A Tale of Two Cities: A Look at Two Very Different Visits to Rome, Italy
A Tale of Two Cities: A Look at Two Very Different Visits to Rome, Italy
I traveled to Italy during the summer before my senior year of high school and had an…interesting time. I was able to go back to the capital of Italy last week with my university, LIU Global, and had a drastically different experience. Read on for a comparison of the trips along with some tips and tricks for visiting the Eternal City.
My trip that I took at the age of 17 to Italy will be referred to in italics. This trip was through EF Tours, an educational tour organization that plans all-inclusive trips for a set price. 10 students from my high school along with two teachers went to Rome, Assisi, Florence, San Gimignano, Naples and Pompeii, Sorrento, and Capri over almost two weeks. We spent the most time in Rome during the trip.
My trip that I took this year will be referred to in regular text. This trip took place after attending a four day career conference outside of Rome. I won’t bore you with the details from the conference because it was basically just four days of my life spent in a Sheraton conference room. Anyways, after the conference we had two free days to explore Rome before heading back to Florence.
The Colosseum
No trip to Rome is complete without a visit to the Colosseum. On this trip, we went inside and enjoyed a tour of the ancient structure. We also almost melted in the super high temperatures, and dodged tourists with every step we took.
A panoramic from the inside of the Colosseum
Emily and I outside of the Colosseum
This time around, I opted just to see the Colosseum from the outside, as the tickets cost around 18 euros and ya girl doesn’t have that kind of money to spend on things I’ve already done. So, Kendall and I wandered around the outside of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill. If you’re visiting Rome for the first time, I highly recommend getting tickets to go on a tour of these sites, but for my second visit I was content to just stroll around.
Piazza Navona
This was the first place I went upon arriving in Rome. The square is huge and lively, filled with large statues and street performers. Here, I had my first taste of Italian gelato.
Enjoying my first gelato in Piazza Navona
The group from my high school in Piazza Navona
Three years later, I found myself back in Piazza Navona, and loved it just as much as the first time. I also grabbed gelato from the same place as before. That first gelato in 2016 set a dangerous precedent that has led to a full-blown gelato addiction (if you follow my Instagram stories, I post a gelato-a-day pic at least every day I’m in Florence).
Back in Piazza Navona with the same gelato
Piazza Navona is definitely a beautiful must-see on any visit to Rome.
Visiting the Vatican
I remember highly anticipating my first visit to the tiny country in the middle of Rome. Unfortunately, my visit ended up being a disaster. The day was unbearably hot, worsened by the hoards of people being herded like cattle to towards the Sistine Chapel. After an incredibly long time slogging through the hallways, we finally made it to the famous chapel. There, my art teacher and I marveled at the frescoes. Unbeknownst to us at the time, the rest of our group had made it out of the chapel already, and we were being locked in as a security measure for an important bishop or something walking around nearby. So, we were trapped for a bit in this chapel with hundreds of people as security yelled over a loud speaker not to take photos. Eventually, we made it out. But, we made it out of the wrong door.
One door evidently leads directly to St.Peter’s Basilica, and the other takes you back through the expansive maze that is the Vatican Museum. The four of us lost together were hot and confused and wandered around the Vatican Museum area for almost three more hours while the rest of our group toured the basilica. We asked for directions multiple times, but kept getting weird answers. By the time we made it out and around to St.Peter’s Square, our group had completely finished the tour.
Frustrated with how things turned out, I went to a nearby McDonalds for lunch, and it was incredibly satisfying.
Fortunately, my second trip to the Vatican was a lot better. We were able to walk unencumbered by too many people to the Sistine Chapel. There were still a lot of people there, but I was able to find a spot somewhat to myself to gaze up at the frescoes. Then, we exited out of the wrong door again and ended up back in the museum. This go around, however, I was able to get clear directions, and we merely walked around to St.Peter’s Square.
One of the long hallways leading to the Sistine Chapel
Me taking photos I wasn’t supposed to in the Sistine Chapel
When we got there, I saw the long security line to go into the basilica and resigned myself to the idea that I was going to miss out on seeing it for the second time in a row. We had limited time before we had to meet with the school for our next event, but I knew I needed to try. So Kendall and I got into the ridiculously long line and MADE IT!
I finally got to see the famed St.Peter’s Basilica, and I am so happy I did. The inside was gorgeous, and I was able to get a glimpse of Michelangelo’s Pietá sculpture.
Standing happily inside of St.Peter’s Basilica
Also, for old time’s sake, I got McDonalds for dinner that night. There are so many great restaurants in Rome, so this is really a crime, but I had to do it.
