Rome

Three thousand years stacked on top of each other, and most of it is free to walk past.

Italy · 3–4 nights

Rome is the one Italian city that genuinely rewards being overwhelmed. You cannot see it all, the attempt is what ruins most first visits, and the version that works treats two or three sights as the spine of the trip and lets the rest happen on the walk between them.

It is also the city where where-you-sleep matters most. A hotel in the historic center means you walk home from dinner past a floodlit fountain; a hotel near Termini means a taxi at the end of every evening, and the evenings are the best part.

Good for

First trips to Italy
History and archaeology
Couples, and anyone who likes eating late
Travelers who would rather walk than ride

Suggested stay: 3–4 nights

Before you book

What people get wrong about Rome.

The practical things that change a trip, rather than a list of sights you can find anywhere.

Book the Vatican and the Colosseum before you book anything else

Timed entry sells out weeks ahead in season, and the two cannot comfortably be done on the same day. Everything else in a Roman itinerary bends around these two slots.

Stay inside the historic center

Monti, Campo Marzio, Trastevere, or near Piazza Navona. Slightly more per night buys back an hour a day and every evening of the trip.

Three nights is two full days

An overnight flight from the US eats the arrival day. Three nights gives you two real days; four gives you the day where Rome stops being a checklist.

August is genuinely difficult

Heat in the high thirties Celsius, and many of the good family-run restaurants close for the month. April, May, September and October are the city at its best.

From the road

Rome, as I found it.

Photographs from my own time in Rome. No stock, no borrowed shots.

The Colosseum in Rome against a clear blue sky

A narrow Roman back street of ochre buildings with shuttered windows and parked scooters

An evening street in Rome set with restaurant tables under strings of lights and potted olive trees

A gelato cone held up in front of a row of pink and orange Roman buildings

A cappuccino with a heart in the foam on a cafe table in Rome

What it pairs with

Florence is ninety minutes away by fast train, which makes Rome and Florence the most reliable first Italy trip there is. Rome also works well as the last stop rather than the first, so the trip ends somewhere with a direct flight home.

The whole of Italy

Questions

Rome, answered.

How many days do you need in Rome?

Three nights is the working minimum and four is better. Three gives you two full days, which covers the Colosseum and Forum on one and the Vatican on the other, with nothing left over. The fourth day is the one where you sit somewhere for two hours and actually enjoy being there.

Is Rome walkable?

Very, if you stay in the center. Most of what people come for sits inside an area you can cross on foot in forty minutes. The cobbles are hard going, though, so bring shoes you have already broken in.

Should Rome be the first or last stop in Italy?

Either works. Last has a small advantage: the flight options home are better, and Rome is easier to enjoy once you have found your feet in a smaller city first.

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