After Florence, our last days were spent in Pisa and Rome.
Day 5 (Pisa/Rome):
We left Florence pretty early to make it to Pisa (a one hour train ride away!) And we decided to stay there for half a day since there wasnât much that we wanted to see besides the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Upon arrival, we dropped off our bags in a storage unit so that we didnât have to carry it around all day. We went to a little cafe for a mini breakfast before we started our day.
Then, we walked over toward the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and at first glance, we didnât understand what was so great about itâŠbut thatâs because we were looking at it from the back. As we kept moving around the tower, we were like WOW, sheâs really leaning to the side â then at that point, we were like ohhhh.
After a photoshoot, we went to get in line into the Leaning Tower of Pisa (make sure you go in at the correct time slot â theyâre really picky about that!). Going up, the stairs were hella narrow. By the time you get to the top, you have 30 minutes to enjoy the view and even walk around the diameter of the tower. The tower was much smaller than we thought, but itâs a good thing that we got the ticket that included all attractions (because we got to see other things other than the tower â make sure to get that one!).
Afterwards, we went to Campo Santo, Piazza Del Duomo, Baptistry, Cathedral, and Museum. I didnât think any of it was all that, but I was glad we got that in addition to the tower because if not, Iâm not sure how else we wouldâve spent our time. We also spent some free time laying on the grass which was really nice.
We waited for time to pass, and then we got hungry so we ate at McDonaldâs for dinner. Once we finished, we headed out at 5 PM for our train to go to Rome!
We arrived to Rome at 8 PM, and it was really dark, but good thing we came with a group of people. After settling into our airbnb, we were hungry again so we decided to have some food at this restaurant near our airbnb, Piccadilly, and we had this delicious charcuterie board for ($18) that we split among 3 people, paired with wine. Great way to end the night.
Day 6 (Rome):
While I was in Rome, I just bought one-way metro tickets since we didnât really take the train / buses that often throughout the day to make it worth it to get day passes. I would recommend having some euros because some of the ticket machines only took euros for you to buy a ticket!
The first thing we did was visit the Piazza Navona. Cute little monument to snap some photos. From there, we walked to the Pantheon and Greece has something similar (the Parthenon)!
After admiring the Pantheon from the outside, we were hungry and found a restaurant that served âInternational Breakfastâ â itâs American. Very yummy, filling, comes with a drink, all for 10 euros! After brunch, we went inside the Pantheon (donât be fooled by the long line â it goes by super quick! And itâs free :P)
We continued walking to our next attraction which was Trevi Fountain â soo beautiful. Very grand fountain. We threw a coin into the fountain and made a wish hehe.
Afterwards, we took a bus to the Vatican Museums. Our tickets were for 4 PM, but I definitely recommend booking tickets in advance so that you have time to book earlier times! The museums are overwhelmingly huge and people spend 3+ hours to explore everything. We definitely didnât have time to go through everything, and it was still a lot. Make sure to go to the Sistine Chapel in the end!
We wanted more gelato and we stumbled upon Cremilla â BEST gelato ice cream we ever had. Make sure to come here when youâre in the area!
For dinner, we ate at Tonnarello (really yummy, authentic Italian food for under 10 euros!) Make sure to book reservations because we waited an hour to get seated. I got the carbonara with bacon which was so yum and Rome is known for that dish specifically! Ended the night with a bar that we passed by called On the Rox and they played bombbb music.
Day 7 (Rome):
The next day, we went to the Colosseum. It was helpful that we booked a ticket in advanced and skipped the line. I would recommend booking a tour to understand the history, and it also makes walking around the Colosseum much more interesting when it feels like youâre going back to that time. Fun fact: the Colosseum is one of the 7 Wonders of the World! Itâs been my dream to visit all of them, so now thatâs the second one Iâve visited (:
Afterwards, we visited the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Plan for at least 2 hours because itâs just massive. Again, we didnât have time to visit everything because our next time slot was with the Baths of Caracalla and it was a walks away. Depends on what you like, but I really loved visiting it and admiring the remains. It was a huge public bath house at some point and it seemed hella boujee at the time.
We wanted pizza for dinner so we passed by this place called Tettarello and I got a Diavola which is a spicy margherita with mozzarella and I added prosciutto.
Day 8 (Rome):
The next day we had a much lighter day and we visited the Spanish Steps. Not sure why they were so famous but we snapped some pics and started walking up a hill to visit the Borghese Gardens. It was very fun to bike through, so Iâd recommend doing that for an hour! Itâs a little park that you can peruse. Thereâs actual gardens and a museum that you can see but we didnât visit it. There were also some nice views of the city once youâre up there.
Other things we saw were Piazza Del Campidoglio and Piazza Venezia.
And since we had time, I visited Humana Vintage again! Hereâs a haul of items I got from there hehe
For dinner, we ate in the Trastevere area which is known as a foodie area, but our food was alright, and it was difficult to enjoy since it was cold outside.
Day 9 (Rome):
For our final day, we had plans to visit the Amalfi Coast, but it didnât work out, so we took the day to do last things we havenât explored in Rome yet. We ate at Pompi which was nearby our Airbnb and I got a little sandwich, pastry, and tiramisu.
We then made our way to St. Peter’s Square and Castel Sant’Angelo. After that, we basically visited everything we wanted to. I still wanted to take in the city one last time so we decided that instead of taking the bus or metro, weâd just keep walking. We walked from one side of Rome to the other and that took the rest of the day. It was funny because we had unintentionally visited all the sites weâd seen the previous day â really cool to discover that path!
Overall recommendations for the trip:
– 1 day Milan; 2-3 days Venice (if you want to see the islands, 3 would give you the chance to); 1 day Florence; 2-3 days Rome (visit the Amalfi Coast when youâre in Naples!)
– pack lightly for 9 days! youâre probably going to buy some new clothes so it makes moving around easier
– Duomo in Milan was easily one of the best sites I had seen
– Venchi and Cremilla Ice cream in Italy!!!
– Osteria Mocenigo in Venice was the best Italian food I have ever had in my life
– make sure to plan ahead! we were able to see all of these sights seamlessly because we planned prior and really packed it in
– get an Aperol Spritz
-thrift at Humana vintage
– have a good time, Ciao đ
