Day 1 & 2 | Rome

Last October I traveled with two girlfriends around Italy, Scotland and Ireland for 10 days. It was a whirlwind of a trip but we made so many memories along the way. I love taking photos when I travel and wanted to share a little about our trip along with some of the fine art images I took while there. Our first stop was Rome.

Colosseum

We stayed at the beautiful Princeps Boutique Hotel right in the heart of the city center. We spend a lot of time wandering around filling up on wine, pizza, gelato, and carbonara and truly it was the best. We spent our first day doing a tour of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. Being able to step inside a place with so much history was astonishing. We stood where people watched gladiators fight. It was a surreal moment. The tour was three hours long and I did try my best to absorb all of the information but my jet lag and sleepiness was wearing me down. It eventually caught up to all of us during the tour so we decided to duck out a little early. So we left, explored by ourselves and then found a cafe where I had a wonderful cappuccino. Dinner consisted of wine and pasta and every bite of my carbonara was to die for. Best pasta dish I had ever had.

The Vatican

Apparently we like tours, because the next day we took one of the Vatican. In all honesty, I think it was a great tour and a great way to see the beautiful Vatican. I love art and was overwhelmed by the amazing paintings, tapestries, sculptures and mosaics. Standing in the Sistine Chapel was breathtaking. It was a smaller room than I expected and definitely crowded but looking up and seeing something I’ve only ever seen online or in textbooks was wonderful. That night we walked over to the Spanish steps and then the Trevi Fountain, which were places I had been dying to see! I was bummed that they had closed the steps to the fountain so we couldn’t get close to it to toss a penny into it, but we still tried to toss it in. Still not sure if it actually made it though. It was about to storm so we dove into a gelato shop and took cover for the majority of the storm. When walking back to our hotel we stopped at this cute little wine shop and grabbed some wine, meat and cheese for a late night snack in our room. It’s those little things that make the trip even more amazing.

I am a person that likes a plan. I do need every second mapped out, but I do need a plan. Traveling with friends who aren’t like that definitely stretched me, but it was awesome full of priceless moments.

Stay tuned for the next post about Florence!

***If you’re interested in purchasing any of my travel prints please email me at sam@samanthalaffoon.com***

Here are some fun photos that I snagged on my phone.