Rome's underground catacombs and towering ancient aqueducts reveal the extraordinary engineering skill and spiritual depth of a civilisation that shaped the entire Western world.
Italy: Rome – A 3 Day Itinerary
🏛️ Rome, Italy
Rome is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, with a history stretching back more than two and a half thousand years. It sits in the central-western part of the Italian peninsula, along the banks of the River Tiber, in the region of Lazio. The city grew from a small settlement into the capital of one of the most powerful empires the world has ever seen, and the physical evidence of that journey is visible almost everywhere you look. Ancient temples, triumphal arches, and vast amphitheatres sit alongside medieval churches, Renaissance palaces, and modern apartment blocks in a way that can feel quite ordinary to the people who live there, even if it strikes visitors as remarkable. Rome is also the capital of modern Italy and home to around three million people, which means it functions as a busy, working city with traffic, bureaucracy, rush hours, and all the practical realities that come with urban life on that scale.
The city draws tens of millions of visitors each year, largely because of the sheer concentration of historically and culturally significant sites within its boundaries. The Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, and the Palatine Hill are among the most visited ancient monuments in the world, and they are all within a relatively short distance of one another in the city centre. The Vatican, which is technically an independent city-state entirely surrounded by Rome, contains St Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museums, including the Sistine Chapel. Beyond the major landmarks, Rome has hundreds of churches, dozens of piazzas, countless fountains, and a great many museums covering everything from classical sculpture to contemporary art. The city’s food culture is also deeply rooted in local tradition, with dishes like cacio e pepe, carbonara, and supplì being closely associated with Roman cooking rather than Italian cuisine in general.
Living in or travelling through Rome is not without its difficulties. The city’s infrastructure can be stretched thin, public transport is considered unreliable by many residents, and the summer heat, particularly in July and August, can be intense and uncomfortable. Pickpocketing is a known issue in heavily touristed areas, and the sheer volume of visitors in peak season means that queues at popular sites can be very long indeed. Housing costs in the centre have risen considerably in recent years, and many Romans have moved further out to the suburbs as a result. Despite all of this, the city has a particular rhythm to it that many people find appealing — a strong café culture, a tradition of long lunches, and a social life that tends to spill out onto the streets in the evenings, particularly in the warmer months. Rome is neither a fairy tale nor a disappointment; it is simply a very large, very old city that happens to contain an extraordinary amount of history within its streets.
Day One
- Exploring the beautiful and inspiring Roman Forum
- Visiting the iconic Colosseum
- Climb to the top of the spectacular Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele for spectacular views across Rome
- The Trevi Fountain is a must-visit place when you are in Rome
- Seek some peace for a few minutes in the Pantheon
- Stroll through the magnificent Piazza Navona and admire its fountains
Day Two
- Visit the Vatican Museum and St Peters Basilica
- Grab something to eat and stroll the streets of Rome’s Jewish Ghetto
- Trastevere
Day Three
- An e-bike tour of the Appian Way and Rome’s Catacombs
- Revisiting the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountains at night and the Spanish Steps
Day One
For our first day in Rome, we made the entirely sensible decision to do things the old-fashioned way and walk. No taxis, no buses, no hiring a moped and immediately regretting it. Just feet, comfortable shoes — well, moderately comfortable, as it turned out — and the open streets of one of the oldest cities on earth.
As it happens, Rome is remarkably well-suited to getting about on foot. The historic centre is surprisingly compact, which is not something you’d necessarily expect from a city that once ruled most of the known world. At its peak in the 2nd century AD, under Emperor Trajan, Rome was home to somewhere between one and two million people, making it the largest city in the Western world for centuries. You’d think a place with that sort of history and that many centuries of building on top of itself would be an absolute nightmare to navigate. And yet, somehow, it isn’t. The streets — many of them following the same lines as Roman roads laid down two thousand years ago — make reasonable sense, even to a couple of disoriented English tourists blundering about with a phone map.
We set off from our apartment and spent the day working our way through the city on what I can only describe as a pleasantly exhausting loop. We finished up at the Piazza di Spagna — the Spanish Steps, to give it its more familiar tourist-brochure name — which sits at the foot of a grand 135-step staircase built between 1723 and 1725, connecting the piazza below to the church of Trinità dei Monti above. It’s one of those places that photographs don’t quite do justice to, which is saying something given that approximately four million people a year attempt to photograph it anyway. From there, we descended into the Metro station at Piazza Spagna on Line A, which whisked us back with the efficient ruthlessness that Rome’s underground manages on its better days.
The full route for Day 1 covers around 5.2 kilometres, or about three and a bit miles in proper money. Perfectly walkable, though your feet may lodge a formal complaint somewhere around kilometre four. Below is a link to a Google Maps view of the route, which you can download to your phone before you go — a wise move, since Rome’s Wi-Fi situation in the narrower streets can be, shall we say, ambitious in its unreliability.
🏛️ 1. The Roman Forum
There are plenty of reasons to visit Rome — the food alone is worth the airfare, frankly — but it was the history that really pulled us in. Like most trips we take, I did my homework beforehand. Not because I’m particularly organised, you understand, but because I live in mortal fear of standing outside something magnificent and realising I’ve booked the wrong day, or worse, joined a three-hour queue in 35-degree heat wearing the wrong shoes.
Rome has no shortage of iconic things to do, but the Colosseum was top of the list. After a fair amount of poking around online — the sort of aimless browsing that starts with “Colosseum tickets” and ends somehow on a forum about Roman drainage systems — I settled on a combined Colosseum and Roman Forum tour with Italy Wonders. We went for the small group three-hour option, which came in at €50 per person. Not cheap, I’ll admit, but the two things you’re really paying for are an informed guide who actually knows what they’re talking about, and — perhaps more valuably — the ability to skip the queues. Entry to the Colosseum and Forum is reasonably priced, but in the summer months you can easily lose an hour or two just shuffling forward in the sun like a very sweaty Roman citizen awaiting judgment. No thank you.
The Roman Forum itself has a history stretching back to around the 7th century BC, when it served as the beating heart of public, political and religious life in Ancient Rome. For over a thousand years it was where elections were held, senators argued, and emperors showed off. Julius Caesar was cremated here in 44 BC, and the spot is still marked to this day. By the medieval period much of it had been buried under centuries of rubble and used as a cow pasture — which tells you something about how dramatically fortunes can change.
Today it’s the most impressive archaeological site in Rome, drawing more than 4.5 million visitors every year. Sitting tucked between the Colosseum and Palatine Hill in the historic centre of the city, the Forum is a sprawling, slightly bewildering labyrinth of ancient ruins. Wander through it and you’ll pass the Temple of Saturn — built around 498 BC and one of the oldest surviving structures in Rome — the Arch of Titus, erected in 82 AD to commemorate the Roman sack of Jerusalem, and the House of the Vestals, home to the six priestesses whose job it was to keep Rome’s sacred flame burning. Presumably a more stressful occupation than it sounds.
🏛️ Up to Palatine Hill
From the Roman Forum, we hauled ourselves up to Palatine Hill — the centremost of Rome’s famous Seven Hills, and quite possibly one of the oldest inhabited spots in the entire city. Not that my knees were particularly grateful for the information.
The hill itself sits around 40 metres — roughly 120 feet — above the Forum below, which doesn’t sound enormous until you’re actually doing it in the afternoon heat. Once up there, though, the views across the ruins were genuinely spectacular, the kind that make you stop, catch your breath, and briefly forgive Rome for all the queuing.
🏟️ 2. The Colosseum
From the Roman Forum, it was only a short skip, hop and jump to the Colosseum. By the time we got there, the crowds had swelled to what I can only describe as absolutely mental. People were everywhere — milling about, bumping into each other, queuing in great serpentine coils around the entrance. It was at this point that we fully appreciated the real value of having booked a “skip-the-lines” tour. Even so, we still had to wait for our allotted entry time, which felt a bit like being told you’ve won a golden ticket but still have to stand in the rain for twenty minutes before anyone lets you in.
Still, it was worth every moment of that wait.
