Rome is one of those amazing sites that has an almost endless amount of things to do and see. I gave myself a whole week to explore and still found myself wanting to stay longer. The blend of several prototypical examples of buildings from different periods in history is certainly very unique. The Colosseum could be a WHS in of itself, let alone the collection of ruins in the Forum right next door. There are archeological sites from the Etruscan era, the aforementioned Roman ruins, medieval churches, buildings built during the height of the Renaissance, and of course, a heavy representation of the Baroque. I found myself really enjoying the public examples of Baroque art in the fountains and sculptures present in the many squares present in the older areas. I visited several museums and churches and these were my favorites:

• The Pantheon really is a beautiful building, and probably was my favorite single thing I saw in my visit. The fact that this ancient temple survived through the ages relatively intact is amazing. The church inside is alright as far as churches in Rome go, but the highlight for me was trying to imagine what it looked like in Roman times.The area around it is also lovely. The San Luigi church around the corner has 3 Caravaggio paintings (the St. Matthew series) that you can look at for free!
• The Borghese gallery was a close second to me after the Pantheon. I find that I am partial to the Baroque period of art history and the Bernini sculptures were really quite something! I spent a long time circling around the Apollo and Daphne piece just taking in all of the little details. There was of course more Caravaggio paintings here too. The size of this museum was also very manageable and had just enough art to feel impactful without being overwhelming. The timeslot system works well and kept the place from being too crowded.

There was only one place which I did not like, and that was the inside of the Colosseum. Only on the Tokyo subway at rush hour have I felt more squeezed into somewhere. It was a literal sea of people on the inside all crowding around the same viewpoints. Even with the timeslot system, it was still an awful experience and one I would make sure to avoid at a future visit.