Rome is a city to plan by ticket and by neighbourhood. The Italy page already covers the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps and the Borghese Gallery; this page is the rest of the city, from the Capitoline hill to the Appian Way. St Peter's, the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel are in Vatican City, an independent state with its own must30 page.
The historic centre inside the river bend, from Piazza Navona to the Trevi Fountain, is best on foot. The ancient city spreads south and east of it: the Forum, the Palatine, the Baths of Caracalla and, beyond the walls, the Appian Way. Across the Tiber, Trastevere is where the city eats and goes out, and the Aventine and Testaccio, to the south, are quieter and more local.
Many of the big sights now run on named or timed tickets, and several close on Mondays. Each experience below says which.
Go down to the Trevi Fountain basin on the €2 ticket
Piazza di Trevi
20 to 30 minutesNo booking needed
Watch the whole fountain free from the square, or pay €2 to go down the steps to the basin and throw your coin.
What it is
Since 2 February 2026 the steps down to the basin are a paid area: €2 for anyone who does not live in Rome or its metropolitan area, free for children under six. The square above stays free, and you can see the whole fountain from it without a ticket.
How to do it
The inner area opens at 9:00 on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and at 11:30 on Monday and Friday, closes at 22:00, and takes its last entry at 21:00. At the gate only cards are accepted. Tickets from the official fontanaditrevi.roma.it site are open, with no date or time, and cannot be refunded.
Good to know
Capacity is controlled, so a queue can still form. Come at opening on a weekday, or after dark when the fountain is lit, and throw the coin with your right hand over your left shoulder.
A passage between two palaces leads through ancient arches that frame the whole Roman Forum below.
What it is
The Capitoline Museums fill two palaces facing each other across Michelangelo's Piazza del Campidoglio, and the passage that links them is the reason to come. Start in the Palazzo dei Conservatori: the marble head and hand of Constantine's colossal statue in the courtyard, the bronze Capitoline Wolf, and the original gilded bronze Marcus Aurelius on horseback under a glass roof; the rider in the square outside is a copy.
How to do it
Then go down through the Galleria Lapidaria into the Tabularium, the ancient Roman records office, whose arches frame the whole Roman Forum below. An adult ticket is €15, or €16.50 when an exhibition is included.
Good to know
The museums open every day from 9:30 to 19:30, with last admission an hour before closing, and close on 1 May and 25 December.
Go down three levels under the Basilica of San Clemente
Via Labicana, near the Colosseum
About 1 hourTimed entry
Three buildings stacked into one, from a gold apse mosaic down to a temple of Mithras and running water in the dark.
What it is
San Clemente is three buildings stacked into one, a ten-minute walk east of the Colosseum along Via Labicana. At street level stands the 12th-century basilica with its gold apse mosaic. Below it is the 4th-century church it replaced, with frescoes painted between the 8th and 11th centuries, and lower still the 1st-century level, with a temple of Mithras, Roman rooms either side of an ancient alley and the sound of water running somewhere in the dark.
How to do it
The upper church is free to enter; the excavations cost €10 and must be booked online for a date and time, because daily entries are capped.
Good to know
They open Monday to Saturday from 9:00 to 12:30 and 14:00 to 18:00, and on Sundays and holidays from 12:00 to 18:00, with last entry half an hour before closing.
Cycle the Appian Way and go down into the catacombs
Via Appia Antica
Half a dayBook ahead
A Roman road through pines, tombs and fields, covered by bike, with a stop in the catacombs at the crypt of the popes.
What it is
The first miles of the Appian Way, the Roman road south to Brindisi, run through a protected park of pines, tombs and fields, and a bike is the easy way to cover them.
How to do it
The regional park rents bikes at its point at Via Appia Antica 58/60, open 9:30 to 18:00 on weekdays and to 19:00 at weekends from April to October. Ride out past the round Tomb of Caecilia Metella, where the ancient paving begins and the stones get rough; a mountain bike or e-bike copes better than a city bike. On the way, visit the Catacombs of San Callisto, with the crypt of the popes: guided visits of about 40 minutes start every half hour, cost €10 and should be booked online, and the catacombs close on Wednesdays.
Good to know
The state monuments on the road close on Mondays.
Time needed
Half a day
Best time
A spring or autumn weekday, not Monday or Wednesday
A mausoleum turned fortress, climbed to a terrace under the bronze angel with St Peter's dome and the Tiber bridges below.
