First-time visitors to Rome usually come with a list of attractions they want to see with their own eyes. Among those is the Colosseum, located in the center of the Italian city. Anyone who has been there will tell you: there are crowds pretty much any time of the day.  Crowds are just part of the deal. They are something to just get past in order to get up close and personal with the place.  But what about if your current trip to Rome is not the first visit?  You came here before and totally explored the Colosseum. What to do while your traveling companion is satisfying their hunger to see the place?

I suppose you could just wander around, looking at places, architecture and/or people in the area. Or you could have a plan.  First-timers always have a plan.  Repeaters commonly don’t because they have ‘been there and done that.  Visiting with Carnival Cruise Line off new Carnival Horizon, I did have a plan.

In Ten Minutes From The Ship, Easing Into International Travel, we talked about the value of getting off the ship for a little walk, even if only 5 minutes away.  Taking that thought to Italy, I applied it to a tour offered by Carnival Cruise Line: Rome On Your Own.  It’s a 7-hour’ tour’ that is basically a bus ride to and from the Colosseum.    Hold that thought for a moment and take a look at some scenes from the time I spent close to a major iconic landmark in Rome.

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Note the lack of crowds in all of the above.  Here’s a few more too.

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Interestingly, all of the above images were collected across the street from the Colosseum.

The images above showing a nice cup of espresso, pizza and the best Tiramisu I have ever enjoyed came from a little place right across the street. That stop was less than ten minutes away.  The point here is obvious: just because you visited an iconic landmark once does not mean it offers nothing on a second visit.