As you can probably imagine, finding something about our life in Italy and/or travel to write about every day can be a challenge. Luckily, Drew and I have many experiences saved up that we have always meant to write about here, but never have. One of the reasons we took on our “Last 100 Days” project is so that we can share all of those moments with you that we haven’t made the time to share yet.
One such moment from last May comes to mind. If you read our Casa di Maul Guest Awards, then you’re aware of the fact that our house has been an open-door since we were married. Two lovely ladies that graced our home in May 2014 were Jordan and Lindsay Alexander, Drew’s cousins. They came to us after just finishing their first year of college and they were ready to take Europe by storm! I decided that a girl’s weekend to Rome would be just the thing for us to do, and since I was finally on a girl’s weekend in Rome, I asked that we go on a self-guided Roman Holiday walking tour. We all watched the movie before we departed Vicenza for Rome. Besides all of the movie poses, we also managed to visit the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Circus Maximus, Pantheon, Vatican City and the Vatican Museums, and the Villa Borghese. As you can imagine, we didn’t get much sleep on this trip.
You can google “Roman Holiday Walking Tour” and find that there are actual companies who will charge you mega bucks to take a Roman Holiday walking tour, but I would recommend that you find your own way so you can work in other attractions as you visit the various movie sights. There are many different variations of this tour, but I’ll show you how the Alexander ladies and I did it:
After checking in to our bed and breakfast near the train station, we set out to begin our quest for reliving those amazing Audrey moments. As you are probably noticing, we did not visit all of the landmarks in order, nor did we visit every single place filmed, but we saw many of the significant places. We began on the Spanish Steps, where Princess Ann is happily eating a gelato. Naturally, we also happily ate gelati there as well.
Our next stop after was to window-shop along the Piazza di Spagna, where Princess Ann was also happy to look in the windows. As you can see, I was quite taken with a bedazzled pair of shoes.
Once we finished with our window-shopping (all that we could afford on that street!), we made our way to Via Margutta 55, Joe Bradley’s studio apartment address. What you can’t realize when watching the movie is that he lived in a prime real-estate area, just 5 minutes from the Piazza di Spagna!
By this time, we were actually feeling a little tired. We had taken the train from Vicenza earlier in the morning and had an extreme hotel mix-up, so we decided that it was time to relax at a cafe. What better way to relax then to go to the spot where Joe Bradley and Princess Ann had coffee and champagne near the Pantheon? Although the specific cafe they ate in is no longer there, we were able to re-create the effect by finding a stereotypical-looking cafe with checkerboard tablecloths overlooking the piazza and the Pantheon.
Re-energized, we made our way inside the Pantheon and Jordan told us all about the artwork there. No need to hire a guide; bring an art student on your trip instead! After the Pantheon, we made our way to the Trevi Fountain. You may or may not remember that this is the location where Princess Ann has her hair cut. This is also the location where Joe Bradley tries to steal a girl guide’s camera. Although from a different movie, we decided that we too would need to toss a coin in the fountain to ensure that we will some day come back to Rome.
This ended Day 1 of our Roman Holiday tour. We put the tour on-hold as we took in Vatican City and the Museums of the Vatican on the next day. We picked up our tour again on our third day in Rome, and found ourselves at the Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin, where you can find the bocca di verita (mouth of truth). This is a moment where you need to listen to your heart and take the time to get the tourist-Von Trapp picture, which we did, gladly.
We also took the time in to take other tourist photos during our last days in Rome:
While this is not an all-encompassing Roman Holiday Tour, it does show several moments from the movie. We hope you’ll be inspired to plan for your next girl’s trip to Rome. Don’t let the photo ops pass you up while you’re there, and don’t forget to live in the moment, soaking in the eternal city!
Intentionally International 