The Roman Colosseum — or Coliseum, as some spell it, if they’re feeling rebellious — was originally known as the Flavian Amphitheatre, named after the Flavian dynasty of emperors who commissioned it. Construction was ordered in AD 72 by Emperor Vespasian, a man who clearly had a talent for grand gestures. He didn’t live to see it finished, as emperors of that era tended to have rather inconvenient deaths, and it was his son Titus who completed the building in AD 80. Titus staged 100 days of inaugural games to mark the opening, which apparently involved 9,000 animals being killed. One imagines the clean-up was not a pleasant job. His brother Domitian then came along and made further improvements, because apparently a 50,000-seat arena wasn’t quite enough to express the family’s enthusiasm for public spectacles.
What Vespasian and his sons built was, and remains, the largest amphitheatre ever constructed anywhere in the world. That is not a small claim. The structure is elliptical in shape — 188 metres long and 156 metres wide — which gives it that distinctive oval form you’ve seen on a thousand postcards and twice as many television documentaries. It was built using a combination of travertine limestone, volcanic tuff, and brick-faced concrete. The Romans, rather cleverly, didn’t just pile everything on top of each other and hope for the best. They were deeply practical engineers, and the result is a building that has survived nearly two thousand years of earthquakes, stone robbers, medieval builders nicking the marble, and an extraordinary amount of tourist foot traffic.
The amphitheatre featured 80 arched entrances arranged around its outer wall, which allowed up to 55,000 spectators to fill and empty the building with impressive efficiency. The Romans had clearly solved the problem of crowd flow that still defeats modern stadium designers at football grounds every other Saturday. Seating was arranged strictly according to social rank — senators and Vestal Virgins at the front, ordinary citizens in the middle tiers, women and the poor at the very top. Even in ancient Rome, someone always got the bad seats.
One of the more fascinating details is the roof system. Originally, 240 large wooden masts were fixed to stone corbels set into the fourth level of the outer wall. From these masts, a vast retractable canvas awning — called the velarium — was stretched across the open top of the arena to protect the crowd from the fierce Roman sun. It was operated by a team of sailors from the imperial fleet stationed at Misenum, which tells you something about the sheer scale and complexity of the operation. In effect, the Romans had invented the retractable roof nearly 2,000 years before any football club thought to try it.
🏛️ 3. Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele
Just a short walk from the Roman Forum, and utterly impossible to miss, stands one of Rome’s most spectacular and controversial bits of architecture: the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II — or the Vittorio, as the locals call it, presumably because nobody has enough breath left after climbing all those stairs to say the full name.
The Vittorio was inaugurated in 1911 to honour Victor Emmanuel II, who became the first king of a unified Italy in 1861. That unification — the Risorgimento, meaning “resurgence” — was one of the great political dramas of the 19th century. For centuries the Italian peninsula had been a patchwork of kingdoms, duchies, papal states and foreign-controlled territories, and it took decades of revolution, war and the efforts of figures like Garibaldi, Cavour and Mazzini to pull the whole lot together. Inside the building sits the Central Museum of the Risorgimento, and since 1921 the monument has held the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where an eternal flame burns constantly and two soldiers stand guard at all times. For all its overblown grandeur, it is a genuinely moving spot.
The structure is colossal — 135 metres wide and 70 metres high, clad in gleaming white Brescian marble and draped in scores of Corinthian columns. The top is crowned with two bronze quadrigae driven by the goddess Victoria, and a vast equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II presides over the whole spectacular show. Not everyone was delighted. Construction required the demolition of a substantial chunk of the mediaeval Capitoline Hill neighbourhood, and the aesthetic criticism was equally fierce. Perched next to the genuinely ancient Roman Forum, the Vittorio sticks out rather like someone has parked an enormous white wedding cake in the middle of a history book. Romans have never been shy about expressing their feelings, hence the monument’s various nicknames: the Typewriter, the Wedding Cake, and the Dentiera — the dentures. A city not short of opinions.
The views from the panoramic terrace up near the chariots are said to be extraordinary, reached only by the lifts running through the monument. We say “said to be” because, by the time we arrived, we were absolutely famished, our feet were staging a quiet protest, and Rome in summer has a particular kind of heat that makes you feel like you are being slowly cooked inside your own clothes. The stairs were simply not going to happen. Next time, we said, with the cheerful optimism of people who have no idea when next time will be.
🏛️ 4. The Trevi Fountain
We had been warned. Every guidebook, every travel blog, every well-meaning friend who’d been to Rome had told us that the Trevi Fountain was magnificent, unmissable, and absolutely heaving with tourists at any hour of the day. They were all correct on every count.
The Fontana di Trevi sits in the Quirinale district, tucked into a narrow jumble of streets in a way that makes it feel as though the city simply grew up around it — which, in a sense, it did. It is, without question, one of the most spectacular fountains on the planet. Standing a whopping 85 feet tall and nearly 65 feet wide, it is not what you’d call subtle. The thing is enormous.
Like the Colosseum, the fountain is built largely from travertine stone — a creamy, warm limestone whose Latin name means “from the Tiber,” though the stone was almost certainly quarried at Tivoli, a small city about 22 miles east of Rome. The Romans were nothing if not geographically flexible with their naming conventions.
The centrepiece of the whole spectacle is Neptune, god of the sea, standing triumphant on a shell-shaped chariot being hauled along by two rather magnificent horses, each one guided by a Triton. One horse is calm and compliant; the other is wild and difficult. We were reliably informed this represents the contrasting moods of the sea. We could relate — one of us had been rather difficult all morning too.
The fountain’s story goes back a very long way. In 19 BC, the Romans constructed the Aqua Virgo aqueduct, an engineering marvel that carried fresh water into the baths and fountains of central Rome. According to legend, the aqueduct was named the “Virgin Waters” in honour of a young Roman girl who pointed thirsty soldiers towards the spring’s source — a charming story that may or may not be entirely true, but the Romans were never ones to let facts get in the way of a good tale.
The fountain was built at the terminal end of this aqueduct, at the junction of three roads — tre vie in Italian — which is where the Trevi Fountain gets its name. The Three Street Fountain, essentially. Straightforward enough, and yet it took us an embarrassingly long time to work that out.
Today, the Trevi Fountain pumps out around 2,824,800 cubic feet of water every single day, all of it recycled, which is just as well because the thought of drinking from it — given the number of people lobbing coins in — is not especially appealing. The tradition of throwing a coin over your shoulder into the fountain to ensure a return visit to Rome is well-established, and we duly obliged. Whether it works remains to be seen.
The fountain is crowded day and night, and we mean properly, shoulder-to-shoulder crowded. If you want a photograph without someone else’s head or selfie stick in it, your only realistic hope is to turn up at around six in the morning, when the sensible people are still asleep and the pigeons haven’t fully committed to the day yet.
🏛️ 5. The Pantheon
From the Trevi Fountain we took a five-minute walk through narrow cobbled backstreets — the sort that smell of coffee and scooter exhaust — before arriving at the Pantheon. Even after everything we’d seen that morning, it stopped us in our tracks.
Nearly 2,000 years old and still standing. The word Pantheon comes from the Greek, meaning “honouring all Gods” — a suitably grand ambition for what they had in mind. The first version was built in 27 BC under Emperor Augustus, the man who famously claimed to have found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble. After various calamities — fires, lightning strikes, and the general bad luck that seems to follow ancient buildings around — it was comprehensively rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian around 120 AD. Yes, the wall chap. Apparently he got around.
What saved it from the fate of virtually every other Roman monument — looted, stripped for stone, and generally knocked about by successive waves of barbarians — was a clever bit of religious recycling. In 609 AD, Pope Boniface IV converted it into a Christian church, the first pagan temple in Rome to make the switch. Once it had the Pope’s blessing, nobody dared touch it. Result.
The dome is extraordinary. The largest in the world for an astonishing 1,300 years, and still today the largest unreinforced concrete dome ever built. At 43.3 metres across — 142 feet in old money — it makes the US Capitol dome at a mere 96 feet look rather modest. There is also a pleasing piece of geometry at work: the distance from the floor to the top of the dome equals its diameter exactly. The Romans were clearly showing off.
At the very top sits the oculus — a 9-metre hole, completely open to the sky. When we visited, sunlight poured through in a single dramatic shaft, sweeping slowly across the ancient marble floor. Breathtaking, frankly.