What it is
Hadrian built it as his mausoleum, the popes turned it into a fortress, and the climb through it ends on the Terrazza dell'Angelo, under the bronze angel, with St Peter's dome and the Tiber bridges below.
How to do it
Tickets cost €18 and carry your name, checked against an original ID at the door, so book online and bring your passport. The Passetto di Borgo, the walled corridor the popes used to escape from the Vatican, opens only on guided visits booked on the Musei Italiani site, on Friday to Sunday mornings and Saturday evenings, never on the first Sunday of the month. Walk in over Ponte Sant'Angelo, lined with statues of angels designed by Bernini.
Good to know
The castle opens Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 19:30, with last entry at 18:30, and closes on Mondays.
Brick walls still tall enough to show the scale of baths for about 1,600 bathers, on a big, uncrowded site.
What it is
The Baths of Caracalla were built in the 210s and could take about 1,600 bathers at a time, and their brick walls still stand tall enough to show the scale. The caldarium, tepidarium, frigidarium and the open natatio pool sit on one axis, with two gyms, changing rooms and two libraries either side, and about two kilometres of service tunnels run underneath, including a temple of Mithras that opens on special evenings.
How to do it
It is a big, uncrowded site ten minutes' walk south of the Circus Maximus. The ticket includes the frescoed rooms of the Domus di Vigna Guidi. Buy on the Musei Italiani site or app, or at the totems by the gate, which take cards only, and arrive at least an hour before closing.
Good to know
Closed on Mondays. In summer the Rome Opera stages its open-air season here.
Nero's buried vaulted rooms under a park facing the Colosseum, ending in an octagonal room lit by its own oculus.
What it is
Nero's Golden House was built after the fire of AD 64 and buried soon after by later emperors under the Baths of Trajan, which is why its vaulted rooms survive underground in the Colle Oppio park, across the road from the Colosseum. The visit leads through dim corridors with traces of painted vaults to the Octagonal Room, lit by its own oculus, and adds a virtual reconstruction of the rooms as Nero saw them. Renaissance painters who lowered themselves in to copy these walls gave us the word grotesque.
How to do it
It opens only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 9:15 to 17:15, on tickets booked through the Colosseum's official site, ticketing.colosseo.it; the entrance is on Via Labicana, near Colosseo station on metro lines B and C.
Good to know
Inside it stays around 10 degrees all year, so bring a jacket even in July.
Spend an evening in Trastevere, starting on the Gianicolo
Trastevere and the Gianicolo
An eveningNo booking needed
The view over the domes from the Gianicolo, then down at dusk to a lit mosaic façade and a drink by the river.
What it is
Trastevere, the old quarter across the Tiber, is where Rome goes out, and the evening works best from the top down.
How to do it
Climb the Gianicolo first for the view over the domes from the terrace by the Garibaldi monument. Walk down at dusk to Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere, where the church's medieval mosaics shine on the façade once the lights come on and people sit on the fountain steps; go inside for the 12th-century apse mosaic. Then drift through the lanes towards Piazza Trilussa and Ponte Sisto for a drink by the river. Tram 8 from Largo di Torre Argentina is the quick way in and out.
Good to know
Come at noon instead and you hear the cannon fired there every day since 1904 to set the city's clocks.
Eat Roman in Testaccio, from the market to the four pastas
Testaccio
3 to 4 hours with lunchNo booking needed
The old slaughterhouse district still eats like it, from braised oxtail to the four Roman pastas shared at one table.
What it is
Testaccio was Rome's slaughterhouse district until the Mattatoio closed in 1975, and it still eats like it: the cucina del quinto quarto, the offal that slaughterhouse workers took home as part of their pay, survives on its trattoria menus as coda alla vaccinara, oxtail braised with celery, and rigatoni con la pajata.
How to do it
Start at the covered Mercato di Testaccio, open Monday to Saturday from early morning, where stalls sell hot sandwiches, cheese and cured meats as well as produce. For lunch, order the four Roman pastas between you: cacio e pepe, gricia, amatriciana and carbonara, all made with pecorino romano and the last three with guanciale, cured pork cheek.
Good to know
Walk it off around Monte Testaccio, a hill built entirely from broken Roman oil jars.
Order carciofi alla giudia in the Jewish quarter in spring
Via del Portico d'Ottavia
No booking needed
Whole artichokes fried twice until the outer leaves crackle like crisps and the heart stays soft, best in March and April.