Enjoying McDonalds in Rome after a visit to the Vatican
The Food
As part of an organized tour with a combined group of about 50 people, we ate mass-produced group dinners each and every night. It was hard to get a good sense of a large part of Italian culture – the food – when we were eating large dinners far earlier than Italian dinner time, and we were often left to eat lunch in touristy areas.
What was worse was that one night I found myself dashing from my bed to the bathroom to puke my guts out. I curled around the toilet for hours and found myself laying on the floor just outside the bathroom door when my best friend brought our teacher in to check on me. I was absolutely miserable, and was dreading getting on a bus to Florence the next day. I crawled around Assisi and Florence the following day, still throwing up, and could barely muster the energy to appreciate any of the beautiful things I was seeing.
The tour guide told me it was probably just my body not being used to foreign food, but when almost 30 other people turned up sick the next morning, it was clear that the food or a wicked stomach bug were likely at fault. Being sick so far from home was one of the worst experiences I had had, and what’s worse is I can no longer eat tiramisu after throwing it up.
Not sure how I managed to look so put together while sick, but this was taken in Assisi during the aftermath of throwing up all night
This time in Rome, I had the freedom to eat what I wanted for lunch and dinner each day after group breakfasts at our hostel. The first night, Kendall and I grabbed great, super cheap Indian food by our hostel, the Generator Hostel Rome. To illustrate how affordable it was, Kendall got curry lentils, veggie pakora, a samosa, basmati rice, and naan bread for eight euros. It was a perfect meal on our student budget.
The next day for lunch, we passed a hole-in-the-wall pizza place where we each got a large slice of pizza for less than 4 euros.
Great, affordable pizza not too far from the Spanish Steps
Our last lunch in the city, however, was by far the best. I had done prior research on cheap eats in Rome, and came across rave reviews for a cheap place that serves fresh, homemade pasta just a few paces from the Spanish Steps. Pastificio had a long line, but it went very fast as people only had to choose between two types of pasta. Everyone pays the same base price of 4 euros that gets you a big, plastic container of pasta and, if you want to stick around to drink it, a small cup of wine.
That day, the pastas they had out (they rotate each day) were gnocchi with red sauce and tagliatelle with a mushroom cream sauce. I had the tagliatelle, and boy was it good. The wine was less good, but what can you expect from free wine served in a plastic cup?
We took our pasta to go and ate it on the Spanish Steps for a couple minutes before we were yelled at for eating there. Then, we sat on a curb nearby and still managed to enjoy the food and the perfect Spring weather.
Pastificio, an amazing cheap eats restaurant in Rome
The small inside of Pastificio
Enjoying the pasta on the Spanish Steps before being told we couldn’t eat there
Fresh-made tagliatelle with a mushroom cream sauce from Pastificio
And this time, no stomach bug or food poisoning, so a huge plus there!
Down Time
On the EF Tour, we were up and at it from early in the morning to late at night, and seemingly every second was crammed with something to do. We were able to see a lot of cool things in a short amount of time, but it left a lot of us burnt out, especially those of us that were sick and still trying to keep up.
While in Rome with Global, we were given two days to more or less do with them as we pleased. They gave us the tickets to the Vatican and we attended a weird theater event one night, but the rest of the time was 100% ours. The freedom to explore the city at my own pace definitely gave me a greater appreciation for Rome. It’s not a bad city to explore on foot, and we did quite a lot of this as our hostel was about 30 minutes from a lot of the tourist sites.
We also found time on our last day to simply sit in the Borghese Gardens, a huge (and free!) park, and bask in the glorious sunlight. We lounged in the grass and pet the many dogs that ran up to us, and it was a much needed break after days of sitting in a conference room and a fast-paced semester.
My classmate, Emma, petting pups in the Borghese gardens
There are undeniably many must-sees in Rome: the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Vatican, and more, but it is also nice to make your way though the city at a leisurely pace. The Italians don’t plough through things at break-neck speed like us Americans, so sometimes it’s nice to take a page out of there book and slow down.
My second trip to Rome demonstrated to me how much I have grown and changed over the past couple of years. Where at the age of 17 I was taking organized tours in order to be able to leave the U.S., I am now a well-seasoned traveler that is currently planning a two week solo trip through the Balkans. I have a greater appreciation now for exploring things that are somewhat off the beaten path, and I definitely enjoy having full control of the trip details and itinerary. I saw much of the same things on this visit to Rome, but with a greater love of travel and a greater admiration for the beautiful city that I was able to explore on my own.
I am thankful for where life has taken me in the past three years – I never could have imagined even then that I would have ended up traveling the world while pursuing my degree with Global. Young Caitlin in Rome in 2016 really had no idea what she was in for, and she certainly could not have imagined that life could be this amazing.