What To See In Ancient Rome - The Colosseum and More
Visiting Rome is like walking around a massive outdoor museum. You're continually strolling by things that have existed for centuries. The age of the city is especially interesting to us because we live in the States, where nothing is over a few hundred years old. It's crazy to think about all the events that have happened in this city over the centuries! To explore Rome, we did an all-day walking tour with Roma Experience Tours. Here's what it was like and what we saw.
The Colosseum
Our first stop was one of the most famous landmarks in the world, the Colosseum. Our best tip for visiting the Colosseum? Get there early and prebook your tickets. Our tour included "skip the line tickets," and they were a lifesaver. Our group met at 8:00 am, and there was already a massive line to get in. They only allow 3000 people in at a time and it reached that capacity about 15 minutes into our tour. If we had been waiting in the line outside, we would have been waiting a long, long time. Our skip the line tickets helped us avoid all of that.
“Our best tip for visiting the Colosseum? Get there early and prebook your tickets.”
Even with the express tickets, though, it was still very crowded on the inside. That's just something you'll have to deal with when you're visiting super popular attractions. Even with all of the visitors, we thoroughly enjoyed walking around the Colosseum. There is so much to learn about and experience. A reputable guide will help point out all the details. When you visit, book a tour and get "skip the line" tickets. Otherwise, you'll waste a ton of time waiting to get in.
Holes that looters made while stealing the metal that supported the columns.
Our guide helped us navigate the very crowded Colosseum.
An image of the fabric cover that used to help shade the spectators.
Ropes and pulleys that operated the underground elevators.
The Forum
Afterward, we got a little break from the crowds by heading to the Forum. In our opinion, though, the Forum was a bit of a letdown. We're glad we went, and everyone should at least walk through it, but there wasn't much to hold our attention. Our guide did a great job of helping us visualize what used to exist among the ruins, but everything is destroyed, for the most part. Don't skip the Forum when you visit but don't plan on spending too much time there.
“Don’t skip the Forum when you visit but don’t plan on spending too much time there.”
The Domus Aurea
The final stop on our tour was the Domus Aurea. We knew absolutely nothing about this part of the trip, so we were delighted by how cool it was. The Domus Aurea is the ruins of Nero's palace. The catch, though, is that's it's completely underground. Centuries worth of dirt and earth have covered it over. It was rediscovered in the 15th century when a man fell into it through a hole in the ground. What he accidentally discovered was a palace that, along with its garden, once covered over 300 acres.
Our tour began with us donning hardhats to protect our heads; this is an active ruin site after all. We walked through scaffolding and vast open rooms while doing our best to imagine what it looked like when the Emperor was alive. To assist our imaginations, there were VR headsets. They helped us see what one of the rooms probably looked like when it was inhabited. We didn't know what to expect or even what the Domus Aurea was before the tour, but it was a highlight for sure!
The VR headsets showed us what the palace used to look like.
“We didn’t know what to expect or even what the Domus Aurea was before the tour, but it was a highlight for sure!”
Exiting the underground palace.
Conclusion
There is so much to see and discover in Rome. In our short time there, we were only able to hit some of the highlights. We highly recommend Roma Experience if you want to book a guide. If you'd rather explore on your own, hopefully, our experience will help you get started. Have you ever visited Rome? What about the Colosseum? Let us know below in the comments.