Three Days in,
Rome.
Rome, Italy
ancient ruins, piazzas, trattorias, golden hour
Itinerary
3 chaptersThe Colosseum and the hill above the Forum
Rome, Italy
Cloudy
How the day runs
Monti first, since it is the closest proper neighbourhood to the ruins and the only part of this morning that is not archaeology. From the piazza it is a downhill walk to the Colosseum, and the same ticket then carries you through the Forum and up the Palatine, so the middle of the day is spent on gravel, broken marble and very little shade. Lunch is late and cheap, a block east of the arena. The evening comes back up to Monti, where the lanes are narrow enough to stay cool after dark.
What to bring and what to book
August in Rome sits above 35°C for much of the afternoon, so a hat, sunglasses and a refillable bottle do more for the day than anything else in your bag. The cast-iron street fountains, the nasoni, run cold drinking water and there are several inside the archaeological park. Wear shoes with some grip, because the Via Sacra is polished stone and the Palatine paths are loose underfoot.
Book the Colosseum online in advance and take the earliest entry you can get. Walk-up tickets in high summer mean an hour in full sun for a slot you may not want. Dinner at the taverna in Monti needs booking days ahead in August.
Getting from stop to stop
Everything today is walkable. Piazza della Madonna dei Monti to the Colosseum is roughly ten minutes down Via Cavour and Via degli Annibaldi. The Forum entrance is a few minutes from the Colosseum exit, and the Palatine climbs straight from inside the same site. Trattoria Luzzi is about eight minutes east along Via di San Giovanni in Laterano. Metro line B stops at Colosseo if the heat wins.
Roman table manners
Coffee costs less standing at the counter than sitting at a table, and the price difference is printed on the wall. Cappuccino stops at about eleven in the morning. Most kitchens close around three and reopen at half seven, so a two o'clock lunch is normal and a six o'clock dinner is not. The coperto on the bill is a cover charge, not a tip, and rounding up is plenty.
- 0108:00 · 45m
La Bottega del Caffe
Take one of the outside tables by the fountain for a cappuccino and a cornetto before the sun clears the rooftops. The counter is quicker and cheaper if you would rather not linger. Three quarters of an hour here is plenty, and the piazza is a couple of minutes off the top of Via Cavour.About this place↗ Open in MapsA neighbourhood cafe on Piazza della Madonna dei Monti, with tables spilling out around the fountain in the middle of the square.
HistoryMonti grew out of the Suburra, the dense working district of ancient Rome that sat behind the imperial forums. The square took its present shape in the late sixteenth century, when the fountain was installed and the surrounding lanes were rebuilt as a parish quarter.Why it's famousThe piazza is the social centre of Monti. People sit on the fountain steps at all hours, and the cafe is where the morning version of that happens.Did you knowThe fountain in the square, the Fontana dei Catecumeni, was designed by Giacomo Della Porta, the same architect who worked on the dome of St Peter's. - 0209:00 · 120m
Colosseum
Book a timed slot online well ahead, and take the earliest one going. August queues stand in full sun with no shade. The same ticket covers the Forum and the Palatine, so keep it to hand. If the underground levels are offered as an upgrade, they are the part most people never see and worth the extra.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe largest amphitheatre of the Roman world, built in the valley between the Palatine, Esquiline and Caelian hills and still the shape everyone pictures when they think of Rome.
HistoryWork began under Vespasian around AD 72 and the building was inaugurated by his son Titus in AD 80, which is why its proper name is the Flavian Amphitheatre. It was raised on ground Nero had drained for an ornamental lake in the grounds of his Domus Aurea, a deliberate gesture of giving the site back to the city.Why it's famousGladiatorial games, staged hunts and public executions were held here for centuries in front of crowds numbering in the tens of thousands, and the ruin has stood as the emblem of imperial Rome ever since.Did you knowThe name has nothing to do with its size. It comes from the Colossus of Nero, a bronze statue roughly 30 metres tall that stood beside the amphitheatre for hundreds of years. - 0311:30 · 90m
Roman Forum
Walk the length of the Via Sacra first, then double back along the higher path. There is almost no shade, so fill your bottle at the fountain near the entrance. The eight surviving columns of the Temple of Saturn and the Arch of Septimius Severus sit together at the Capitoline end. Ninety minutes is a comfortable pace.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe civic centre of ancient Rome, a long open space of temples, basilicas and arches in the valley between the Capitoline and Palatine hills.