Entry is free. Dress modestly, gentlemen remove hats, and keep quiet — a rule announced periodically and loudly over the speakers, with entirely predictable results.
🏛️ Piazza Navona
We strolled from the Pantheon over to the Piazza Navona, which, if Rome has a living room, this is probably it. One of the largest and most celebrated piazzas in the city, it stretches out in a long, elegant oval — and that distinctive shape is no accident. The piazza was built directly over the ancient Stadium of Domitian, constructed around 86 AD, which once held up to thirty thousand spectators. Fascinating history, or a rather expensive way to design a car park, depending on your point of view.
The real showstopper is the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi — the Fountain of the Four Rivers — sitting proudly in the centre with an enormous obelisk thrusting skyward. This was Bernini’s work, completed in 1651 on the orders of Pope Innocent X, who clearly had no interest in doing things quietly. Around the base sit four enormous marble figures, each representing one of the world’s great rivers: the Ganges for Asia, the Nile for Africa — its head famously covered to suggest the then-unknown source — the Danube for Europe, and the Río de la Plata for the Americas.
🐬 Fontana del Moro
At the southern end stands the Fontana del Moro, depicting a Moor wrestling rather vigorously with a dolphin. Originally designed by Giacomo della Porta in 1575, the central figure was Bernini’s theatrical addition in the seventeenth century — because Bernini was constitutionally incapable of leaving anything alone.
🔱 Fontana di Nettuno
At the northern end sits the Fontana di Nettuno, also originally by della Porta, built in 1576. For nearly three centuries it sat there as little more than a large basin of water, which by Roman standards is practically minimalist. The dramatic centrepiece — Neptune, trident in hand, surrounded by sea nymphs — wasn’t added until the nineteenth century. Both fountains were begun before Bernini’s famous centrepiece but have been altered repeatedly over the years, which is rather typical of Rome, where nothing ever seems quite finished.
Another architectural feature of the piazza is the baroque church of Sant’Agnese in Agone, which provides an impressive backdrop. The original church here was thought to have dated back to around AD 300 when the young St Agnes was martyred here. Inside the church is beautifully ornate, and it is a wonderfully cool escape from the heat of the day.
Day 2
🏛️ Vatican City: Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel & St Peter’s Basilica
One of the highlights of our Rome trip was Vatican City — a fully independent walled city-state sitting right in the middle of Rome. It covers about 110 acres, has a permanent population somewhere in the 800s, and has been the world’s smallest internationally recognised state since the Lateran Treaty of 1929, when Mussolini and the Holy See finally sorted out their differences and the Pope got his own postcode.
It’s an “ecclesiastical” state, ruled by the head of the Catholic Church. So if you’re looking for someone to blame for the gift shop prices, he’s your man.
The main draws are St Peter’s Square, St Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican Museums, and the Sistine Chapel — one of the greatest concentrations of art and architecture on the planet. Michelangelo spent four years on his back painting that ceiling. We walked past it in about twenty minutes, which felt slightly disrespectful, but there you are.
Unlike the Colosseum, the Vatican has no daily visitor cap, which means up to 30,000 people a day attempt to squeeze themselves into the world’s smallest country. That’s 6 million a year. I’ve been on the M25 at rush hour and it felt less congested.
So I booked a “skip the lines” three-hour small-group tour through the Vatican Museum website. Everything I’d read said take the earliest slot, so we went for 8:30 am. We took the metro to Cipro – Musei Vaticani station, a ten-minute walk from the entrance. By 8:00 am the queue already stretched back a good quarter of a mile. We walked straight past the lot of them with a smugness I’m not particularly proud of, but will absolutely admit to.
A few things worth knowing before you go:
🎟️ No guided tour needed — but expect very long queues in summer.
🕊️ St Peter’s Basilica is closed Wednesday mornings for papal audiences. For the Pope, try noon on Sundays or the Wednesday service — book a ticket a day ahead. When we visited in July, there were no audiences scheduled at all.
🗓️ The Museums are closed Sundays and holidays, but free on the last Sunday of each month.
📷 Photography is fine almost everywhere — except the Sistine Chapel, where silence is also expected. Both rules are broken constantly.
👔 Dress code applies — long trousers or a reasonable-length skirt, shoulders covered. They will turn you away.
My full blog post on Vatican City is here.
🕍 2. Rome’s Jewish Ghetto
We found ourselves wandering into one of Rome’s most ancient and, frankly, most overlooked neighbourhoods — the Jewish Ghetto. It sits just below the rather magnificent Campo de’ Fiori, hemmed in by the Tiber River on one side and the hulking remains of the Teatro Marcello on the other. Worth knowing: it’s about a 15 to 20-minute walk from the Vatican, which given the Vatican’s queues, felt like a blessed relief.
This was, of course, long before anyone thought to build proper embankments along the Tiber — a decision the residents presumably regretted every single winter as the river cheerfully flooded their streets. The ghetto itself was confined to just three streets, walled in and gated like some sort of open-air holding pen. Exits were tightly controlled, a curfew was strictly enforced, and the whole arrangement was about as welcoming as a wet Monday morning in Slough.
🏛️ A History Older Than Most Countries
The Jewish community in Rome is, rather astonishingly, the oldest in Europe. The first Jewish arrivals came to Rome during Chanukah in 160 B.C. — that’s well over two thousand years ago, long before Rome even became an empire, and long before anyone had invented pasta, come to think of it. They’ve been here ever since, which is no small achievement given what history eventually threw at them.
The ghetto as a formal, enforced settlement dates to 1555, when Pope Paul IV — not one of history’s more enlightened figures — issued a papal bull called Cum nimis absurdum, which more or less decided that Jewish people should be segregated, restricted in their trades, and made to wear identifying badges. Cheerful stuff. The walls went up, the gates were locked at night, and what had been a community became a cage. The area remained an official ghetto until Italian unification in 1870, when the walls were finally pulled down and Jewish residents were granted equal rights as Italian citizens. It had only taken three centuries. Progress, of a sort.
🍽️ Lunch: A Welcome Escape from Pasta
By this point in our Roman adventure, we had eaten so much pasta and pizza that we were beginning to resemble a pair of rather bloated carbohydrates ourselves. So when we spotted the cluster of kosher restaurants along the ghetto’s main street, Via del Portico d’Ottavia, we practically sprinted towards them.
The street is admittedly a touch touristy — there’s no avoiding that — but it retains a genuine neighbourhood character and makes for a very pleasant spot to sit outside and watch the world drift by in that particular Roman way, where everyone looks as though they have somewhere important to be but is in absolutely no hurry to get there.
We chose Su Ghetto, which has a lovely outdoor seating area. The indoor space is a bit more on the utilitarian side — functional, you might say, though it does have the considerable advantage of air conditioning, which in a Roman summer counts for a great deal. The menu leans towards Roman-Jewish cooking, a distinctive cuisine that developed over centuries of the community making do with less prestigious cuts of meat and whatever vegetables they could get hold of. Out of that necessity came some genuinely brilliant food.
We tried the deep-fried artichoke — carciofi alla giudia — which is one of the iconic dishes of Roman-Jewish cooking. The artichoke is flattened and fried until it resembles a crispy sunflower, and it is rather extraordinary. Interesting is perhaps an understatement. It was very good indeed.
🥐 The Bakery You Could Easily Miss
Right next door to Su Ghetto sits a tiny bakery called Pasticceria il Boccione. And when we say tiny, we mean it — you could fit perhaps six people inside at a squeeze, and that’s if everyone breathes in. There’s no sign on the outside to announce its name, just a simple chalkboard listing what’s available that day. It has been run by the same family for generations and looks precisely as though it has.
The cakes and pastries are baked according to traditional Roman-Jewish recipes, many of which are centuries old. If they have it — and this is important — you absolutely must try the ricotta and sour cherry pie. It is dense, rustic, and completely delicious. Not delicate patisserie by any stretch of the imagination, but honest and deeply flavourful in the way that only something made from a very old recipe by someone who really knows what they’re doing can be.
