It’s been ten years since I first visited Rome. I studied abroad in Ireland and they had something called “Reading Week”, which was basically just a week of no classes so you can study for your final exams. Instead of studying, I took a weekend trip to Rome. I still passed my exams and got also got to explore Rome, so obviously I’d consider it a good decision (and a lesson learned: sometimes it’s worth not studying to travel).
Anyway, when I came back from that trip, I wrote a post on my old blog about the things I learned from the that trip. There was something I really liked about that old post, so I dug out a copy of it and reworked it. Despite it being ten years, I think most of my travel lessons are still applicable today.
So, here’s ten travel lessons I learned on my weekend in Rome.
Don’t rely on your tour company for everything.
My normal travel partner wasn’t able to come to Rome with me, so I would be heading to Italy solo. Now days, this doesn’t scare me at all. But ten years, ago I was terrified about traveling alone—especially when I didn’t speak the local language. So I signed up for a three day tour that was aimed at U.S. students who were studying abroad.
Less than a week before I was supposed to get on a plane to go to Rome, I got an email. Not enough people had signed up for the tour and they would have to cancel it. I was devastated!
However, I and the two other travelers decided to go Rome anyway. The tour company was kind enough to give us each others’ contact information and the three of us planned to meet up in Rome together. There were a few other hiccups related to this company (more on that later), but the three of us still managed to make the most of a weekend in Rome.
This is not the only tour company to cancel on me for lack of participants, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. So, my advice is that even if you sign up for a multi-day guided tour, you should do your own research. Had I done any research, I could have had an even better trip. Thankfully though, our hostel was awesome and the woman working reception helped us plan out an amazing three days when we checked in.
Travel Lesson #1: Research is key, even you do a tour.
You must purchase a ticket to the major sites in advance.
Post Covid, this has become even more of a necessity and its a travel lesson everyone has to learn sooner or later. For the top rated sights in Rome (and in many other major cities), you need to go online before your trip and purchase your tickets. Does this make you lose flexibility in your trip? Absolutely! You can take it from me, aka someone who has waited in an hours long line for entry to the Vatican Museum.
As I already mentioned, my trip to Rome didn’t go exactly as planned because of a tour company. The tour company was able to give us hostel reservations and a ticket for the Colosseum, but weren’t able to get us tickets to the Vatican Museum. One girl in our group of three was smart (not me!) and went online before she arrived in Rome. She was able to still get an advance ticket. The other guy and I were not so lucky. We waited in line at the Vatican Museum for five (yes, five!) hours before we were finally allowed in.
Back in the U.S., I was swapping study abroad stories with a friend. He also didn’t get a ticket to the Vatican Museum and waited in that awful line. He got even more lucky as he was the last person they allowed that day. As he described it, security literally hung up the rope behind him. He was the last person allowed in that day and entered the museum with a lot of angry yelling behind him.
Now days, if there’s a big sight that I absolutely want to see, I’ll go online and purchase a ticket in advance.
In Spain, I did this for La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, The Alhambra in Granada, and several sights in Sevilla. In the Netherlands, I did this for the Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, as well as the Keukenhof Gardens. Meanwhile, in France’s Loire Valley, I purchased my ticket for Chateau Chenonceau.
Some of these were absolutely necessary, whereas with some other sights, I would have probably been ok. But, I never want to be in a position where I have to wait five hours to get into a museum ever again, so I don’t take chances.
Travel Lesson #2: Look up sites in advance. If they have an option to purchase your ticket in advance, do it.
Time your visit to St. Peter’s Basilica correctly.
Would you believe me if I said that I waited five hours for the Vatican Museum, I didn’t even go into St. Peter’s Basilica? Well, that’s not true. I did go into St. Peter’s Basilica, but I went the next day, I got up early and arrived at 8:00 am on a Sunday. I figured with it being a Sunday morning, it would have been busy because people would want to attend mass. Nope! I walked right in with no line whatsoever.
There were such few visitors that it didn’t even matter that I did it backwards. I toured the interior of the basilica and then went back to purchase my ticket to climb the stairs to the top and view the dome.
When I came down from the dome, I was right in the interior that I had already toured. I easily could have done this more efficiently, but because there were so few tourists, it didn’t matter. By the time I exited the basilica, the line was already wrapping its way around St. Peter’s Square.
Now, it’s been ten years since I went to St. Peter’s Basilica, so 8:00 am on a Sunday may no longer be the best time to beat the crowds. However, in general, early mornings are going to be your best option for touring busy sights.
Travel Lesson #3: Don’t try to visit a sight in the middle of the day. That’s when all of the other tourists are going to be there.
Even if it’s only a 20 minute walk, it can be worth paying for the metro.
This is one travel lesson that I seem to forget between every single trip I take. Public transportation is affordable and convenient and you should take advantage of it. When I visited Rome, I paid 1.5 euro for one metro ticket and I deemed that such a worthwhile investment.
When I traveled to Europe in March 2023, I walked everywhere. I only “splurged” on public transportation tickets a few times and that was such a mistake. I ended up walking an average of 23,000 steps per day and my feet were not in great shape at the of my trip. A few more metro tickets would have been a great investment.
Travel Lesson #4: Walking is great exercise, but it’s ok to spend the few dollars and take public transportation.
You can forget about having pictures without other tourists in them.
This piece of travel lesson holds true for most major tourist sights, but it wasn’t until I was in Rome that I really understood what tourist crowds were. Do you want a picture of the Trevi Fountain? I hope you enjoy having tourists in the shot as well. How about a photo of just you on the Spanish Steps? Forget it. A nice pose in the Colosseum? Not happening.
Prior to this trip, I had been all over Ireland, and visited London and Edinburgh. I saw other tourists, but it was always manageable. Rome was just a different beast. While I’ve been to many other busy tourist locations since, nothing really compares to the first time you can see and understand tourist crowds.
Yes, getting to sights early can help. But if it’s a big tourist sight, just accept that there will be other people in your photos.
Travel Lesson #5: Tourists are everywhere and you just need to accept it.
If it rains and you forgot an umbrella, have no fear.
Men selling umbrellas will pop out of nowhere at the first sign of drop of rain. I do mean they popped out of nowhere. You wouldn’t see anyone with an umbrella and then one drop of water falls from the sky. Bam! Here’s ten people trying to sell you an umbrella in any color you want.
And if you already have an umbrella, you don’t get out unscathed. If you have an umbrella, then they’ll try to sell you a poncho.
Travel Lesson #6: Be prepared for the weather, but if you aren’t, you’ll be ok.
Gelato can, and should, be considered a full meal.
I think this is one travel lesson that doesn’t need an explanation. In Italy, you’ll eat well. Every meal I had was delicious.
That said, treat yourself. You’ll find gelaterias (gelato shops), everywhere. Sample and find the best one. Our receptionist at check at our hostel made sure to point out what she considered to be the best gelato in Rome on our map. I went with another girl on our last night in Rome and we agreed that it was absolutely fabulous.
Travel Lesson #7: Gelato is delicious and you should eat it every day.
Traveling where you don’t speak the local language isn’t as scary as you may think.
The whole reason I booked a tour was because I was scared about traveling in Italy. I didn’t speak a single word of Italian and I thought I would really struggle with the language barrier. I think that this is a pretty common traveling fear.
Here’s the thing. If you’re going to be in big European cities that have a lot of tourism, English is usually sufficient. Now, it is definitely polite to try to learn and use a few words of the local language, but you don’t need to be fluent. Usually “hello”, “please”, and “thank you” go a long way. Yes, it will help if you can speak their language, but at the tourist sights, you will generally find English.
This was a very valuable travel lesson for me to learn. I believe that learning that I could travel in a city whose local language is not English opened up more travel opportunities. It made me less scared to travel to non-English speaking countries.
Now, there are two major caveats to this. You won’t find English in every country you visit. Not only that, but you may find English in the large cities, but when you get to the countryside, you’ll only find the local language.
As an example, when I was in France, I went to Paris. The default is French, but I had no problem getting around Paris with mostly English. When I went to the France’s Loire Valley, there was very little English. I got English at the tourist sights, but if I went to a restaurant or the train station, it was French only. And when I went to Chile, even the capital city of Santiago was nearly 100% Spanish.
Travel Lesson #8: Take a deep breath. Traveling if you don’t speak the local language is easier than you think.
No matter where you are in the world, you’ll never be too far from home.
On my last night in Rome, my small group went to dinner. When we finished eating, I went to use the restroom. As I walked back to my table, a man tapped me on the shoulder. He asked if I went to St. Norbert College (as I was wearing a fleece that had my school’s name on it—in a very small font, mind you). When I said yes, he said “I ask because I’m from Neenah.” For people not familiar with Wisconsin geography, Neenah is a 30 minute drive from my college in the city of De Pere. Both Neenah and De Pere have populations of about 25,000 people.
What are the odds that out of all the restaurants in Rome, we both ended up at the same place?
Travel Lesson #9: The world is smaller than you think.
Sometimes, your best memories don’t come from the major sites.
In Rome, I toured the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Vatican Museum, and so many other sights. When I think back to my trip to Rome, my first thought isn’t about the sights I saw or the food I ate.
Instead, the memory that comes to my mind is almost mundane. The other girl on my tour and I arrived on Thursday, while the third member of our group didn’t arrive until Friday. So the two of us spent Thursday touring Rome. In the late afternoon, we found a spot to sit, overlooking a nice square with some beautiful architecture. We just sat an talked for an hour, comparing our our homes (she was from California, I’m from Wisconsin) and our study abroad experiences (she was in Wales, I was in Ireland). It seems so small, but that’s the first thing I think of when I think about my trip to Rome.
This same principal has held true on numerous other trips.
On my day trip to Kutná Hora in Czechia, I remember the older couple from Chile (who now lived in Boston) that I talked to on the entire train ride from Prague. In Sevilla, I remember sitting on the steps of the cathedral hastily trying to finish my book before my tour started because I had to know how it ended. In Edinburgh, I remember the unexpected upgrade my mom and I got at our hotel and the view we had of the castle from our window. And in Antwerp, it was the cozy evening in my hotel finishing one of the best books I’ve ever read as it rained outside.
Travel Lesson #10: Sometimes it’s the little things that you’ll remember the most, not the major sights.
Final Thoughts
There’s my ten travel lessons that I learned from my trip to Rome. I find it hard to believe that it’s been ten years since I visited. Working on this post has been a great trip down memory lane. It’s interesting to look back at what was important ten years ago and what my thoughts on that trip were. But also, it’s interesting to see how many of those travel lessons still hold true and have affected how I travel.
Continue Your Adventure
Ireland: My travels really began when I spent a semester in Ireland. Learn about the best things to do on your visit to Ireland. Or if you can’t visit Ireland, take a virtual photo tour.
More in Europe: Rome is just one phenomenal city in Europe. Consider visiting some other top tier cities such as London or Paris. If those don’t intrigue you try Amsterdam or Prague. And of course, I can’t forget Barcelona.