This is a full 4-day itinerary for one of my favorite cities: Rome! I visited once while studying abroad in college and spent about two days seeing as many top sights as I could. This time around, we packed a lot in but enjoyed a more relaxed approach to seeing this sprawling city. We never felt rushed to hit the next thing, we slept in every morning, and were able to cluster our activities to certain areas each day. If you are on a tight schedule, I would drop the fourth day of this itinerary. If even tighter, you could combine days one and two, and skip the later half of day three to spend seeing any sights you missed. Check out my full Italy itinerary here, and enjoy planning your trip to Rome!
Day 1: Arrive, Colosseum
We arrived to the Rome Airport (FCO) early in the morning, around 8:30am after an overnight flight from the East Coast. We tried to get as much sleep as we could on the plane and upon arrival we freshened up in the airport bathrooms. The most cost effective way to get into the city is to take the Leonardo Express train to Termini Station (about $15/person), but we were planning on staying in the Centro Storico neighborhood which was not super accessible by public transportation from Termini. We opted for a taxi, which was about $60. We dropped off our bags at what was supposed to be our hotel: the gorgeous Hotel Indigo - St. George. There was a mix up with our reservation (our fault) and we ended up having to book a different hotel last minute and we ended up in the Prati neighborhood by the Vatican--but the Hotel Indigo still kept our bags for us so we could enjoy our day.
We leisurely strolled from the Centro Storico neighborhood down towards the Colosseum (about a half hour walk), stopping for a delicious cappuccino and some lunch along the way. We pre-purchased ticket to the Colosseum and Roman Forum since at the time we were there (May 2022), you could no longer buy tickets at the gate. While there is now a possibility you could snag tickets day of, I would definitely recommend buying them beforehand. We booked our entry through Coop Culture, which included access to the Colosseum at a designated time as well as access to the Roman Forum for up to 48 hours after the Colosseum entrance time. This allowed us to split these activities into two days since we were exhausted. We did not take a guided tour of the Colosseum (nor the Roman Forum) because we liked to be flexible on time. If you have the ability to book a tour, I would recommend it! I have been twice, both times without a tour; there is so much history that is hard to put into perspective and fully appreciate without a guide. The museum portion of the Colosseum did have good signs that had English translations, though. We had pre-scheduled entry at 1300 and while it was busy, the staff was great at handling the crowds and it never felt overwhelming.
After exploring the Colosseum, we were exhausted after a night of little sleep! We collected our bags from the Hotel Indigo and took a cab up to Hearth Hotel near the Vatican--we were impressed they had availability last minute at a decent price (between $800-900 total for 4 nights). The hotel is pretty moderate, but you could see the Vatican from the entrance and it was super close to the metro line. The Prati neighborhood was fun to walk around, too.
Day 2: Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Roman Forum
We slept in and started our morning slow with a cappuccino near our hotel. We then walked over to the Pantheon, which was about a half hour walk for us but very scenic! There was a line for the Pantheon that looked long but moved fast and we got in with a very limited wait. I wore longer jean shorts, a top that covered my shoulders, and Converse sneakers and was fine--some people did appear to get stopped for having exposed shoulders, but there are a lot of vendors selling scarves right outside if needed. Make sure to remember appropriate clothing when visiting places of worship! After marveling at the Pantheon, we met up with my mom who was also in Italy for a group choir trip. Together we got lunch and visited the Trevi Fountain while wandering through some shops. I usually try to avoid restaurants in obvious tourist locations such as the streets between the Pantheon and the Trevi, but due to the limited time with my mom we chose convenience and ate at Hostaria de' Pastini and it was actually very good and my husband still raves about the oxtail he had there to this day.
After saying bye to my mom for now, we wandered back over to the Roman Forum to use our entry ticket. The Roman Forum is huge! Make sure to bring walking shoes and be ok with not seeing it all. Palatine Hill is my favorite and the views of the city and the Central Piazza are unbeatable. Similar to the Colosseum, this was my second time visiting, both times without a tour. There are not as many signs in the Roman Forum, so some sort of audio guide or tour guide would be helpful. While I missed gaining context for what I was seeing, I do really enjoy wandering and just feeling immersed in the history!
We ended our day back up near the Pantheon to watch my mom's choir perform at the beautiful Sant'Ignazio of Loyola Church, grabbing dinner our front beforehand.