🏛️ The Portico d’Ottavia
After lunch we walked down Via del Portico d’Ottavia to have a look at the ruins of the Portico d’Ottavia itself. Built by the Emperor Augustus around 27 B.C. and dedicated to his sister Octavia, it was once a grand colonnaded structure enclosing temples to Jupiter and Juno, along with libraries, artworks looted from Greece, and all the other things the Romans liked to accumulate. At its peak it measured roughly 135 by 115 metres and would have been properly impressive.
What’s left now is considerably less grand — a few columns and fragments of the original gateway — and it sits somewhat awkwardly in the shadow of the adjacent Baroque church of Sant’Angelo in Pescheria, which was built into the ruins in the eighth century because medieval builders had very little time for sentiment about ancient monuments. The church was later renamed Santa Maria in Campitelli. The ruins are worth a pause, even if they do require a reasonable amount of imagination.
🪧 A Sign on the Wall
It was here, glancing around at the buildings nearby, that we noticed a memorial plaque on the wall of what appeared to be an entirely unremarkable building. We went closer to read it.
The plaque marked one of the darkest mornings in the history of this neighbourhood. On 16th October 1943, SS Captain Theodor Dannecker — acting on orders from Berlin — led a raid on the Jewish Ghetto that began at 5:30 in the morning. By then, Rome had been under German occupation for just over a month, following Italy’s armistice with the Allies in September. The ghetto, which had technically ceased to exist as a legal institution in 1870, had become a de facto prison once again under the occupation.
In the space of a few hours, Dannecker’s troops rounded up 1,259 people — men, women, and children — from their homes. Most of the community had already fled or gone into hiding, warned by local Italians and by the Vatican, which opened its doors to Jewish refugees. But over a thousand were not fast enough, or had nowhere to go, or simply didn’t believe it would be as bad as it turned out to be.
Of those 1,259 people, 1,023 were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau within days. Only 16 survived the war. Fifteen of those were men. Only one woman came home.
🖼️ Fondazione Museo della Shoah
The building behind the plaque, which we had taken for an ordinary residential block, turned out to be something else entirely — a small museum dedicated to the Holocaust in Italy. The Fondazione Museo della Shoah is not large, and it would be easy to walk straight past it without a second glance, which is perhaps part of the point.
Inside, the museum houses a collection of photographs that were uncovered documenting the events of the Holocaust as it unfolded across Italy. Most of the captions and signage are in Italian, though there are docents on hand who can explain and translate for visitors. But honestly — and we mean this — the photographs largely speak for themselves. The horror and the sadness don’t require translation.
It is not a comfortable place to spend time. It is not supposed to be.
🕍 The Jewish Museum of Rome — A Bit of History You Really Shouldn’t Skip
If you fancied a proper, in-depth look at Rome’s Jewish community — and most visitors walked straight past without a second thought, bless them — then the Museo Ebraico di Roma, the Jewish Museum of Rome, turned out to be one of the more rewarding stops we made in the whole city.
The museum sat tucked in the basement of Rome’s Great Synagogue, just around the corner from the Portico d’Ottavia, that battered but still imposing ancient gateway dating back to around 23 BC. The synagogue itself, the Tempio Maggiore, was completed in 1904 and its distinctive aluminium dome remains visible from considerable distance across the city.
What the museum did rather well was convey just how ancient Rome’s Jewish presence actually was. We’re not talking medieval arrivals — the community dates back over two thousand years, to roughly the 2nd century BC, making it one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world outside the Middle East. They were already established traders and residents long before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD brought a further wave, many unfortunately arriving as slaves.
The Ghetto itself, the streets immediately surrounding the museum, had its own sobering story. Pope Paul IV established it in 1555, confining the Jewish population to a cramped, flood-prone strip along the Tiber, gates locked at night, for over three hundred years until Italian unification ended the arrangement in 1870. One tries not to dwell on that too heavily over a gelato, but the museum made sure you understood it properly.
The collection covered ceremonial objects, textiles, documents and artefacts across those two millennia, presented in a way that even confirmed gift-shop specialists like ourselves found genuinely engaging.
Guided tours ran out through the Ghetto from €8.00 per person for a group, and private tours were available if you preferred something rather more personal than shuffling along with strangers.
🏛️ The Teatro di Marcello — Rome’s Other Amphitheatre
From the Portico d’Ottavia, it was barely a five-minute walk to the Teatro di Marcello, and our first reaction was — hang on, haven’t we already seen this? It looked for all the world like a smaller version of the Colosseum. Which, as it turns out, is not entirely a coincidence.
Both are amphitheatres, both feature that same unmistakable stack of rounded arches the Romans were so pleased with themselves about. The difference, though, is significant: the Teatro di Marcello got there first. The Colosseum’s construction began in 72 AD under Emperor Vespasian. The Teatro di Marcello was already ancient history by then, inaugurated in 12 BC by Augustus — over 80 years earlier. Augustus named it after his nephew Marcellus, who had died young in 23 BC.
🏠 Ancient Ruins With a Very Modern Twist
What makes the Teatro di Marcello genuinely peculiar is its unusual dual existence. The lower section is a publicly owned ancient monument, as you’d expect. But perched directly on top of the Roman arches is a set of Renaissance-era apartments, added in the 16th century by the Savelli family. The red-brick residential floors look slightly surreal sitting atop 2,000-year-old stonework — a bit like finding a conservatory bolted onto Stonehenge.
We’d heard the apartments cost an arm and a leg to own. Quite what it does to your home insurance when your living room rests on a Roman theatre from 12 BC, we shudder to think. Still, you couldn’t argue with the address.
🎵 Summer Concerts
One thing we sadly missed, through our usual inability to organise ourselves in advance, was the summer concert series held in the open-air space around the Teatro di Marcello. Classical music, warm Roman evenings, ancient arches as a backdrop — by all accounts quite special. We were, characteristically, a day too late. Maybe next time. We always say that.
🏘️ 3. Trastevere
From the Jewish Ghetto, we crossed the River Tiber and made our way into Trastevere. The name itself comes from the Latin trans Tiberim — literally “across the Tiber” — which tells you everything about Roman creativity when it came to naming places.
Trastevere is one of Rome’s oldest districts, and it has retained a pleasingly stubborn connection to its working-class roots. For centuries this was a neighbourhood of tanners, fishermen and mill workers who lived alongside the river. Today it’s rather more fragrant, having attracted the sort of bohemians and hipsters who’ve decided that authenticity is best appreciated over a craft beer. The result, as is usually the way, is that innovative trattorias, craft beer pubs and artisan shops have been popping up on every corner.
Located right above Trastevere on the west side of the Tiber, the Gianicolo — or Janiculum Hill — offers one of the most terrific panoramic views over the Eternal City. The hill has genuine historical weight too: in 1849 it was the site of Garibaldi’s heroic and ultimately doomed defence against the French army. There’s a splendid equestrian statue of the great man at the top, glaring imperiously over the city he fought so hard to unify. Starting from Via Garibaldi, you can reach the summit with a gentle 20-minute walk along the Passeggiata del Gianicolo. It’s the sort of walk that makes you feel vaguely healthy without requiring any real effort — which is exactly my kind of exercise.
🚴 Bike Tour (Appian Way, Catacombs & Aqueduct Park)
For years, I’d been watching other tourists glide past on bikes and Segways looking terribly pleased with themselves, thinking, yes, that looks rather good actually. Not the Segways — nobody looks good on a Segway — but the cycling, definitely the cycling. So when we found ourselves in Rome, I finally stopped watching other people have a good time and booked us onto a six-hour e-bike tour.
Karen and I have always been keen cyclists. Nothing competitive, I should say — we’re not the sort who squeeze into Lycra and terrorise people in the park at seven in the morning. We just enjoy a good pedal about. But as the years have begun to stack up rather alarmingly, arriving at our destination completely red-faced and unable to speak has lost some of its appeal. That’s where the electric-assist bicycle comes in. Karen had been particularly keen to give them a proper go, and this seemed the perfect opportunity — beautiful Roman countryside, serious history, and a battery doing half the work. Splendid.
The route promised something quite special: out along the Via Appia Antica, one of the most ancient roads in the world, taking in the famous Catacombs and the extraordinary Aqueduct Park. Roughly two thousand years of human endeavour, covered at a comfortable pace on a bike with a motor.