HistoryIt began as a drained marsh used as a market and meeting ground in the earliest days of the city, then filled over eight centuries with law courts, senate house, treasury and triumphal monuments as each ruler added to it.Why it's famousRoman politics happened here. Speeches were given from the Rostra, triumphal processions came along the Via Sacra, and Julius Caesar was cremated at the eastern end where a small altar still stands.Did you knowThe Forum spent much of the medieval and early modern period buried under several metres of earth and used as grazing land. Romans called it the Campo Vaccino, the cow field, and serious excavation only began in the nineteenth century. - 0413:15 · 60m
Palatine Hill
Your Colosseum ticket includes the hill. Climb straight up to the Farnese Gardens for the view down over the Forum, then cross to the terrace above the Circus Maximus. The shade under the ilex trees is the best on the whole site. Loop round the stadium and the palace ruins if the legs are still willing.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe hill above the Forum, covered in the remains of imperial palaces and laid out on top with sixteenth-century gardens.
HistoryRomans considered this the founding ground of the city, and by the late Republic it was the smartest address in Rome. Augustus lived here, and successive emperors built ever larger palace complexes over the earlier houses until the hill was essentially one royal compound.Why it's famousIt holds both ends of the Roman story, the legendary hut of Romulus and the vast ruins of imperial power, and gives the best single view over the Forum.Did you knowThe English word palace comes from this hill. Palatium, the name of the emperors' residence here, became palazzo, palais and palace across Europe. - 0514:30 · 75m
Trattoria Luzzi
Cheap, loud and fast, with paper on the tables and the Roman standards done without ceremony. It fills the minute it opens, so arrive on the dot or expect to wait outside. Cacio e pepe and a quarter litre of the house red is the order. They turn tables briskly, so this is not a three-hour lunch.About this place↗ Open in MapsA large, plain, family-run trattoria on Via di San Giovanni in Laterano, a few minutes east of the Colosseum.
HistoryIt belongs to the old trade of cheap neighbourhood eating houses that once ringed the ancient centre, feeding workers and students rather than visitors, and it has stayed in the same family for decades while the area around it turned touristic.Why it's famousPrices that have barely moved with the neighbourhood, generous plates and a permanent queue on the pavement.Did you knowIt stands a minute from the Basilica of San Clemente, where you can walk down through a twelfth-century church, a fourth-century one beneath it and a Roman temple of Mithras below that. - 0619:30 · 120m
La Taverna dei Fori Imperiali
Book ahead. There are only a handful of tables and in August they go days in advance. Carbonara and saltimbocca are what to order, and the wine list stays close to Lazio. It sits on a quiet Monti lane, so you can walk dinner off along Via dei Fori Imperiali with the ruins lit afterwards.About this place↗ Open in MapsA small family-run trattoria on Via della Madonna dei Monti, serving Roman classics a few minutes from the imperial forums.
HistoryMonti has fed people on this stretch for a very long time, first as the crowded Suburra and later as an artisans' quarter. The taverna belongs to that line of tiny neighbourhood kitchens rather than to the restaurant trade that grew up around the Colosseum.Why it's famousIt has built a reputation well beyond the neighbourhood for its carbonara, in a room small enough that booking is not optional.Did you knowThe wide road it looks towards, Via dei Fori Imperiali, was cut through the archaeological site in the early 1930s and still covers a large part of the imperial forums it is named after.
Across the river to the Vatican
Vatican City
Partly cloudy
How the day runs
Today is front-loaded on purpose. The basilica opens early and the queue is for the metal detectors rather than a ticket desk, so an hour before the coaches arrive is worth two hours later. The Museums follow, ending in the Sistine Chapel, which is the point at which most people have had enough of standing. Lunch is deliberately quick and eaten on the pavement. The afternoon is one fortress and a bridge, and dinner stays in Prati rather than dragging you back across the river.
Booking, dress code and timings
Shoulders and knees must be covered for both the basilica and the Museums, and the stewards turn people away at the door, so a light scarf in a bag saves the walk back to the hotel. Entry to St Peter's is free. The cupola climb costs a few euros, with a lift as far as the roof and around 320 steps after that up a leaning stairwell that narrows near the top.
Book the Vatican Museums online with a timed slot. They are free on the last Sunday of the month and packed accordingly, which is a saving only if you have the patience for it. Check the closing time at Castel Sant'Angelo, as last entry is well before the doors shut.
Getting from stop to stop
Prati is compact and flat. Sciascia is about ten minutes on foot from the colonnade, and the Museums entrance is a fifteen-minute walk round the Vatican walls from the basilica, not a shortcut through it. Pizzarium sits near Cipro on metro line A, ten minutes from the Museums exit. From there it is a bus or a half-hour walk down to Castel Sant'Angelo, then Ponte Sant'Angelo for the walk back.
