Day 1. Rome – exploring the city

When I first started planning a trip to Italy for ten days, I had a very simple plan: to see as much as possible, eat delicious food, walk a lot, and preferably not be late. Already at the stage of setting the route, it became clear that the last condition would be the most difficult to fulfill, because Italy does not have a stopwatch at all. Here you can leave the hotel "literally for half an hour", and three hours later find yourself at a table in a small cafe with pasta in front of your nose and the thought that, since you've already come, you should try tiramisu.

Rome Leonardo da Vinci Airport

In the end, I decided not to try to travel all over the country in ten days and made a route so that each move would make sense. I wanted to see Rome, Florence and Venice, and between them leave enough time for ordinary walks, casual discoveries and those very moments that cannot be included in the tourist plan. It turned out to be a route that I was quite happy with, although I said to myself a couple of times: "Gilana, why did you walk there again if you could get there?"

I arrived in Rome with the feeling that I would quickly settle in, drop my things and go for a walk, like a real organized tourist. In practice, everything looked a little different: first I was looking for the right exit from the subway, then I was trying to figure out which way to go, and then I saw the first beautiful street and, of course, I went completely the wrong way, because how could I walk past such a house and not take a picture of it.

Trevi Fountain

On the first day, I specifically did not arrange a sightseeing run. I walked around the center, reached the Trevi Fountain, looked at the Pantheon and just got used to Rome. I wanted to feel the city, not tick off ten famous places, so I walked a lot, looked into the alleys and periodically sat down somewhere to drink coffee.

The Pantheon

By the evening, I had already realized one important thing: Rome is impossible to watch "casually." Even an ordinary dinner trip here turns into an excursion, because there is so much history, beautiful facades and small squares around that the phone almost begs to be picked up.