Roaming Through Rome

We started the morning at a cute little American restaurant for breakfast, then headed to Campo de Fiori to walk around. On our way we came across an iconic Italian street so we stopped for a little photoshoot!

Eventually we made it to Camp de Fiori and it was such a cute little place! Bailey bought some fresh pomegranate juice and it was fun to watch the guy make it. And it was delicious! I sampled cheese at all of the stands and couldn't resist buying a cone of salami haha. So tasty!

We hopped on a bus and headed over to the Baths of Caracalla. We didn't know much about what we'd see there, so we were going in with no expectations. It happened to be free day which was a nice surprise, and holy cow! It was so cool there! I knew a little about bathhouses, but we were able to learn some cool things and were so impressed by how gigantic they were. I never imagined bathhouses to be that big! I can't even imagine it outfitted with it's original mosaics, frescoes, and statues. How grand it must have been! Walking through the ruins of it was awe inspiring enough. We were able to see some remains of the mosaics and get a feel for the huge community space as we walked through. We loved our visit there and I'd totally recommend it to anyone visiting Rome!

Lunch today was a true adventure. We found a little restaurant out of the way of tourist paths with great reviews. Willing to walk for good food, we made our way there. Upon being given menus though, we found ourselves completely confused! We've been given menus in Italian before but usually we can figure them out. The words on this menu, however, were completely unfamiliar. The waitress, who must have sensed our distress, proposed a plan. She asked for our trust and put together a true Roman feast for us, three different courses, family style. We tried things we never would have ordered for ourselves (like fried tripe) but ended up loving (my favorite being the deep fried artichokes). I'm so glad we were able to have that authentic experience!

After lunch we went over to the Catacombs of St Callixtus. Bailey and I both are super into catacombs for some reason and have been looking forward to this visit. You can only visit the Catacomb in a guided tour and we could see why once we got down there. If we went down alone there's no way we'd ever find our way back out! It was kind of eerie walking through it. No pictures allowed, but it really was quite the sight. I swear we were pretty far underground with the "ceiling" way above us, but we were only on the first level, apparently there were two beneath us. About 500,000 people were buried there! I cannot imagine being in the catacomb by candlelight to bury or visit the dead. I know it's supposed to be a sacred site but honestly it felt like a creepy maze. I loved it!

Do dead people make the ground more fertile? I did get a picture above ground at the catacombs because the area was just so gorgeous! I love the foliage here!

From there we went to the Basilica di San Giovanni which was gorgeous. I love a good basilica and I love these ladies!

We decided to take the long way home so we could pick up some tiramisu and walk by Castel Sant'Angelo. It's so lovely at night! There were little vendors by it, but even more exciting were the electric Uber bikes. Bailey and Matson had resisted the temptation too long - it was finally time for them to try out the bikes! I went for a little test drive myself and I can report that they were indeed fun.

Tonight was our last night in Rome! It's been a little crazy because of their holiday weekend, but we've had tons of fun and we've been so lucky with the weather. Our time is not quite over yet though!