What to know about the Vatican
The general audience takes place on Wednesday mornings, which fills the square with barriers and pilgrims and slows every approach to the basilica. The Angelus at midday on Sunday does the same for a shorter spell. Inside the Sistine Chapel the guards ask for silence and no photographs, and they mean it. Prati itself is a late nineteenth-century district, built after unification, which is why the streets are wide and the blocks are straight in a city that is neither.
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Sciascia Caffe 1919
Order the caffè con cioccolato at the counter, an espresso poured into a cup lined with melted dark chocolate. Standing costs less than sitting, as everywhere. It opens early, and the Vatican walls are about ten minutes away on foot, so there is no need to rush the second one.About this place↗ Open in MapsA long-standing coffee bar on Via Fabio Massimo in Prati, known for espresso served in a chocolate-lined cup.
HistoryThe Sciascia family opened it in 1919, when Prati was still a new district built on former Vatican meadows after Rome became the capital of Italy. It has kept both the name and the date on the sign ever since.Why it's famousThe chocolate-lined espresso is a Roman institution, and the bar is one of the few places in the city where people cross town for a single cup.Did you knowThe chocolate is painted round the inside of the cup before the coffee goes in, so it melts into the espresso as you drink rather than sitting at the bottom. - 0208:30 · 120m
St. Peter's Basilica
Entry is free and the queue is for security rather than tickets, so being in the square before half eight saves an hour. Shoulders and knees covered or you will be sent away. The cupola costs a few euros extra, with a lift to the roof and around 320 steps after that. Climb first, look round the basilica second.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe main church of the Vatican and one of the largest in the world, built over the site traditionally held to be the tomb of Saint Peter.
HistoryThe present building replaced Constantine's fourth-century basilica and took from 1506 to 1626 to finish, passing through Bramante, Raphael, Michelangelo, Maderno and Bernini. Michelangelo designed the dome; Bernini added the bronze baldachin inside and the colonnade that wraps the square.Why it's famousIt is the ceremonial centre of the Catholic Church, and it holds Michelangelo's Pietà, carved when he was in his early twenties.Did you knowBrass markers set into the nave floor show the lengths of the world's other great cathedrals, each one stopping short of where you are standing. - 0311:00 · 150m
Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel
Pre-book a timed slot, because walk-up queues in August run for hours. The route to the Sistine Chapel is long, so skip a wing rather than rushing the Raphael Rooms. No photographs and no talking inside the chapel, and the guards enforce both. Two and a half hours is realistic if you do not linger.About this place↗ Open in MapsA chain of papal galleries ending in the Sistine Chapel, holding one of the largest art collections anywhere.
HistoryThe collection began in 1506, when Julius II put the newly unearthed Laocoön group on public display in the Cortile del Belvedere. Later popes added Egyptian, Etruscan and classical holdings, and the palace corridors between them gradually became the museum route walked today.Why it's famousMichelangelo's ceiling and Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel, Raphael's frescoed rooms, and the fact that papal conclaves are still held under that ceiling.Did you knowMichelangelo painted the ceiling standing on scaffolding with his head tipped back, not lying down as the story usually goes, and he wrote a sour little poem about what it did to his neck. - 0413:45 · 60m
Bonci Pizzarium
Pizza is sold by weight, so point at a couple of squares and they will cut them with scissors and weigh them. Toppings change through the day and the odd-sounding ones are usually the best. There is no seating, you eat standing at the shelf outside. Ten minutes from the Museums exit, near Cipro on metro line A.About this place↗ Open in MapsA tiny pizza al taglio counter in the Trionfale district behind the Vatican, selling pizza by the slab and by weight.
HistoryGabriele Bonci opened it in 2003 and built the place around long-fermented, high-hydration dough and toppings that change daily, treating a cheap street food as something worth obsessing over.Why it's famousIt did more than anywhere else to change how Romans think about pizza by the slice, and the queue out of the door has not really stopped since.Did you knowPizza al taglio is priced per hundred grams rather than per slice, which is why the staff weigh every piece before it reaches the till. - 0515:15 · 90m
Castel Sant'Angelo
The spiral ramp inside is Hadrian's original, so take it slowly and go all the way up to the terrace for the view back to the dome of St Peter's. Last entry falls well before closing, so check the time before setting off. Leave over Ponte Sant'Angelo with its line of angels and walk into the centre.About this place↗ Open in MapsA drum-shaped fortress on the right bank of the Tiber, built as an emperor's tomb and later used by the popes.
