Rome and Vatican City in 3 Days

Guest post by thadeus_d3

Map tips: each color represents a different day. Click a marker to learn more about the spot, and click the star in the map header to save the entire map under Your Places in Google Maps.

Day 1

• Trevi Fountain
• Pantheon
• Piazza Navona

We arrived in Rome, Italy in the evening and decided to visit Trevi fountain at night. It’s spectacular at night and we definitely felt it was the right call. Since Rome is very walkable, we decided to make the 7 minute walk to the Pantheon. Unfortunately, it was closed by the time that we arrived, so we took some pictures and made the 5 minute walk to Piazza Navona. The statues there are unbelievable so we took some photos and rested our legs a bit before calling it a night.

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Day 2

• Colosseum
• Roman Forum
• Palatine Hill

On the first Sunday of the month, all of the sights above are free. I was hesitant to visit them on the free day, because I was worried about long lines. We arrived at the Colosseum about 30 minutes before it opened and were at the front of the line. The wait wasn’t bad at all and it saved us close to $50 each. However, that may have been due to the time of year that we visited. I’m sure it’s a much longer wait in the summer.

The Colosseum was crowded, but beautiful. During the free day, you aren’t allowed to take the underground tour, which is something that we definitely regret skipping. After leaving, we made the short walk to the Roman Forum. I didn’t know much about the Roman Forum before our trip, but I took a Rick Steve’s audio guide with me and it was one of the highlights. We spent several hours there just taking in the sights. Afterwards, we went to Palantine Hill which offers spectacular views of the city.

Day 3

• Sistine Chapel
• St. Peter’s Basilica
• St Peter’s Square
• Castel Sant’Angelo
• St. Angelo Bridge

We bought our tickets for Vatican Museums online and went when they first opened. By that time, the line for the entrance was already wrapped around the Vatican City walls. We were able to skip the long line and enter the museums. You could honestly spend a full day in the museums alone. There’s so much amazing artwork and sculptures. We eventually made our way to the Sistine Chapel. It is larger than life and it helps to have a guide that shows all of the frescos. One thing to note is that they do not allow talking or photos. When I was there, someone was kicked out for taking a picture.

After spending some time there, we left for St Peter’s Basilica. The line to enter took about an hour long, but it was worth it. Upon entering, Michelangelo’s masterpiece, Pietà, is to your right. It’s kind of easy to miss because of the beauty of the church. There are other works of art by Michelangelo in the church, so I recommend taking a guide.

We exited and relaxed in St Peter’s Square before heading to the Castle of the Holy Angel. We took a few photos of the exterior and decided to grab something to eat. We crossed St. Angelo Bridge, which was gorgeous and reminded me of the Charles Bridge in Prague, but scaled down. After eating we went to our apartment for the night.

Traveled in February 2016