Day 3: Vatican, Trastevere
Since we were conveniently located right across the street from the Vatican museum entrance, we enjoyed starting our morning slow and headed over to the main Piazza de San Pietro around 1000. If you want to both climb the dome and see the inside of the Basilica, I would recommend doing the dome first. Once you are done with the dome, you exit into the Basilica! We got in line for the dome right away (without pre-booked tickets) and it took us an hour to get from the Piazza to the top. There is an option to take an elevator--bypassing the first 200-300 steps--which we took advantage of, leaving us with around 300 steps left. One of what I consider the most unique gift shops is on the roof of the Basilica where the elevator lets you off and is run by the nicest Catholic nuns. We bought a postcard here that we sent from the small post office outside the Basilica to get that Vatican stamp. After getting back down from the dome, we explored the Basilica on our own. It is hard to put into the words the vastness of this church, both in size and opulence.
We pre-purchased tickets to the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel for entry at 1230, which allowed us to skip a large line and walk right in. Since we had just wrapped up our time over at the Basilica and dome, we had not had a chance to grab food and we ended up eating in the cafeteria inside the museum. There were a lot of options, though it was a bit pricey. We chose to do a self-guided audio tour so we could wander around on our own and decide what we wanted to see, which was a lot of fun. There is not a lot of signage at this museum and is more about taking in the beauty. On my first visit to Rome, I took a guided tour of the museum, the Sistine Chapel, and the Basilica and thoroughly enjoyed it and learned so much! It's all about what you want to get out of the experience. Either way, the Sistine Chapel is always my favorite part! Some parts of the museum were crowded, others not, but the Sistine Chapel was very much so. We did visit on a Saturday at the end of May, though.
After a few hours in the museum and relaxing at our hotel, we attended a mass at the Basilica at 1700, which my mom's choir was performing at. It was quite a memorable experience! The line to get into the Basilica at this time was long (you have to go through security and people wanted to get to mass); I think we waited at least 45 minutes and barely made it in time. My husband and I are not Catholic, but the experience was beautiful. There were not a lot of seats but we got some since I was there with my mom's group; there was standing room for people who wanted to stop and watch for a bit.
For the evening--since we seem to like to torture our legs to see beautiful views--we ended up walking down to the Trastevere neighborhood, which was easily our favorite in Rome. You can definitely metro/taxi/bike here, but it took us about 40 minutes from the Basilica, which was a nice walk along the Tiber River. The Basilica de Santa Maria is on the main historic square in the vibrant neighborhood, so we used that as our guiding point. We did not have any reservations, but we were able to find an outdoor spot at a restaurant where we were able to listen to the street musicians and enjoy people watching. There are a lot of popular restaurants in this neighborhood for the foodie scene that usually require reservations, such as le Mani in Pasta; but wait times in general did not appear to be too bad when we were there. Other restaurants and bars that were recommended to us were: Osteria Nannarella, La Tavernetta 29 da Tony e Andrea, Bar San Calisto, and Trattoria Da Enzo al 29.
Day 4: Borghese, Dark Rome Tour
After a relaxed start to our day, we wandered over to Borghese Park prior to our pre-purchased ticket entry to the Borghese Gallery at 1500. This was one of our favorite museums for our whole Italy trip--it was absolutely stunning! The museum is housed in a gorgeous villa and has a mix of paintings and sculptures, but is most known for it's collection of Bernini pieces. These sculptures are jaw-dropping in their details and the beautiful setting only enhances the works. There were also wonderful paintings there done by artists such as Caravaggio and Raphael. Our tickets were for an English guided tour and were booked directly through the Borghese Gallery's website; the group was small and our guide was very informative and witty. The museum is on the smaller side--which we enjoyed--and did not have a lot of informational plaques, so I would say a guided tour is a must. If you have a couple days in Rome, we cannot recommend this enough, but if you are in Rome for 3 days or less this would be the part I would cut from your itinerary. This is mostly due to its location, being farther away from many of the main attractions, and the vast amount of must-sees that come with visiting Rome.
After our tour, we wandered some more and went shopping and ended our day and time in Rome with another highlight of our entire Italy trip: Dark Rome's "Dark Heart of Rome" Tour. Our guide was fantastic and the stories were all based on real events and historical gossip, adding quite a different perspective to the sites we had already walked past throughout our stay in Rome. We enjoyed the intimacy of the smaller group and still talk about the stories we heard on this tour years later.
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