🌙 Nighttime Walking Tour
Rome, like most places around the Mediterranean, genuinely wakes up after dark. We’d spent the days ticking off the tourist highlights in the usual sweaty, shoulder-to-shoulder fashion, so heading out at night felt like a rather good idea. The Romans have been doing evenings properly for centuries, and frankly, they’ve got it right. Dinner at nine in the evening is perfectly normal here. Restaurants that serve locals — as opposed to the ones with laminated picture menus aimed squarely at bewildered tourists — won’t even unlock the doors before eight o’clock. Nobody seems to be in a hurry either. Groups of friends, couples, families — they’ll sit down at nine and still be there at midnight, chatting away over the remnants of a second bottle of something decent. It’s a civilised way to carry on, even if the service can occasionally test the patience of anyone raised on the British pub model of getting your order in before last bell.
Walking the city at night also has the considerable practical advantage of not being roasted alive. Rome in summer is brutally hot during the day, the kind of heat that makes you genuinely reconsider your life choices around the third fountain you’ve had to stand next to just to cool down. At night, the temperature drops to something approaching pleasant, and suddenly the whole place takes on a completely different character.
We started our evening stroll at the Colosseum, which is lit up after dark with a warm amber glow. It really is something — vast, ancient, slightly eerie. Though, oddly enough, the lighting gave the whole thing a distinctly car park energy. All that Roman engineering, two thousand years of history, and the first thing it reminded us of was the NCP on a Tuesday night. Weird, but there it is.
From the Colosseum, we headed towards the Trevi Fountains, which not surprisingly was as busy at night as it was during the day.
Just a short walk from the Trevi Fountains is the Spanish Steps. Built between 1723 and 1725, these 138 steps connect the lower Piazza di Spagna with the upper Piazza Trinita dei Monti, with its beautiful twin-tower church. They are wide and irregular and have been worn down in places and made very slick (you’d need to be careful on wet and icy days). The elegance of these steps has been a magnet for artists, painters and poets. Just feet from the foot of the Spanish Steps is 26 Piazza di Spagna, the final resting place of the great English poet John Keats, which today is a museum dedicated to him and Percy Shelley, the romantic poet who also died in Italy about a year after Keats had passed.
Planning your trip
🏛️ Rome — The Eternal City
Rome is one of the world’s great cities, a living, breathing museum where ancient ruins stand alongside baroque fountains and humming neighbourhood trattorias. As the capital of Italy and once the centre of the Roman Empire, it carries more than two and a half thousand years of history within its streets. Few cities on earth can match the sheer density of art, architecture, and culture that Rome offers at every turn.
📍 Location
Rome sits in the central-western part of the Italian peninsula, in the Lazio region, straddling the River Tiber. It covers a large metropolitan area and is famously built across seven hills. The historic centre — where the majority of its famous landmarks are clustered — is relatively compact and walkable. Surrounding neighbourhoods such as Trastevere, Testaccio, Prati, and Monti each have their own distinct character and are well worth exploring beyond the main tourist trail.
✈️ Getting There
By Air
Rome is served by two airports. Leonardo da Vinci International Airport, known as Fiumicino (FCO), is the main international gateway and is located approximately 32 kilometres south-west of the city centre. It is one of the largest airports in Europe and handles the majority of long-haul and European flights. Ciampino Airport (CIA), around 16 kilometres south-east of the centre, is used primarily by budget airlines operating European routes.
From Fiumicino, the fastest way into the city is the Leonardo Express, a non-stop train service that runs directly to Roma Termini, the city’s central railway station, in around 32 minutes. Trains run every 15 minutes or so throughout the day. A slower and cheaper regional train — the FL1 — also runs from the airport, stopping at Trastevere, Ostiense, and Tiburtina stations, and is a good option if you are staying in those areas. Official taxis operate a fixed flat fare from Fiumicino to destinations within the Aurelian Walls. Coach services also connect the airport to Termini and the Vatican area and are the most economical option, though journey times vary depending on traffic.
From Ciampino, shuttle buses run regularly to Termini station. The journey takes around 35 to 45 minutes.
By Train
Rome is exceptionally well connected by rail to the rest of Italy. High-speed Frecciarossa trains link the city to Florence, Milan, Naples, Venice, and Turin, making train travel an attractive and comfortable option for those exploring the country more widely. All intercity trains arrive at Roma Termini, which is the hub of the entire city transport network.
By Road
Rome is reachable by road, though driving into the city itself is not advisable. The historic centre is a Limited Traffic Zone (ZTL), and foreign visitors driving within this area without a permit face automatic fines. Unless you specifically need a car for trips into the surrounding countryside, it is far better to use public transport once in Rome
Getting to and Around Rome
🛬 Getting to Rome
By Air
Rome is served by two international airports. Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (Fiumicino, FCO) is the main gateway, handling the vast majority of long-haul and European flights, and sits around 30 kilometres south-west of the city centre. Ciampino Airport (CIA) is smaller and primarily serves low-cost carriers such as Ryanair and Wizz Air, located roughly 15 kilometres south-east of the centre.
🌐 Aeroporti di Roma: www.adr.it
By Train
Rome sits at the heart of Italy’s high-speed rail network, making it easy to arrive from cities such as Milan (around 3 hours), Florence (1.5 hours) and Naples (just over 1 hour). The main terminus is Roma Termini, which also connects directly to the metro. Roma Tiburtina handles some high-speed services too. Trenitalia and Italo are the two main operators. Booking in advance typically secures the best fares.
🌐 Trenitalia: www.trenitalia.com 🌐 Italo: www.italotreno.it
By Coach
Long-distance coach services connect Rome with many European cities and are one of the more budget-friendly options. FlixBus and BlaBlaCar Bus serve a wide range of routes, with services arriving at Tiburtina bus station.
🌐 FlixBus: www.flixbus.co.uk
🚆 From Fiumicino Airport to the City Centre
Leonardo Express The fastest and most straightforward link between Fiumicino Airport and Roma Termini is the Leonardo Express, a non-stop train journey taking approximately 32 minutes. Trains run every 15 minutes during peak hours and every 30 minutes in the evening. A single ticket costs €14 per adult. Children under 12 travel free when accompanied by an adult.
FL1 Regional Train A cheaper alternative, the FL1 regional train stops at several suburban stations (Trastevere, Ostiense, Tuscolana, Tiburtina) before terminating at Fara Sabina. A single ticket costs around €8. Useful if your accommodation is closer to these stations rather than Termini.
Bus Several coach services run from Fiumicino to Termini and other central stops. Providers include Terravision, SIT Bus Shuttle and TAM. Journey times vary between 50 minutes and 1.5 hours depending on traffic. Tickets are typically €6–7 when booked online in advance.
🌐 Terravision: www.terravision.eu
Taxi An official fixed fare of €50 applies for journeys between Fiumicino Airport and destinations within the Aurelian Walls (the historic centre). Always use licensed white taxis with a metre or agree the fixed fare before setting off.
🚌 From Ciampino Airport to the City Centre
Bus Terravision, SIT Bus Shuttle and Cotral all run coaches from Ciampino to Roma Termini. Journey times are around 40 minutes, with tickets costing approximately €5–6 online.
Taxi A fixed fare of €31 applies for journeys between Ciampino and destinations within the Aurelian Walls.
🚇 Getting Around Rome — The Metro
Rome’s metro (la metropolitana) is efficient for covering longer distances quickly, though the network is limited to just three lines:
- Linea A — runs from Battistini in the west to Anagnina in the south-east, passing through key stops including Ottaviano (for the Vatican), Spagna (Spanish Steps), Barberini and Repubblica.
- Linea B / B1 — connects Laurentina and Jonio, stopping at Colosseo (for the Colosseum) and Termini.
- Linea C — currently under construction and expanding; connects the eastern suburbs to the city.
The metro runs from approximately 05:30 to 23:30 Sunday to Thursday, and until 01:30 on Fridays and Saturdays.
