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PlanningSouthern Europe

Rome (Italy)

Everything is open early or not at all

The hardest destination on the list to write about honestly, because it has been written about more than almost anywhere on earth. My angle is the only one I have found that works: Rome before nine in the morning is a completely different city, and almost nobody plans for it.

Trip length
12 days
Language
Italian
Getting around
Walking, metro, regional rail
Base
Trastevere side of the river

Six that earn the time

Things to see and do

  1. Walk the centre before the cafes open

    Between six and eight in the morning the historic centre belongs to delivery vans and people going to work. The same squares that are impassable at midday are empty, the light is low and warm, and you can stand in front of the Pantheon or the Trevi Fountain without negotiating a crowd. This is the single best piece of advice about Rome I have.

  2. Give the Forum and Palatine a full half day

    Most visitors treat the ancient centre as a walk-through on the way to the Colosseum and see almost nothing. Booked with a timed entry, started early and given four unhurried hours with a decent plan of what you are looking at, it becomes the most rewarding site in the city rather than a queue.

  3. Eat lunch where the tables are not outside

    The rule that has never failed me in Italy: the restaurants worth your time are frequently the ones with no terrace, a short handwritten menu and a room full of people who clearly work nearby. Roman cooking is specific and repetitive in the best way, and it is worth learning the four classic pasta dishes before you arrive.

  4. Cross to Trastevere and stay after dark

    The neighbourhood across the river keeps its own rhythm: quiet and residential through the afternoon, then filling steadily from early evening onwards. Narrow lanes, a basilica with mosaics worth going inside for, and enough ordinary life happening around the visitors that it does not feel staged.

  5. Take a regional train out for a day

    The regional network reaches the coast, the hill towns and the ancient port within an hour or so of the centre. It is inexpensive, runs frequently, and the contrast of spending a day somewhere small resets the trip. The ancient harbour site in particular gives you Roman streets and buildings with a fraction of the crowd.

  6. Sit in a church you did not plan to visit

    There are hundreds of them, most are free, most are open, and a startling number contain work that would be the centrepiece of a national museum elsewhere. Walking in without knowing what is inside is one of the genuine pleasures of the city. Cover your shoulders and knees and you will never be turned away.

Air and rail

How to get there

General guidance rather than specific fares, because fares change and this page does not. Check the current position before you book anything.

By air

Rome has two airports. The larger one to the west handles most long-haul and full-service traffic and is linked to the central station by a direct non-stop express train in around half an hour, plus slower regional services to other city stations. The smaller airport to the south-east takes much of the low-cost European traffic and is connected by coach rather than rail. Both have official taxi ranks with fixed fares to the historic centre, which are worth using over any offer made to you inside the terminal.

By rail

This is the better way to arrive if you are already in Europe. High-speed services run to Rome from across northern Italy in a few hours and connect onward to France, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, with sleeper options on some longer routes. Trains arrive at the main central station, which sits on both metro lines and is walkable to some central neighbourhoods. Booking well ahead brings the fare down substantially, and the city-centre-to-city-centre time beats flying on most Italian routes.

Getting around

The historic centre is compact and walking is genuinely the fastest way through it. Two metro lines cover the longer distances and the major sites, buses and trams fill the gaps, and a single integrated ticket covers all of them. Validate before boarding and do not attempt to drive in the centre, where restricted traffic zones are enforced automatically by camera.

Planned for May 2027

When to go

April to May

Mild, bright, occasional rain

My window, and the best of the year. Warm enough for long days outdoors, cool enough that the middle of the day is not lost, and the city is still recognisably itself before the summer volume arrives. Book accommodation early because everyone else has worked this out too.

September to October

Warm, softening light

The other correct answer. The summer heat breaks, the light gets noticeably better for photographs, and the crowds thin from the middle of September. October brings some rain but rarely enough to lose a day.

July to August

Very hot, very crowded

Genuinely difficult. Temperatures make the middle of the day unusable, the queues are at their worst, and many family-run restaurants close for weeks while the city empties of locals. If you must, start at dawn and stop entirely between one and five.

Learned the hard way

Erica's tips for Rome

Set an alarm you will resent

The entire plan depends on being out of the door before seven. Two hours in the early morning are worth more than a full day from ten onwards, in every measurable way: light, space, temperature and the mood of everyone around you.

Book timed entries the moment they release

The major sites now run on timed slots and the good times go first. I set a reminder for the release date rather than trying to sort it out a week ahead, and I always take the earliest available slot over a convenient one.

Drink your coffee standing at the bar

Not a quaint local custom so much as basic economics: the same drink often costs several times more at a table with service. Standing at the counter is also faster, and it is how the queue in front of you is doing it.