Things to do in Rome

Rome stacks three thousand years on one street, so nothing stands in the order it was built. A medieval church sits on a Mithraic temple. Two tickets need booking; the rest can be decided over breakfast.

The centre on foot

Piazza del Popolo to the Colosseum takes forty minutes on foot. Nearly everything famous lies between the two. The rest is across the river.

• The Pantheon. The largest unreinforced concrete dome ever built, finished around 126 AD. It has charged admission since 2023.
• The Trevi Fountain. Looking down from the rail is free. The steps to the water cost two euros unless you live here.
• Trastevere and Monti. Tangled street plans on opposite sides of the centre, and where people actually eat.

The two big tickets

• Colosseum slots open thirty days out. The ticket is a half-hour window, not a day, and it covers the Forum and Palatine for twenty-four hours.
• The gates. The Colosseum opens at half past eight, the Forum at nine. By eleven in July the Forum is the hottest ground in Rome.
• The Vatican runs late. Monday to Saturday it is open until eight, last entry six, and almost everyone else arrives at nine.
• One way, seven kilometres. The route does not loop and the Sistine Chapel is at the end. Staff clear the halls half an hour before closing.
• Twenty at the door, twenty-five online. The extra five buys the queue.
• Free Sundays. State sites go free on the first Sunday of the month, the Vatican on the last. Both are the busiest days going.

Saint Peter's charges nothing and opens at seven. That is the one hour with no security line.

Coffee, dinner and the Roman clock

Two prices exist for the same cup, and the bar must post both. Standing at the counter is the cheap one. Sitting is a tariff, not a swindle.

• Al banco. Standing up, an espresso is about a euro twenty, a cornetto with cappuccino about three. At a table on a famous square, five times that.
• Dinner. Kitchens open around half past seven to empty rooms, and Romans arrive at nine. A full terrace at seven, with a tout outside holding a photo menu, holds no Romans.

Wheels, and day trips out of Rome

• Small vehicles. Non-resident cars are banned from the centre, so the rides are Vespas, sidecars, vintage Fiats and Appian e-bikes.
• Eating as a tour. Trastevere and Campo de' Fiori crawls, pasta and gelato classes, tastings that excuse sitting down.
• The long days south. Pompeii with Sorrento runs twelve hours door to door. Orvieto, Assisi and Montepulciano about the same, with lunch.

Practical

• Heat. July highs average about 32C and heatwaves go past it. The ruins have no shade, so walk before ten and after five.
• Water. Some 2,800 street fountains, the nasoni, run drinking water, two hundred of them in the centre.
• Dress code. Saint Peter's and most churches refuse bare shoulders and knees.
• Metro. Three lines. Line C reached the Colosseum in December 2025; the Pantheon and Trastevere have none.
• Tipping. The coperto of two or three euros a head is on the menu and is not a tip. Round up beyond it.