🌐 Rome Public Transport (ATAC): www.atac.roma.it
🎟️ Travel Cards and Tickets
Rome uses a unified ticketing system across the metro, buses, trams and urban rail lines, managed by ATAC. The same ticket or travel card is valid across all modes within the city.
| Ticket | Price | Validity |
|---|---|---|
| BIT (single journey) | €1.50 | 100 minutes from validation; one metro ride |
| 24-hour pass | €7.00 | Unlimited travel for 24 hours |
| 48-hour pass | €12.50 | Unlimited travel for 48 hours |
| 72-hour pass | €18.00 | Unlimited travel for 72 hours |
| 7-day pass (CIS) | €24.00 | Unlimited travel for 7 days |
Tickets can be bought at metro stations, ATAC kiosks, newsstands (edicole) and tobacconists (tabaccherie). The MyCicero and Moovit apps also allow mobile ticket purchase.
🌐 ATAC tickets: www.atac.roma.it
🚌 Buses and Trams
The bus network is the most extensive in Rome, covering areas the metro does not reach, including much of the historic centre. Key routes include:
- 40 Express / 64 — from Termini to the Vatican
- H — a high-frequency route linking Termini to Trastevere
- Tram 8 — connects the city centre to Trastevere and beyond
- Tram 3 — useful for reaching the Colosseum area from Trastevere
Buses can be crowded during rush hours and can be slowed by traffic. Validate your ticket on board as soon as you board.
🚡 The Roma–Lido and Suburban Railways
For day trips, two useful suburban rail lines extend beyond the ATAC network:
- Roma–Lido (FL8) — connects Piramide station to the seaside at Ostia Lido, taking around 30 minutes. Useful for visiting the ancient ruins of Ostia Antica as well.
- Roma–Viterbo — a regional line departing from Flaminio station, passing through the Villa Borghese area and heading north.
These are included on standard ATAC travel passes within the urban zone.
🚲 Cycling and E-Scooters
Rome has expanded its cycling infrastructure in recent years, though it remains a challenging city for cyclists due to cobblestones and traffic. Several bike-sharing and e-scooter services operate in the city, including:
- Helbiz (e-scooters and e-bikes) — www.helbiz.com
- Bird (e-scooters) — www.bird.co
- Cityscoot (electric mopeds) — www.cityscoot.eu
Dockless scooters must be parked in designated zones and ridden on cycle paths or roads — not pavements.
🚕 Taxis and Ride-Hailing
Official taxis in Rome are white and metered. You can find them at designated ranks (many near major attractions and stations) or book by phone. The main operator is RadioTaxi:
🌐 RadioTaxi: www.radiotaxi3570.it
Ride-hailing: Uber operates in Rome in its Uber Black (professional driver) format rather than the standard UberX model, so fares tend to be higher than in other cities. The app FREE NOW (formerly mytaxi) connects passengers with licensed taxi drivers and is a popular alternative.
🌐 FREE NOW: www.free-now.com
🚶 Walking
For the historic centre — the area containing the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fountain and Campo de’ Fiori — walking is genuinely the best option. Many of the key sights are within 20–30 minutes of each other on foot, the streets are atmospheric, and some of Rome’s best discoveries happen between the main attractions. Comfortable shoes are strongly recommended given the cobbled streets.
Vegan Dining in Rome
🌿 Vegan Dining in Rome: A Guide to the Best Plant-Based Restaurants, Cafés & Food Spots
Rome’s culinary scene has embraced plant-based dining with impressive creativity, offering everything from fine-dining tasting menus to colourful vegan burgers and pay-by-weight buffets. Here is a guide to some of the city’s most celebrated vegan and vegan-friendly establishments.
🌱 Il Margutta Vegetarian Food & Art
Rome’s oldest and most iconic vegetarian restaurant, Il Margutta opened in 1979 as the very first vegetarian establishment in Italy. Set on the charming, art-lined Via Margutta — a short stroll from Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps — it doubles as an art gallery, making for a truly multi-sensory dining experience. The menu is entirely vegetarian with extensive vegan options clearly marked, and around 90% of its produce is organic, arriving daily from local growers. Highlights include a weekday all-you-can-eat lunch buffet and a popular weekend Green Brunch.
- Location: Via Margutta, 118, 00187 Rome (between Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps)
- Website: ilmargutta.bio
- Phone: +39 06 3265 0577
- Opening Hours:
- Monday–Sunday: 10:30 am – 11:30 pm
- Lunch buffet: 12:30 pm – 3:30 pm
- Weekend Green Brunch: 12:30 pm – 4:00 pm
🍽️ Rifugio Romano
One of Rome’s most beloved fully vegan restaurants, Rifugio Romano is conveniently located near Termini Station and the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. The rustic interior, with its tall ceilings and warm wooden accents, provides a welcoming backdrop for what is widely regarded as some of the finest plant-based Italian cooking in the city. The menu reimagines Roman classics — vegan carbonara, cacio e pepe, amatriciana, artichoke lasagne — to impressive effect. Reservations are strongly recommended, especially for dinner.
- Location: Via Volturno, 39/41, 00185 Rome (near Termini Station)
- Website: rifugioromano.com
- Phone: +39 06 4880945
- Opening Hours:
- Tuesday–Sunday: 11:00 am – 11:00 pm
- Monday: Closed
🥗 Ops! Cucina Mediterranea
A firm favourite with locals and visitors alike, Ops! is a relaxed, pay-by-weight vegan buffet restaurant situated in the Salario neighbourhood near Villa Borghese. Created by celebrated Italian vegan chef Simone Salvini, the ever-changing buffet features colourful Mediterranean-inspired dishes — hearty grain bowls, salads, vegan lasagne, marinated tempeh, seitan dishes and desserts — that shift with the seasons and the market. The casual, chic setting fills up quickly at lunchtime with stylish locals seeking wholesome food.
- Location: Via Bergamo, 56, 00198 Rome (Salario, near Piazza Fiume and Villa Borghese)
- Website: opsveg.com
- Phone: +39 06 841 1769
- Opening Hours:
- Monday: 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm (lunch only)
- Tuesday–Sunday: 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm (lunch); 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm (dinner)
🍔 Flower Burger
Italy’s first vegan burger chain, Flower Burger has become something of a cult phenomenon. Their signature draw is the brilliantly coloured, plant-based buns — the purple hue from black carrot extract, the pink from beetroot, the green from spirulina — stuffed with patties made from chickpeas, barley, seitan, beans and lentils. The Rome branch in the Prati district, near the Vatican, is ideal for a fun, affordable, Instagram-worthy meal. Sides include paprika potatoes, edamame and crunchy aubergine. A second Rome location exists in the Salario neighbourhood.
- Location: Via dei Gracchi, 87, 00192 Rome (Prati, near the Vatican); also at Via Alessandria, 21 (Salario)
- Website: flowerburger.it
- Phone: +39 06 4566 6538 (Prati); +39 06 8961 7725 (Salario)
- Opening Hours:
- Monday–Thursday: 12:30 pm – 3:30 pm; 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm
- Friday–Saturday: 12:30 pm – 3:30 pm; 7:30 pm – 11:30 pm
- Sunday: 12:30 pm – 3:30 pm; 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm
☕ Buddy Veggy Restaurant Café
A popular all-day café and restaurant right in the heart of Rome, Buddy Veggy sits on the bustling Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, conveniently close to Campo de’ Fiori, the Jewish Quarter and the Vatican. The concept is simple: traditional Roman cuisine reimagined entirely in plant-based form. The extensive menu spans breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, covering everything from vegan carbonara and cacio e pepe to pizzas, vegan cheeses, burgers, fresh juices and desserts. The atmosphere is modern, lively and welcoming, with both indoor and outdoor seating.
- Location: Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 107A, 00186 Rome (near Campo de’ Fiori and Largo Argentina)
- Website: buddyroma.com
- Phone: +39 06 8772 8433
- Opening Hours:
- Monday–Friday: 10:00 am – 11:00 pm
- Saturday–Sunday: 9:00 am – 11:00 pm
🌸 Vrindaa – Vegan Fine Dining
For an elevated plant-based dining experience, Vrindaa is in a class of its own. Described as Rome’s first 100% vegan fine dining restaurant, it draws on Ayurvedic and sattvic food philosophy, fusing Italian and Indian culinary traditions in inventive, beautifully presented dishes. Think creamy blueberry pasta, vegan carbonara with smoked soya and toasted pistachio, and a chef’s tasting menu that changes with the seasons. Located on Via Salaria near Villa Borghese, the intimate setting — serene, plant-filled and thoughtfully decorated — feels like a true sanctuary. Nearly 75% of the ingredients come from the restaurant’s own farm, and even the wine is from their own vegan winery.
