In May 2022, I was supposed to start my next travel nurse assignment in Orlando, Florida. As it is sometimes as a traveler, things changed and the start date got pushed back. I had 6 weeks of nothing to do. So I went to Italy.

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Rome, Italy

The first day was really just spent traveling, waiting for John, and getting our rental car. We got to our Air BnB and took a nap, then went out that night for dinner and to explore a little bit. We grabbed pizza at a little pizzeria near the Vatican and then walked to Vatican square that night. Authentic Italian pizza is just… there aren’t words. Sooo good.

We stayed in an Air BnB, but there are tons of great options in the city center and beyond! I would recommend the Trastevere neighborhood. Here you can access everything easily and there are great places to eat there as you’ll read in this post.

Trevi Fountain, Il Vittoriano, and public transportation

Our first full day in Rome, we drove to a train station, took a bus to the City Center, and walked all over the place. We got off the bus right next to the Coliseum, got some food, and quickly learned that you need Euros to use the public toilets. Another pro-tip: If you don’t want to spend a lot to get Euros, you can use credit cards most places, but you’ll need a few Euros for the bathroom. Trust me. The Coliseum tours were all booked for that day already, so we just kept walking down the street towards more of the city’s major landmarks. There were a bunch of street artists and musicians along this route, which gave it a touristy-charm like most major cities.

We decided to find the Trevi Fountain, which is free to see and you don’t need tickets. It’s a very crowded area, and we were there during the off-season, so be prepared for that. We had gelato basically every day, but this was our first one. After that, we kept walking, and found a massive building that we figured we just had to go check out. It ended up being Il Vittoriano- a huge World War I memorial with a guarded tomb of unknown soldiers. A statue of the general of the Italian military at that time is in the center of the building. It’s basically a museum with a little cafe up towards the top. You can pay to go up to the highest level for the museum, but we didn’t do that. We grabbed a coffee and snack and then headed back down into the city.

After a little more walking, we took a train back to our car and went back to our Air BnB. We stayed a little bit outside of the city, but the neighborhood has a pub and a few restaurants right down the road. We ate dinner at a nice restaurant with outdoor seating. I got a Roman specialty called Cacio e Pepe (cheese and pepper) pasta. I think every time I talk about the food we ate in Italy it is just going to be the same word, “delicious”. We never had a bad meal.

Pompei, Italy

We planned to take a day trip to Pompei and it just ended up being our second full day. Neither my boyfriend or I are really into booking things in advance because we like to have to freedom to do whatever we want instead of having an itinerary. Like I mentioned above, it was the off-season (I highly recommend visiting Europe in May if you’re able) so we were able to just go and get our audio tour right there. It costs to park here so keep that in mind too.

There are a bunch of vendors right outside the city and, of course, gelato. So we grabbed some and started our tour. If I had the chance to do it again, I would have joined a guided group tour. Again, something John and I both like is having the freedom to go along as we please- so audio tours are usually perfect. The problem was that this audio tour was not the most organized. It was hard to follow. Nonetheless, we enjoyed seeing the ruins of the city and learning some of the history.

Another mistake we made in Pompei was not researching when the mountain closed. We got done with the tour and asked about going up to Mount Vesuvius to hike it and see the active volcano that destroyed the city so many years ago, but it closed at 4pm and it was about 4:30.

Napoli, Italy

Since we couldn’t do that, we decided to drive into Naples and get some dinner instead of just heading home. Naples is the birthplace of pizza, so we decided to try to find some pizza along the water. I ended up googling where to go, and the oldest pizzeria in the world popped up- and it was right down the road! So we went to Antiqua Pizzeria Port’Alba. We were not disappointed! This pizzeria started in 1738 and had photos on the walls with Gordon Ramsay and the owner. It was just really cool to be there.

I haven’t mentioned this yet, but the driving in Italy is literally insane. Major props to John, my chauffeur. We somehow managed to avoid an accident all week. It’s like there aren’t rules at all, and the speed limits on the highways are about 85-90 mph. If you don’t have a car, it isn’t hard to get a train around the country. The cities have buses, trams, trains, subways. The list goes on. We also used scooters to get around a lot in Rome.

As a side note, if you are driving around the country, there are a lot of tollways. We hit tolls on the way to Pompei, and later in the week when we went to Pisa. So just be sure to have some Euros for these too if you’re going via car.

Back in Rome

We spent our third day in Rome again. We took a tram into the city and found a really yummy spot for breakfast called Gran Caffé Rione VIII. You can find them on Instagram! t was one of our favorite things we ate. Pretty much every day we got cafe lattes because it was the closest thing to what we would drink at home. Both of us got a ciabatone filled with Nutella!

We decide to get tickets before we left the house online for the Coliseum and Foro at 3pm, so we walked around Rome city center some more before we had to be there. Along the way, we went into the Pantheon and another church nearby named Chiesa di S. Ignazio di Loyola. Both were just incredible- nothing in the US compares to the architecture in Italy.