HistoryHadrian commissioned it as a mausoleum for himself and his successors, and it was finished around AD 139. From the fifth century onwards it was absorbed into the city walls, converted into a fortress and then into a papal stronghold with apartments, a prison and a treasury inside.Why it's famousIt is the most complete Roman building of its scale still standing in the city, and the final act of Puccini's Tosca takes place on its ramparts.Did you knowA walled corridor called the Passetto di Borgo runs about 800 metres from the Vatican to the castle, and Clement VII used it to escape when imperial troops sacked Rome in 1527. - 0619:30 · 120m
Il Sorpasso
Open from the morning through to late, so it works for a proper dinner or just a plate of pasta and a glass of Lazio white at the bar. The bar side takes no bookings and the tables go quickly. Prati stays quieter than the centre in the evening, which is rather the point after a Vatican day.About this place↗ Open in MapsAn all-day bar and bistro on Via Properzio in Prati, hung with cured hams and busy from breakfast until closing.
HistoryIt opened in the 2010s as part of a shift in Roman eating, places that serve coffee, lunch, an aperitivo and dinner from the same room rather than keeping to trattoria hours.Why it's famousIt is the reliable evening address in Prati, a district otherwise short of them, and it takes its wine and its cured meats seriously.Did you knowIt shares its name with Dino Risi's 1962 road film. Italians later borrowed the same word for 1987, the year their economy was said to have overtaken Britain's.
Baroque streets and a Trastevere dinner
Centro Storico, Rome
Partly cloudy
How the day runs
No ruins today, just the tangle of streets between the Pantheon and Piazza Barberini, which is best done on foot with no fixed route. Coffee at a counter that has been doing the same thing since the 1930s, then the Pantheon while it is quiet, then the Trevi before the middle of the day makes it unbearable. Lunch is Emilian rather than Roman, a useful change of gear. The long afternoon gap is for a siesta, because the last two stops are the good ones and both happen after five.
Tickets, fines and timings
The Pantheon now charges a small entry fee, around 5 euros, either booked online or paid at the door, and it is free for under-18s. Mornings are calmer than afternoons.
Rome fines a long list of things tourists do without thinking. Sitting on the rim of the Trevi, eating on its steps, sitting on the Spanish Steps and paddling in any fountain all carry penalties, and the police patrolling both sites do issue them. Colline Emiliane is small and family-run, so book a table and check which day it closes before you plan the afternoon around it. Da Enzo takes no chances with queues, so arrive at the first sitting.
Getting from stop to stop
Sant'Eustachio to the Pantheon is two minutes. The Pantheon to the Trevi is about ten, through Piazza di Pietra and up Via delle Muratte. The Trevi to Colline Emiliane, behind Piazza Barberini, is another seven or eight. For the evening, walk up the Spanish Steps or take the lift from Spagna metro to reach the Pincio. Trastevere is a half-hour stroll from there, or tram 8 from Largo di Torre Argentina if the legs have gone.
Roman habits worth copying
The passeggiata is real. Between six and eight the centre fills with people walking nowhere in particular, and the Pincio terrace is where a good part of the city goes to watch the light change. Artichokes, the dish everyone associates with Roman-Jewish cooking, are a winter and spring vegetable, so in August ask what has just come in instead of ordering from memory.
- 0108:30 · 45m
Sant'Eustachio Il Caffe
Pay at the till first, then hand the receipt to the barman. The gran caffè arrives sweetened and whipped as standard, so ask for it amaro if you would rather have it plain. Standing at the counter costs a fraction of a table outside. Two minutes from the Pantheon, so go here first.About this place↗ Open in MapsA coffee bar on Piazza Sant'Eustachio, a short walk from the Pantheon, famous for a whipped, pre-sweetened espresso.
HistoryIt opened in 1938 and still roasts its beans over wood, a method almost nobody in the city keeps up. The way the gran caffè is made has never been explained, and the machine sits behind a screen so nobody can watch.Why it's famousThe gran caffè. Romans argue about it, queue for it and generally rate it as the best cup in the centre.Did you knowThe stag's head with a cross between its antlers on the sign comes from the church next door, which takes its name from the legend of Saint Eustace and his vision while out hunting. - 0209:30 · 60m
Pantheon
There is an entry fee now, around 5 euros, booked online or paid at the door, and under-18s go free. Mornings are the calmest. Stand under the oculus and watch the disc of light travel across the marble. Raphael's tomb is on the left as you work round. Half an hour is enough unless you sit and wait for the light.About this place↗ Open in MapsA domed Roman temple turned church, and the best-preserved building to survive from ancient Rome.
