Rome didn’t go easy on me — but it gave me some unforgettable stories.

I left Venice on what should’ve been a chill morning ride to the train station. My gray sling bag — the one I’d been using every day — had started to rip, so I got up early to buy a new one. The only one I could find was stupid overpriced, but I needed something.

While riding the #2 vaporetto to the train station, I was half-distracted transferring stuff between bags. That’s when it happened. My old bag got snagged — and vanished. Just like that. All they got was my passport and a small camera, but that was enough to screw up everything. Morning ruined. Day ruined. Plans canceled.

I went to the airport hoping to deal with it at the U.S. consulate — it was closed. The local police shrugged and told me to go to Rome. So I grabbed a later train, pissed off, bagless, and now officially flying without ID.

Welcome to Chaos

The hostel I checked into that night was… strange. Reception was empty, but there was a keycard with my name on it just sitting on the counter. Outside, one of the girls staying there was showering with a water bottle because her roommates were hogging the one bathroom.

The place itself sucked, but the people were great. Everyone was weird and welcoming, and they dragged me out to dinner within the hour. Afterward, we somehow found a One Piece-themed bar called Luffy, hidden in a back alley. I figured we’d pop in, but I ended up talking with the owner for over an hour until closing. We’d both been reading One Piece since the early 2000s and just went full nerd. By the end, I had half the hostel crew convinced to start watching the anime.

When we got back, the hostel owner was waiting for us — and furious we’d used the air conditioning. It was 104°F. He ranted about Americans always needing AC. I was the only American in the building.

Bureaucracy, Scooters, and Surviving the Heat

The next morning I headed to the U.S. embassy. I got there at 8 a.m. sharp and didn’t leave until after 2 p.m. It was hours of paperwork, waiting, more paperwork, and waiting some more. By the end of it, I had a temporary passport in hand and a police report filed with the Carabinieri, but it ate up the entire day.

When I finally stumbled out, I rented a scooter just to feel like I was doing something fun in Rome. Right then and there I decided scooters were the only way to do the city. Traffic lights felt optional, parking was wherever your bike fit, and pedestrians were basically playing real-life Frogger unless the Carabinieri were nearby blowing their little whistles.

The heat was brutal — over 100°F every single day. My shoes were practically melting on the pavement. The hostel had no AC, which made nights rough. Rome was already trying to wear me down.

Then My Friend Showed Up… and I Broke My Tooth

When my friend arrived to hang out for the week, things didn’t exactly calm down. While picking them up at the airport, I cracked my front tooth on the lip of a water bottle. Just took a swig and snap — now my smile looked like it had been through a bar fight.

I spent the whole day sprinting around Rome, bouncing between dentists in the heat. Booked four different appointments before finally getting it fixed the next afternoon. So yeah — I only looked like a broken mess for about 34 hours.

Since one of the dentists was in a mall, I took the opportunity to swing by the DJI store while I was there. Picked up the new Osmo 360 camera — I wanted it for time-lapses and immersive videos, especially for places like the Colosseum. I think I got a lemon, but time will tell.

That same week we ditched the miserable hostel and switched into a hotel with AC. Way less social, but way more survivable.

The Colosseum, Ancient Rome, and Trevi Crowds

With my tooth fixed, we finally started doing the tourist thing together. We joined a walking tour of Ancient Rome. It kicked off at what looked like a cat sanctuary — turns out it’s the ruins of Pompey’s Theatre, where Julius Caesar was assassinated. Seeing it lit up at night set the mood perfectly.

The Colosseum itself blew me away. Massive, surreal, and still buzzing with energy after 2,000 years. But the tour itself was a mess. I thought I’d booked a full guided tour, but what I’d actually bought only gave me access to the gladiator floor. They slapped a white sticker on my shirt and told me I couldn’t go higher. I wasn’t having that. Peeled it off, slipped in with another group, and explored the upper levels anyway.

My friend was too nervous to join me, so I left them behind on the lower levels and went full explorer mode. I walked every staircase I could, stood where the crowds once roared, and checked out every corner of the arena. Totally worth it. Just be ready to sweat buckets — I went through three water bottles in one tour, and the steps are crazy steep.

On another night we braved the Trevi Fountain. It was absolutely slammed — wall-to-wall people holding up phones like it was a marble music festival. It reminded me of the Mona Lisa: iconic, beautiful, but hard to enjoy when you’re shoulder-to-shoulder with a thousand strangers. Still, I shoved my way to the edge, touched the freezing water, and tossed in a coin.

The Pantheon and the Monument

The Pantheon was a total surprise. We stumbled into it while wandering, only to find the place absolutely slammed. The line to get in stretched out across the square, and there was no way we were making it inside before closing. So instead we grabbed a spot in front of the fountain just outside, sat down, and people-watched for almost an hour. Street musicians played, tourists argued with selfie sticks, and the crowd kept flowing in waves. It wasn’t the grand dome moment I’d imagined, but it felt real — a chance to soak in the atmosphere without ever stepping inside.

The Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, on the other hand, became one of my favorite spots in Rome. It’s this massive white marble structure that looks like it was built by someone who thought “subtlety” was a dirty word. But the view from the top? Unreal. It’s totally worth paying the €18 for the elevator. From one side you’ve got ancient ruins and the Colosseum, from the other the sprawl of modern Rome. Beyond the view, it also became our landmark — whenever we were turned around in the maze of streets, we could spot the Monument and use it to navigate back.

Getting Out of Rome

By the end of it all, the heat had completely beaten us down. We wanted the beach — so we booked a trip to Naples. Or at least, that’s what we thought. Turns out we got our cities mixed up and ended up in Florence instead. No beach, just more heat. A perfect Rome send-off — chaos right to the end.

Rome: Stolen Bags, Melting Shoes, and a Straw Hat Pirate Bar