a fenced off archaeological site where stray cats now roam but was the site of Juliar Caesar’s assassination in 44BC. This was followed by Elefantino (Bernini’s hapless elephant) and Chiesa di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (Rome’s only Gothic Church). Fourth was the Pantheon, a Christian Church, which is world-famous for its dome, best admired standing in the centre of the floor and looking up. Then was a quick stop at Caffe Sant’Eustachio, which Romans claim is the city’s best coffee shop (the coffee was good but strong!). Piazza Navona was next, Rome’s showplace, filled with street artists and sellers and housing the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, shortly followed by Campo de’Fiori, a colour Roman street market. Finally was Palazzo Farnese, a Renaissance palace.

Comment down below if you have ever been to Rome and if there are any places that I didn’t go, that I should go if I go back. Check out my previous post for photographs of my trip to Rome.