Of course, the Coliseum is one of the prime examples of the impressive architecture in Rome. This was probably my favorite day. We got an audio/video tour, which was really perfect for us. We were able to hear more about the history and understand how the Romans built such a massive building, while going where we wanted to on our own. The Foro (Forum in English) is right up the hill as you leave the Coliseum and the ticket we got online was for both places, so we went up there right after. It used to be the center of Roman civilization, with government buildings, a marketplace, and a huge stage for public speaking.

After walking around the ruins, we found a little outdoor place for dinner right around the corner from Il Vittoriano. I didn’t write down the name of the restaurant, but we both had pasta and a lot of beer. I also got stuffed olives, which were interesting.

We walked around town a little bit after dinner and drinks and then decided to take an electric scooter back home. We were able to both be on one at the same time, so it worked out well. The scooters were a good way to get around quicker, but could be a little bit sketchy with how people drive.

Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel

We were out until like 4 in the morning, so we slept in and decided to get tickets to the Vatican museum that afternoon. We drove to Trastevere and found an American influenced cafe called Mammó. The food here was something we’d been missing all week. We got egg, cheese, and bacon bagels, fresh juice, and coffee here. To park in this neighborhood it was 1 Euro an hour, so we just had our car there all evening.

We rushed to the river and took a scooter to the Vatican bridge, making it just in time to meet our tour group. This was just a meeting point for someone to take us into the museum without waiting in line, we weren’t actually on a guided tour. We did get an audio tour here again, which was really helpful because there is SO much to see. Words honestly can’t even describe the things you see in this place-you just have to go yourself!

One thing to note: post-COVID Italy was pretty lenient about masks in general, but the Vatican did require a very specific one. Our tour place had them for sale for 1 Euro, but just something to keep in mind. Also, while in the Sistine Chapel, they require you to have your shoulders and knees covered. I wore a long, flowy dress and brought along a thin jacket to put on while we were in there. You also can’t take photos in the Sistine Chapel, so that’s why you don’t see any here.

We got dinner at Mammó again back in Trastevere because we found a movie theater down the street from there that plays movies in English. We wanted to see the new Dr. Strange movie that just came out. It’s something we do whenever we’re together, so it was cool to find this theater.

Pisa, Italy

The drive to Pisa from Rome is about 3.5 hours. We decided it was something we wanted to do, and talked about stay in Florence for a night, but in the end we just drove back to Rome. Pisa was really cool, and we agree, totally worth the day trip. Neither of us mind driving a few hours, and we’d been walking a lot all week, so it was nice to just chill. Plus, once you get to Pisa, it is more walking. We found cheap street parking and walked to the tower.

I know this sounds funny, but it’s much more lean-y than we thought it would be! We took some photos, got a coffee, and got tickets to go up the tower. It was 20 Euros per person, which honestly, is more than I would’ve liked to have spent, but I have no regrets. The ticket also got us into the church next to the tower. So we walked up the 250 steps to the very top of the tower. You can tell as you go up that it is leaning, it’s very strange. The views were pretty incredible.

When we got down, we took some more photos and got some gelato and more coffee. By then, we were ready to head back to Rome. We decided to stop at a random beach town along the way home about an hour from Pisa. We got pizza and beer and took a little walk along the harbor/beach. When we got back to our house, we went to the little pub down the street. It was like an English pub in there, so we had a few beers and then went home.

Roma

The next day we decided to chill. The pool at our apartment opened after some construction was completed and so we laid out by the pool for most of the morning and afternoon. We went to an outlet mall that evening that was close by and got dinner at a restaurant there. It was really just a day to relax, so when we got back to the house, we decided to go back to the pub down the road for a couple of beers. People watching is one of my favorite things in a new place, and this pub was a great place for it!

Spanish Steps, Museum Capitolini, and Via del Corso

Our last day in Rome, we woke up and laid by the pool again for a few hours. The A/C in our apartment had to be fixed, so we just hung out until they were done. I had to take my COVID test today too, which was pretty easy through eMed.

In the afternoon, we decided to go back into Trastevere and park the car. We got Mammó bagel sandwiches and coffee again, and then scootered/walked to the Spanish steps. It was a cool walk because we went through the whole shopping district in Rome.

Traveling back to the US

We had to drop our car off first, which was simple enough, but the company we rented from made claims that we caused about $400 in damage. John rented the car so he put in a refute. About a week later they came back and said they accidentally charged him and gave him a full refund. It seems super sketchy, so just beware of it. We got to the airport a few hours early like usually recommended. One thing that stuck out was a separate line for security for those traveling to the US. I haven’t seen this before, and I’m not sure if it’s something new after COVID (we still have to test to come back to the country).

We grabbed some breakfast and a coffee and started heading towards my gate. There was a sign that said it would take about 11 minutes to get there- that wasn’t true. We had to walk down a long hallway, go through another customs check (they stamped our passports again), and then there was a train to get to the right terminal. I was the last one to arrive at my gate and get on the plane.

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