Roaming Rome in One Day
We felt extremely lucky to have one spare day during our Europe trip and almost right away we decided that we would spend it in Rome, after all it must be a super ROMAntic city even just by its name. Aside from its history, architectures, gelato, pastas, the world famous Italian pizzas and so on, another main reason that we selected Rome is because the city is actually very much walkable in one day so it fits our schedule perfectly.
The map below demonstrates our entire itinerary, starting from southeast of the city and heading towards the northwest direction.
Colosseum
Starting with the Southeasternmost stop of our itinerary and the most iconic remains of Rome, Colosseum is probably on every traveler’s list when visiting this city. With advance ticket reservation online, there was almost no wait time in the queue for us and the entry took less than 5 minutes including security check.
Knowing a bit of the history of the Colosseum before our visit, it was a somewhat complex feeling visiting this place. The first level offers an upfront and closer look of the place, with most of the original arena floor collapsed at ground level, the remains actually showcase the full underground structure of the place - known as the hypogeum.
The second level offers a much more complete view of the entire arena, the hallway features story walls in 3 different languages and offered us some interesting facts and history of the building. The exterior wall of the architecture has obviously suffered extensive damage over time, and it’s not anywhere near of its original shape. But for an amphitheater that was built almost 2000 years ago, for it to be standing in modern days is already a miracle in our opinions.
Roman Forum & Palatine Hill
Right next to the Colosseum, Roman Forum is surrounded by the remains of many significant historical buildings in ancient Rome, and is located at the heart and center of the city.
For a better sight of the forum, Palatine Hill stands about 40 meters above Roman Forum and offers an extensive view. The design of the entire forum, even in nowadays, is quite impressive and spectacular. This is a sight where you can take days to visit if explored in details, every corner of the place seems to have its own stories to tell.
Trevi Fountain
Went prepared, we actually each selected a coin that we decided to throw into the fountain even before we left our hotel room. After all, this was the most romantic stop in our itinerary and who could resist to not make a wish at this legendary place.
Out of curiosity, we looked at some quick facts about how much money is thrown into the fountain given its popularity, and according to Wikipedia: “An estimated 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain each day. In 2016, an estimated €1.4 million (US$1.5 million) was thrown into the fountain.”
And here goes our tiny contribution to this large sum in exchange of a beautiful and wishful memory.
The Pantheon
Rome definitely has some of the most impressive architectures with these well known large granite columns, The Pantheon is one of them. It is quite hard to believe this building has thousands of years of history already because it seems so well maintained in its shape.
One of the downsides for only having one day in Rome is that we couldn’t spare time to visit the inside of the building, which we heard it was equally amazing because of its cylinder building shape and its magnificent dome.
Piazza Navona
This public square is a beautiful demonstration of Rome, exquisite and classic in every way. In the center of the plaza sits Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, also know as The Fountain of the Four Rivers, which is another extremely sophisticated fountain with rich meaning in its making. The four rivers here are respectfully recognized as: the Nile in Africa, the Ganges in Asia, the Danube in Europe and the Río de la Plata in America.
Castel Sant'Angelo
First time seeing a cylindrical castle, this Castle of the Holy Angel is definitely unique and astonishing. The architecture was once the tallest building in Rome and is now occupied as a museum.
Directly facing the castle, it is a pedestrian bridge called Ponte Sant'Angelo. The scenic view from the other side of the bridge is what you should look for when you’re here, and the bridge also features a total of 10 beautiful and unique angel statues on both sides as you walk across it.
Vatican City
Ending our itinerary with a stop at the border of the smallest county in the world - Vatican City, said to be only 0.2 square miles, where the city of Los Angeles measures at around 500 square miles.
St. Peter’s Square is a large plaza located right at the front of the county, from here you can see St. Peter’s Basilica of Vatican City in a short distance. Having the experience of entering into different countries, this is nothing like what we would’ve ever imaged, where the border is just a short fence that may be less than 3 ft in height.
Rome is a beautiful city and we are super grateful for this opportunity to be able to experience it for a day, but if we had more time will we spend it here? Absolutely, because it takes more than a day to even just try the different flavors in one gelato shop.
See blog post of other European cities below: