What should you see in Rome Italy

It’s hard to believe it was a year ago to the date that Curt and I were strolling the streets of Rome, Italy. And it’s also hard to believe that it’s taking me a year to blog this trip of a lifetime!

Curt and I have been talking about this trip for years and we finally made it happen last year. We took a three-week adventure for our 25th wedding anniversary. Curt and I arrived a few days early to explore the city on our own before our son, Jeremy, and our daughter, Vanessa joined us for a few days.

Our first day of exploring Rome and must-see places while in Rome took us to The Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano or “St John Lateran”,  a 4th-century basilica and its the oldest public church in the city of Rome. The church is dedicated to John the Baptist. It’s hard to find the appropriate words to describe this place or any of the places we visited in Rome. The art and architecture combined with its rich history are undeniably one of a kind.

Our first day also took us to the Roman Forum, The Altar of the Fatherland, Campidoglio Square, and Capitoline Museum. I was so captivated by the Capitoline Museum that I had to go a second time. You can literally spend the whole entire day here. Here you’ll find an array of art as well as archeological museums.

Here are some of our favorite images from day one of our trip. Scroll all the way to the bottom as I share a tip we learned while traveling to Rome, Italy.

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Travel Tip

I have to confess, I was a little naive when it came to exchanging money in Italy. I travel to Mexico quite a bit and the banks are always willing to exchange money with no problem as long as you have a passport. That was not the case in Italy. When we arrived at the airport, there was a money exchange booth but we decided to wait until we got to our AirBnB and find a bank close by to exchange money. That was a big mistake! We went to three different banks and none of them would take our dollar bills. The banks only exchange money for their customers. In most places, we could use our credit card but to use the termini or busses you need to have euros. We were able to find a place where we could use the ATM to exchange money. We also found out that it is very expensive to exchange money. Towards the end of our trip, we were running low on the cash we had and we needed some cash to get some bus tickets. We exchanged 40 dollars at the Termini, which is one of the few places that will take dollar bills. However, the fees to exchange 40 dollars was astronomical. We paid just a little over 19 dollars on commission fees to exchange 40 dollars! It is best that you exchange money in the states or use a debit card while you’re in Italy because you’ll get more for your money.

Thanks for reading the blog! And please don’t forget to check back often as I will be sharing more from our Italy trip with a lot more tips!

LYDIA GILLIS PHOTOGRAPHY is Denver based and Destination Wedding Photographer, Seniors and Personal Branding Photographer.

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