- Location: Via Salaria, 203, 00198 Rome (near Villa Borghese)
- Website: vrindaa.it
- Phone: +39 06 8693 2756
- Opening Hours:
- Monday, Wednesday–Sunday: 7:00 pm – 10:30 pm (dinner)
- Tuesday, Thursday–Saturday: also open for lunch 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm
- (Hours may vary; booking in advance is strongly recommended)
Best time to visit Rome
🌸 Spring (March–May)
Spring is widely regarded as the finest season to visit Rome. Temperatures are pleasantly mild, ranging from around 12°C in March to a comfortable 22°C by May, making it ideal for exploring the city on foot. The days are long and bright, the city’s piazzas burst into bloom, and the famous wisteria cascades over ancient walls and villa gardens. Crowds are building but have not yet reached the overwhelming levels of summer. Easter, which falls in spring, draws large numbers of pilgrims and tourists to the Vatican, so accommodation should be booked well in advance if your visit coincides with Holy Week. The Roman countryside is lush and green, and al fresco dining becomes an evening pleasure rather than an ordeal.
🧳 What to Pack: Lightweight layers, a waterproof jacket, comfortable walking shoes, a light scarf, sunglasses, SPF 30 sunscreen, a compact umbrella, smart-casual evening wear, and a crossbody bag for sightseeing.
☀️ Summer (June–August)
Summer in Rome is hot, often intensely so, with temperatures regularly reaching 32°C to 36°C and humidity making it feel even warmer. July and August are the peak tourist months, meaning long queues at major attractions, packed public transport, and inflated prices for flights and hotels. That said, summer has its charms. The city hosts outdoor film screenings, concerts at ancient venues, and vibrant evening street life that extends well past midnight. Many Romans leave the city in August, so certain neighbourhoods take on a quieter, more local character. Early morning visits to the Colosseum or the Roman Forum can be magical before the heat builds. Hydration and sun protection are non-negotiable.
🧳 What to Pack: Breathable linen or cotton clothing, a wide-brimmed hat, high-factor sunscreen (SPF 50+), a refillable water bottle, sandals and light trainers, a portable fan, a light cardigan for air-conditioned museums and churches, a modest cover-up for basilica visits, and insect repellent for evenings.
🍂 Autumn (September–November)
Autumn rivals spring as the best season to visit Rome and, for many seasoned travellers, surpasses it. September retains the warmth of summer — often 26°C or above — without the relentless crowds. October brings golden light, cooling temperatures, and the grape harvest in the surrounding Lazio countryside. Rome’s markets overflow with mushrooms, chestnuts, and seasonal produce, and the city’s restaurants are at their most enticing. By November, temperatures drop to around 12°C to 15°C and rainfall increases, but visitor numbers thin considerably and the great monuments can be enjoyed with far more space and serenity. Autumn light lends a particular beauty to Rome’s ochre and terracotta facades.
🧳 What to Pack: A versatile mid-layer (light wool or fleece), a waterproof coat, ankle boots or sturdy walking shoes, trousers and smart jeans, a warm scarf for evenings in November, an umbrella, SPF 30 sunscreen for September, and a tote bag for market shopping.
❄️ Winter (December–February)
Winter is Rome’s quietest and most affordable season for visitors. Temperatures hover between 4°C and 12°C, and while snow is rare, cold wind and persistent rain are common, particularly in January and February. Christmas, however, transforms the city. Piazza Navona hosts its traditional Christmas market, and the Vatican is especially atmospheric for Midnight Mass at St Peter’s Basilica. The major museums are less crowded, and queue times at the Colosseum and the Pantheon drop dramatically. Hotel rates fall sharply outside of the Christmas and New Year period. Those willing to brave the chill will find a more intimate, unhurried Rome — one closer to how the city actually lives and breathes.
🧳 What to Pack: A warm coat (wool or down), thermal base layers, a hat and gloves, a warm scarf, waterproof boots, thick socks, a compact umbrella, smart layers for Christmas concerts or dinners, and a small rucksack for day trips.
📊 Season Summary Table
🏆 The Overall Best Time to Visit
For most visitors, late April to early June and mid-September to October represent the sweet spot. The weather is reliably pleasant, daylight hours are generous, and the city’s most celebrated sights — the Colosseum, the Vatican Museums, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps — can be enjoyed without the suffocating heat or exhausting queues of peak summer. Prices for flights and accommodation are more reasonable, and Rome itself feels more alive and less like a theme park. If budget is the primary concern, a late January or February visit offers extraordinary value and a genuinely authentic experience of the Eternal City. Whatever the season, Rome rewards those who arrive with comfortable shoes, an unhurried spirit, and a willingness to wander beyond the obvious.
Where to stay?
🏛️ Where to Stay in Rome: The Best Areas for Tourists
Rome is a city of layers — ancient cobblestones beneath Renaissance piazzas, Baroque fountains around every corner, and a neighbourhood character that shifts dramatically from one street to the next. Choosing where to base yourself matters enormously: the right area will put you within walking distance of the sights you care about most, immerse you in the city’s distinctive atmosphere, and shape the whole tenor of your trip. Whether you’re drawn to the grand sweep of classical history, the bohemian charm of an ancient quarter, the devout grandeur of the Vatican, or the lively creativity of a neighbourhood beloved by locals and artists alike, Rome has a corner that suits you perfectly.
🗺️ Centro Storico (Historic Centre)
The Centro Storico is the beating heart of Rome and, for most first-time visitors, the obvious choice for a base. This is the Rome of postcards and dreams — a labyrinthine tangle of narrow medieval streets, sunlit piazzas, and some of the most celebrated monuments in Western civilisation. Within a short stroll of almost any hotel in the area, you’ll find the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Campo de’ Fiori, and the magnificent Piazza Navona. The density of sights here is almost absurd: turn a corner and you’ll stumble upon a 16th-century church with a Caravaggio inside, or a fountain by Bernini tucked between two trattorias. The area is best explored entirely on foot, and its central position means that even the Colosseum and the Vatican are reachable in under 30 minutes by bus or metro.
The flip side of that extraordinary convenience is that the Centro Storico is unabashedly touristy. Prices in restaurants and shops are higher than in surrounding neighbourhoods, the streets fill up with visitors from mid-morning onwards, and ambient noise can be significant on the busier piazzas. However, the sheer joy of stepping out of your hotel and finding yourself immediately embedded in Roman history more than compensates for these minor inconveniences. Staying here means you can wander out after dinner, when the tour groups have thinned and the piazzas fill with Romans enjoying their passeggiata — one of the most magical experiences the city has to offer. For first-time visitors especially, there is really nowhere better.
🏨 Where to Stay — Centro Storico
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Upscale — Portrait Roma — A discreet, Forbes five-star boutique hotel perched above the Ferragamo boutique on Via dei Condotti, steps from the Spanish Steps. Fourteen lavishly appointed suites, a dedicated Lifestyle Team, and exceptional personalised service make this one of Rome’s most coveted addresses. Rated 9.8/10 on Booking.com.
- ⭐⭐⭐ Mid-Range — Hotel Damaso — Housed in a beautifully restored 19th-century palace near Piazza Navona and Campo de’ Fiori, this three-star gem punches well above its weight. Highlights include marble bathrooms with rainfall showers, a lounge bar, and a rooftop terrace with sweeping views over the rooftops of Rome. Rated 9.1/10 from over 1,800 verified reviews on Booking.com.
- 🛏️ Budget — The RomeHello — One of Rome’s most celebrated hostels, The RomeHello is modern, spotlessly clean, and brimming with character. Offering everything from mixed dorms to private quadruple rooms, it features a restaurant and bar, a fully equipped kitchen, daily activities, and famously warm staff. Rated 9.3/10 from over 7,000 verified reviews on Booking.com.