HistoryMarcus Agrippa built the first version around 27 BC. After fire destroyed it, Hadrian rebuilt what stands today in about AD 126 but kept Agrippa's name across the front, which is why the inscription credits the wrong man. It was given to the Church in 609 and has been in continuous use ever since, which is why it survived.Why it's famousThe dome and the nine-metre hole at the top of it, open to the sky, lighting the whole interior without a single window.Did you knowIt is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world after nearly nineteen centuries, and the slightly convex marble floor has drainage holes to carry away the rain that falls through the oculus. - 0311:00 · 45m
Trevi Fountain
Come early or the front row is a scrum. Coin over the left shoulder with the right hand if you want the tradition done properly. Sitting on the rim or eating on the steps carries a fine and the police do issue them. A quarter of an hour is honestly enough, then walk up Via del Tritone.About this place↗ Open in MapsRome's largest Baroque fountain, filling one end of a small square with a wall of carved rock, sea horses and the god Oceanus.
HistoryNicola Salvi won the commission in 1732 and the fountain was finished in 1762 by Giuseppe Pannini, long after Salvi's death. It marks the end point of an aqueduct, which is why it is built into the side of a palazzo rather than standing free.Why it's famousAnita Ekberg waded into it in Fellini's La Dolce Vita, and the coin-throwing custom has drawn crowds ever since.Did you knowThe water still arrives through the Acqua Vergine, an aqueduct in service since 19 BC, and the coins thrown in are collected and given to the Catholic charity Caritas. - 0412:30 · 90m
Colline Emiliane
Emilian cooking rather than Roman, which is the reason to come after two days of cacio e pepe. Tortellini in brodo and hand-rolled tagliatelle with ragù are the dishes to order. It is small and family-run, so book a table, and check which day it closes before you build the afternoon around it.About this place↗ Open in MapsA small family-run trattoria on a side street near Piazza Barberini, cooking the food of Emilia-Romagna rather than Rome.
HistoryThe family came south from Emilia and opened here in the 1930s, keeping the northern repertoire intact instead of adapting to Roman tastes. The pasta is still rolled by hand in the kitchen.Why it's famousRomans rate it as the place in the city for tortellini in brodo, which is unusual praise in a town that rarely concedes anything to another region's cooking.Did you knowTortellini in brodo is the Christmas dish of Bologna and Modena, and a Bolognese guild formally registered the official recipe with the local chamber of commerce in 1974. - 0517:00 · 60m
Pincio Terrace
Aim to be up here about an hour before sunset. The Spanish Steps are the prettier way up, though sitting on them is banned and fined. The balustrade above Piazza del Popolo looks straight across the rooftops to the dome of St Peter's. The water clock in the gardens behind is worth two minutes.About this place↗ Open in MapsA terrace on the Pincian Hill, looking down over Piazza del Popolo and west across the domes of the old centre.
HistoryGiuseppe Valadier laid out the terrace and the square below it in the early nineteenth century as a single design, replacing an older tangle of walls and vineyards. In antiquity the slope held the Gardens of Lucullus, famous enough that the man's name became a byword for luxury.Why it's famousIt is the sunset viewpoint Romans actually use, and the walk along it links the Villa Borghese gardens with the top of the Spanish Steps.Did you knowThe Pincian is not one of Rome's seven hills, since it sat outside the ancient city. A water-powered clock built in 1867 by Giovan Battista Embriaco still stands in the gardens just behind the terrace. - 0619:30 · 120m
Da Enzo al 29
Tiny, and the queue starts before the doors open, so take the first sitting or plan to wait outside with a drink. Cacio e pepe, gricia and the polpette are the order. Roman artichokes are a winter and spring vegetable, so in August ask what has just come in instead. Five minutes from Ponte Sisto.About this place↗ Open in MapsA small trattoria on Via dei Vascellari in Trastevere, run by one family and serving the Roman standards to a permanent queue.
HistoryIt grew out of the ordinary neighbourhood eating houses of Trastevere, on the working side of the river where Rome's tanners, millers and boatmen lived. The current family took it on and kept the menu short rather than expanding it.Why it's famousThe four Roman pastas done well and cheaply, plus the fried starters, in a room with barely a dozen tables.Did you knowCarciofi alla giudia, the flattened deep-fried artichoke, comes from the Jewish quarter across the river and only appears when Romanesco artichokes are in season, roughly from late winter into spring.
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