Our Roman Holiday: Seeing Rome’s Historical Sites Between The Inevitable Pizza, Pasta, Pastry and Gelato Obligations

The whole time we were traveling I was so excited to eventually end up in Italy because I love Italian food!!! Once we landed in Rome, the first thing I did was ask our amazing hosts, Tracy and Jeff, to point us in the direction of some tasty Italian food. Within a half hour of getting to Rome we were digging into these amazing pies at La Pariolina.

No shame in our pizza eating game!

As if the pizza feast was not enough we stopped by a revered Sicilian dessert spot on the walk back home. Alena instantly fell in love with the cannolis and gelato. This place became a nearly daily dessert habit.

We spent a day walking around the most famous sites of Rome. We started at the beautiful Spanish Steps. This was my first exposure to the awesome water fountains of Rome.

We also visited the Trevi Fountain. The clear turquoise waters in the city's fountains were fantasy like; I thought the water looked like that in movies and photos due to editing but nope, the water is really that beautiful. We saw many people take a drink from various fountains, but we did not partake after seeing some questionable items floating in the fountain waters.

Next on the checklist was the Pantheon. It was built around 126 AD and was a temple for all gods. It is the worlds largest unreinforced concrete dome and was built almost 2000 years ago!!! Pretty crazy. Also it's the Pantheon not the Parthenon, which I learned were similarly named ancient buildings but are definitely not the same thing! (Parthenon is in Athens, Greece)

The Pantheon was one of my favorite places we visited in Rome. It is a beautiful building inside and out. It's history is amazing and is arguably the most impressive architectural ruin still standing in Rome. Plus it has this cool oculus inside. AND IT IS FREE. Only downside was the super prudish and silly dress code they harshly enforce: women can't have bare shoulders inside so be prepared with a coat or shawl if you want to go inside, which you do!

Many of the fountains had interesting and faces and almost all had these creepy "dolphins". Not sure if Roman sculptors had ever seen a dolphin in real life, but they all seemed to look like fish snakes with big teethy mouths.

We took a break from walking around to grab some fancy pizza squares. We found a fun little local spot down a back street where all the local business folk seemed to go for lunch. This place had some of the most unique pizza flavors and I thought it was one of the top two pizza places we went to while in Italy. (We ate at 10 different pizza places during our two weeks in Italy!)

Our next stop was Piazza Navona. This beat out the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain as our favorite piazza/fountain area.

The centerpiece fountain of the piazza is The Fountain Of The Four Rivers. It was a spectacular fountain with intricate details of various plants, animals and people from the four corners of the world.

The piazza has 3 large fountains, with the farthest fountain containing four merman dudes and four eagles surrounding the huge man in the middle, who appeared to be choking a "dolphin". This was the oddest fountain I remember seeing.

Obligatory picture in front of the Vatican. We did not go inside as it was not particularly high on my list to see and I'd rather give my tourist dollars to other institutions than the Vatican. Though it was very beautiful to see from the outside and definitely cool to be in such a historically important plaza.

Alena cheesing over some giant bubbles in the Park Villa Borghese.

A nightly cannoli/gelato love fest.

I loved this sweet lion fountain which was taken from ancient Egypt and plopped down in Rome. It would be an amazing artifact in any other city, but it's just another fountain on a random street in Rome.

My first view of the Colosseum! Other than the food, this was what I was most excited for in Rome.

We went on a great tour of the Colosseum with quite a wacky guide. We learned a fair amount and got to see some hidden treasures of the building.

I was so excited to be there and get to stand inside a place I had read about and studied so much since I was a young boy.

Pit stop for some much anticipated lasagna with the most Italian view I could hope for!

A quick jaunt through the Roman Forum and we were ready to retreat back to our lovely apartment and escape the afternoon summer heat. Seeing so much cool history every day seemed to start getting a bit normal by this point in our trip, even so the Forum was something I will not forget even if our experience was briefer than planned.

We went back and made some pesto gnocchi from the grocery store. It was for real the best gnocchi I have ever had and one of the best meals from our trip. It was just regular grocery store pasta from a package, but something about it was special. We made it 3 different times while we were in Rome it was so great!

As if our early dinner was not rich enough, we went out and shared an accidental €8 chocolate gelato (most gelato in Rome was between €3-€4!). We didn't find out it's hefty price until after we ate it which was good because if we had known we never would have ordered it, which would have been a huge mistake. This was the best gelato I have ever had and probably ever will. So rich and creamy, with cocoa nibs and homemade whipped cream. If we were not on such a budget I would have gone back every day!

If you are in Rome and want some fancy pants chocolate gelato go here!

We spent a day in the Trastevere neighborhood, hoping to see a bit of the less touristy parts of Rome. It was still pretty touristy but we loved what charm still remained among this changing area.

This neighborhood has a fantastic church filled with amazing stonework. Its grandeur started with its whole entrance facade being made up of Ancient Roman carvings placed directly into the wall.

Inside, the walls and ceiling had the most amazing artwork I had seen in a church with so much of it gilded and sparkling in the light.

The floor of the church was made up of intricate patterns of colored marble from all over the Roman Empire.

After such an overwhelmingly beautiful church, we got a bit silly with our gelato break. The chocolate-strawberry combo on a chocolate and sprinkle cone was a prime choice! Alena went for a lighter and fresher lemon-mango mix.

We took a short break from eating and walked through the narrow streets, enjoying the colorful buildings and the fun people watching.

Soon it was back to a pizza shop to try a few slices of thin crust. I enjoyed eating at the places where the pizza came in these big sheets. I would point at the ones we wanted and the person behind the counter would take their shears and lop off a rectangular slice for us to taste.

It was another long day of eating and walking through Rome. I think the mid-day heat got me a bit goofy with the lion knockers. Definitely wouldn't mind have one of these on my front door at home though!

We tried to eat most of our breakfast and dinners at the apartment to save money. We would shop at this little grocery store down the block where they had this cute area outside for your pets to chill in the shade while you shopped inside.

Pretty sure we spent all the money we saved by eating in each day, on gelato each night!

Words of advice from the streets of Rome.

Our last night in Rome we went to see the Colosseum all lit up.

It was very beautiful, but also a bit spooky!

Unsurprisingly, we wrapped up our final hours in Rome with one last gelato from our favorite Sicilian dessert place. Rome was a magical place to visit, where we ate our hearts out and walked our legs off. We truly had an amazing time in Rome.

A big reason why our trip to Rome specifically, but Italy overall, was so great was due to our gracious hosts in Rome. Our college friend's parents have an apartment in Rome and were so kind to have let us stay with them for so long while we toured the city. It was amazing to have such a nice place to stay and to be able to use it as a home base while we took trips outside of Rome to Pompeii/Napoli and to Florence/Pisa.

Thank you so much Tracy and Jeff for being such amazing hosts and for all your great recommendations (pizza in Napoli). You truly made the end of our trip and our time in Italy special!

Tracy is a writer and I really enjoyed talking to her about our favorite books and her writing. Check out her website below if you are interested in Romance novels!

http://tracytappan.com