🌿 Trastevere
Trastevere — whose name derives from the Latin for “beyond the Tiber” — sits on the western bank of the river and has long been considered Rome’s most atmospheric neighbourhood. It is a place of warm ochre and terracotta façades, ivy-draped medieval buildings, and streets so narrow that neighbouring residents could practically shake hands from their balconies. The neighbourhood is anchored by the magnificent Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere, whose golden mosaics glitter above one of Rome’s loveliest piazzas. Come evening, the quarter transforms into a hub of outdoor dining and aperitivo culture, with tables spilling out of restaurants into the lanes and locals mingling with visitors until well past midnight. It has a genuinely neighbourhood feel that the Centro Storico cannot always offer, and yet the Pantheon, the Colosseum, and the Vatican are all within a manageable distance by foot or public transport.
It would be misleading to describe Trastevere as a “hidden gem” — it has been popular with tourists for decades and that popularity shows. English menus are the norm in many restaurants close to Piazza Santa Maria, and weekend evenings can become very lively indeed. But venture even a few streets away from the main square and you’ll find a quieter, more genuinely residential Rome, with small shops, neighbourhood bars, and locals who have lived there for generations. For visitors who want to balance genuine Roman atmosphere with excellent dining, good transport links, and proximity to the main sights, Trastevere remains one of the finest bases in the city. The Botanical Garden and the Janiculum Hill are also nearby for those seeking a breath of fresh air and stunning panoramic views over the city.
🏨 Where to Stay — Trastevere
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Upscale — Donna Camilla Savelli – VRetreats — Originally a 17th-century Baroque convent designed by the celebrated architect Borromini, this four-star (marketed as a luxury boutique) property is one of Rome’s most characterful hotels. Guests enjoy a secret garden for al fresco breakfasts, a rooftop terrace with city views, exposed wooden beam ceilings, and precious stucco decorations. A truly unique Roman experience. Highly rated on Booking.com.
- ⭐⭐⭐ Mid-Range — Hotel Santa Maria — Set in a converted 16th-century convent just steps from Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere, this intimate three-star property is consistently ranked among the top hotels in Rome. Nineteen rooms overlook a tranquil interior courtyard filled with orange trees and Mediterranean greenery. A complimentary breakfast and happy-hour drinks make it exceptional value. Rated 9.8/10 on Expedia, with outstanding Booking.com reviews.
- 🛏️ Budget — Hostel Trastevere — A no-frills but well-located budget option that gives access to the Trastevere area at a fraction of the price of nearby hotels. Shared dormitories and private rooms are available, with free Wi-Fi, a shared kitchen, lockers, and luggage storage. The location puts everything from the Vatican to the Campo de’ Fiori within easy walking distance. Listed on Booking.com.
✝️ Vatican & Prati
The Prati district sits just north of the Vatican, separated from the ancient city by the broad sweep of the Tiber, and it is one of Rome’s most elegant and underrated neighbourhoods in which to base yourself. Developed in the late 19th century, it is characterised by wide, tree-lined boulevards, handsome Liberty-style architecture, and a sophisticated local feel that sets it apart from the more frenetic energy of the Centro Storico. The main shopping artery, Via Cola di Rienzo, is lined with excellent delis, boutiques, cafés, and bakeries frequented by locals rather than tourists, giving the area an authenticity that is genuinely refreshing. St Peter’s Square and the Vatican Museums are a short walk away, making Prati the natural choice for anyone whose visit centres on the Vatican. Castel Sant’Angelo, the ancient mausoleum-turned-fortress on the banks of the Tiber, is also just a short stroll away.
The neighbourhood’s slightly removed position from the Centro Storico — across the river — means that reaching the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the Trevi Fountain requires either a metro ride or a lengthy walk. However, for those who prioritise comfort, elegance, and a genuine neighbourhood atmosphere over pure sightseeing convenience, Prati more than compensates. Two metro stations (Ottaviano and Lepanto on Line A) provide swift connections to Termini and beyond, and the neighbourhood’s many excellent restaurants offer some of the most authentic Roman dining in the city — think proper cacio e pepe and tonnarello, rather than tourist-menu pasta. Prati is an excellent choice for anyone who wants to feel like a Roman rather than merely visit.
🏨 Where to Stay — Vatican & Prati
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Upscale — Atlante Star Hotel — A four-to-five-star classic in the Prati district, just a five-minute walk from St Peter’s Square. The hotel’s greatest asset is its rooftop restaurant, which offers breathtaking panoramic views over the dome of St Peter’s Basilica — one of the most remarkable dining settings in Rome. Rooms blend traditional elegance with modern comforts, and the staff are consistently praised for their warmth and professionalism. Well rated on Booking.com.
- ⭐⭐⭐ Mid-Range — Hotel Relais dei Papi — A contemporary three-star hotel occupying the upper floors of a prestigious 19th-century Umbertine building, just 500 metres from the Lepanto and Ottaviano metro stations and ten minutes’ walk from St Peter’s Square. Amenities include a rooftop terrace with 360-degree views, a Jacuzzi, sauna, spa, and fitness studio — all remarkable for a hotel at this price point. Buffet breakfast included. Well reviewed on Booking.com.
- 🛏️ Budget — YellowSquare Rome — A lively and well-established hostel just ten minutes’ walk from Termini Station, with strong transport links to both the Vatican and the rest of the city. YellowSquare is famed for its buzzing social atmosphere, DJ nights, gourmet restaurant, shared patio, free pasta for guests, and one complimentary drink at its bar across the street. A brilliant choice for solo travellers and backpackers. Rated 8.5/10 from over 2,200 verified reviews on Booking.com.
🎨 Monti
Monti is Rome’s most fashionable neighbourhood and arguably its most exciting for independent travellers who want to experience the city at its most contemporary while remaining just minutes from its ancient heart. Once a working-class quarter with a rough-edged reputation, Monti has been transformed over the past two decades into a hub of artisan boutiques, vintage shops, craft cocktail bars, and independent restaurants that attract a lively mix of Romans, artists, and design-conscious visitors. The neighbourhood’s pastel-hued streets and convivial piazzas — particularly the lovely Piazza della Madonna dei Monti, where locals gather for aperitivo on warm evenings — give it an intimate, village-like quality that is quite different from the more theatrical grandeur of the Centro Storico nearby.
In terms of sightseeing convenience, Monti is exceptional. The Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Palatine Hill are all within easy walking distance — some hotels in the neighbourhood offer direct rooftop views over these ancient monuments — and the Cavour metro station connects guests swiftly to Line A for the Vatican and Spanish Steps. The neighbourhood is also within walking distance of the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, and numerous extraordinary churches. In the evenings, Monti’s bars and restaurants come alive with a genuinely local crowd, making it one of the best places in Rome to eat, drink, and simply absorb the pleasures of Italian urban life. It is the ideal choice for visitors who want history on their doorstep and cool city living around the corner.
🏨 Where to Stay — Monti
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Upscale — Hotel Palazzo Manfredi — A 17th-century boutique masterpiece with just 16 rooms and suites, housed in a historic residence immediately adjacent to the Colosseum. The hotel’s Michelin-starred restaurant Aroma delivers one of the most spectacular dining experiences in Rome, with unobstructed views over the amphitheatre from the rooftop terrace. Two minutes’ walk from Colosseo metro station. Rated 8.3/10 from over 430 verified reviews on Booking.com.
- ⭐⭐⭐ Mid-Range — Dharma Boutique Hotel & Spa — A beautifully curated three-star property in the heart of Monti, rated an exceptional 9.7/10 by guests on Booking.com — one of the highest scores of any hotel in Rome. Rooms are elegantly designed and individually styled, the staff are universally praised for their warmth and attentiveness, and a complimentary rooftop happy hour between 6pm and 8pm — with free wine and nibbles — is a memorable touch. Adults only (16+). Rated 9.7/10 from over 93 verified reviews on Booking.com.
- 🛏️ Budget — New Generation Hostel Rome Center — Set in a wing of a Franciscan Nuns’ convent right in the heart of Monti, this well-run hostel offers modern dormitories and private rooms, all with en-suite bathrooms, free Wi-Fi, private lockers, and orthopedic mattresses. A shared garden, communal kitchen, lounge area, and 24-hour reception round out the offer. The Colosseum is a ten-minute walk away. Rated 7.8/10 from over 4,000 verified reviews on Booking.com.
More to Explore