What it is
The old Jewish quarter around Via del Portico d'Ottavia, beside the ruined colonnade of the Portico of Octavia, is where Rome's best-known artichoke dish comes from. Carciofi alla giudia are whole artichokes, trimmed, opened out and fried twice in olive oil until the outer leaves crackle like crisps while the heart stays soft. They use the same Romanesco artichoke as the braised carciofi alla romana, protected as Carciofo Romanesco del Lazio IGP.
How to do it
The restaurants line the street, and the quarter's other speciality to order is stuffed courgette flowers, fiori di zucca.
Good to know
The season decides everything: the artichoke reaches the markets from about January to May and is at its best in March and April, the months to order it.
Look through the Aventine keyhole, then the Orange Garden
Aventine Hill
About 1 hourFree
Three free stops along a quiet hilltop street, ending with St Peter's dome framed through a keyhole.
What it is
The Aventine is the quiet hill above the Circus Maximus, and three free stops sit a few minutes apart along its top street.
How to do it
Start in the Giardino degli Aranci, the walled orange garden of Parco Savello, whose terrace looks across the river to Trastevere and St Peter's. Next door, the 5th-century basilica of Santa Sabina still has its carved cypress-wood doors. At the end of the street, in Piranesi's Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta, put your eye to the keyhole of the priory gate of the Knights of Malta: an avenue of clipped hedges frames the dome of St Peter's. Take metro line B to Circo Massimo and walk up.
Good to know
The orange garden opens every day at 7:00 and closes at 18:00 in winter, later in summer.
San Luigi dei Francesi, Sant'Agostino, Santa Maria del Popolo
2 hours for all threeFree
A beam of light crossing a tax collectors' table, and pilgrims' dirty bare feet that shocked the first viewers.
What it is
Six Caravaggio paintings still hang in the three Roman churches they were painted for, and all three are free.
How to do it
San Luigi dei Francesi, a minute from Piazza Navona, has the three Saint Matthew canvases of 1599 to 1602 in the Contarelli Chapel, the last chapel on the left: start with the Calling, where a beam of light crosses the tax collectors' table. Five minutes north, Sant'Agostino has the Madonna of Loreto, whose kneeling pilgrims with dirty bare feet shocked its first viewers. At Piazza del Popolo, Santa Maria del Popolo keeps the Conversion of Saint Paul and the Crucifixion of Saint Peter facing each other in the Cerasi Chapel.
Good to know
These are working churches: cover shoulders and knees, keep away during Mass, and expect them to close for a few hours in the early afternoon.
45 minutes, 2 hours with Trevi and the PantheonFree
Catch the Spanish Steps nearly empty, with the street cleaners still at work, then set off on an easy early loop through Rome.
What it is
The 135 travertine steps run between Piazza di Spagna and the Trinità dei Monti church. From mid April to mid May they carry around 450 pots of azaleas. Climb to the church terrace for the view straight down Via dei Condotti, then walk back past the Barcaccia fountain.
How to do it
Come before 8:00, when the steps are nearly empty. Metro: Spagna, line A. From here it is ten minutes to the Trevi Fountain, whose €2 ticket for the inner perimeter (since February 2026) only applies from 9:00, or 11:30 on Mondays and Fridays, until 22:00. Then on to the Pantheon.
Good to know
Look, but do not settle in: since 2019 Rome's city rules fine people €250 for sitting on the steps, and eating on them or dragging a pram up them costs more.
Under the Pantheon's only window, a disc of sunlight crosses the coffers like a sundial run backwards; in rain, water falls straight in.
What it is
The only window in the Pantheon is the hole at the top: an oculus 30 Roman feet across, about nine metres, 43 metres above a floor that is exactly as wide as the dome is high. On a sunny day the disc of light it throws slides across the coffers and walls like a sundial run backwards; when it rains, water falls straight in and runs to the drains cut into the gently sloping marble floor.
How to do it
Time the visit for late morning on a sunny day, and come back when it rains, too. Stand at the centre and look straight up before you read a single plaque.
Good to know
On Pentecost Sunday firefighters on the roof drop red rose petals through the opening during the morning celebration. Sunday Mass is at 10:30, entry to Mass is free and tourist visits pause while it runs, so arrive early.
About 75 minutes inside the Colosseum's first and second levels, then the Roman Forum and Palatine on the same ticket.
Arena-floor tickets are sold separately on a small quota; a guided tour that includes the arena floor, the Forum and the Palatine saves chasing them the day sales open.
What it is
The standard €18 ticket covers the first and second levels plus one entry to the Roman Forum and Palatine within 24 hours, with about 75 minutes inside the amphitheatre. The arena floor and the underground are sold separately as Full Experience tickets (€24) on a small quota.
How to do it
Official tickets go on sale at ticketing.colosseo.it 30 days before the visit, carry your name and lock you to a Colosseum time slot. Book Full Experience tickets the day sales open. From 25 October 2026 to the end of February the gates open at 8:30 and last admission is 15:30; arrive 15 minutes before your slot. If your slot is late, walk the Forum and Palatine first. Metro: Colosseo, line B.
Good to know
Keep ID visible at the gates. The first Sunday of the month is free, first come first served, with queues to match.
Raphael's tomb under the Madonna del Sasso he commissioned, then the kings' chapels: the Pantheon is still a working church.
What it is
Inside, look for Raphael's tomb with the Madonna del Sasso he commissioned above it, then the kings: Victor Emmanuel II in one chapel, Umberto I and Queen Margherita in the next. It is still a working church, so keep voices down and food outside.
How to do it
Entry has been ticketed since July 2023. Buy on the Musei Italiani portal or at the desk and machines on Piazza della Rotonda; under 18s go in free, and the first Sunday of the month is free for everyone. The doors open 9:00 to 19:00 every day, last entry 18:30. Buses 40 and 64 stop at Largo di Torre Argentina, 400 metres away.
Good to know
It closes on 1 January, 15 August and 25 December. Mass on Saturday at 17:00 and Sunday at 10:30 is free to attend, with no sightseeing during the service.
Time needed
45 minutes
Best time
At 9:00 opening, or after 17:00 outside Mass times
Fiumicino (FCO) is Rome's main airport, and the Leonardo Express train runs non-stop from the airport station to Roma Termini in about 32 minutes. Ciampino, used mostly by low-cost airlines, is linked to the city by bus. High-speed trains from Florence, Milan, Venice and Naples arrive at Termini or Tiburtina.
Getting around
Walk the centre: most of what you want is within half an hour on foot, and much of it is closed to private cars. The metro has three lines; line C reached Colosseo on 16 December 2025, with an interchange to line B there. Tram 8 runs from Largo di Torre Argentina to Trastevere. The free drinking fountains, the nasoni, are everywhere, so carry a bottle.
How many days
In must30's view, four: one for the Colosseum, the Forum and the Capitoline Museums, one for the Vatican, one for the centre from the Pantheon to the Trevi Fountain and the Caravaggio churches, and one for the Appian Way or Ostia Antica. With three days, drop the outlying day; with five or more, add Tivoli.
When to go
April to June and September to October are the comfortable months to walk the city. July and August are hot, and around 15 August many family-run restaurants close for the holiday. Easter and the big Church feasts fill the centre. Remember that several state museums and sites close on Mondays.
Where to base yourself
The centro storico, between the Pantheon and Campo de' Fiori, puts you on foot from most sights. Monti, behind the Forum, is close to the Colosseum and to metro line B. Trastevere is lively at night but noisier. Prati, near the Vatican, is calmer and well served by metro line A. The streets around Termini are practical for trains but less pleasant after dark.
Questions travellers ask
How many days do you need in Rome?
Four days in must30's view: the ancient city, the Vatican, the historic centre, and a day for the Appian Way or Ostia Antica. Three days are enough for the main sights if you book the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums ahead.
Do you have to pay to see the Trevi Fountain?
Only to go down to the basin. Since 2 February 2026 that inner area costs €2 for anyone who does not live in Rome or its metropolitan area, with free entry for children under six. The square above is free, and so is the view of the whole fountain from it.
Is the Vatican in Rome?
Physically yes, politically no. Vatican City is an independent state surrounded by Rome, and you walk in without a border check. The Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St Peter's are on must30's Vatican City page.
Which Rome sights are closed on Mondays?
Castel Sant'Angelo, the Baths of Caracalla, the Appian Way monuments and many other state museums close on Mondays. The Colosseum, the Capitoline Museums and the Trevi Fountain basin are open, and the Domus Aurea opens only from Friday to Sunday.
Can you drink the water from Rome's street fountains?
Yes. The nasoni, the cast-iron fountains with a curved spout, carry the same drinking water as the city's taps. Block the end of the spout with a finger and the water jumps up through a small hole on top, so you can drink without a cup.
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