ROME · ITALY
The Colosseum at dawn, Trastevere after dark.
Skip-the-line tickets for the Colosseum and the Vatican, small-group walks through the Forum, food crawls in Trastevere and the long days south to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast. Every great day in Rome, and every road out of it.
Start with these
The three that anchor a first trip to Rome.
Plenty of cities have old churches and good food. Standing on the floor of the Colosseum, looking up at the Sistine ceiling, and walking the Appian Way over its original stones belong to Rome alone.
Ancient Rome
The Colosseum & Roman Forum
The arena where fifty thousand Romans watched the games, then the Forum and Palatine Hill where the city was actually run. A guide turns broken columns back into temples, law courts and the house of the emperors. Some tours add the arena floor or the underground where the lifts and cages still stand.
- 1 Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Guided Tour
- 2 Rome: Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum Guided Tour
- 3 Rome: Colosseum & Forum with Audio Guide App -Optional Arena
Faith and art
The Vatican & Sistine Chapel
Miles of marble galleries, the Raphael Rooms, and then the doors open on Michelangelo’s ceiling. Early-entry and skip-the-line tours get you past a queue that can swallow half a morning, and the good ones carry on into St Peter’s Basilica next door.
- 1 Rome: Vatican, Sistine Chapel & St. Peter’s Basilica Tour
- 2 Rome: Pasta & Tiramisu Class with Fine Wine by the Vatican
- 3 Rome: Vatican Pass, Top Attractions and Free Transport
Beneath the city
The Catacombs & Appian Way
Out past the city walls, the first Roman road runs dead straight between the umbrella pines, and beneath it lie miles of early-Christian burial tunnels cut into soft tufa. You walk the Appia Antica over its original basalt stones, then go underground by lamplight where Rome buried its dead.
- 1 Rome: Catacombs and Capuchin Crypt Guided Tour with Transfer
- 2 Rome: Appian Way, Catacombs, & Roman Aqueducts E-bike Tour
- 3 Rome: Appian Way, Aqueducts, and Catacombs Tour
Start here
The one almost everyone books first.
More Rome trips are built around this morning at the Colosseum than anything else on the list.
Where most people start
Rome's Most Popular Tours
The Colosseum and the Forum, the Vatican Museums, the catacombs and the food crawls. The days most travellers come to Rome for.
Where to begin
The days a Roman week is built around.
The Colosseum and the Forum, the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel, the catacombs on the Appian Way, the food and wine, the day trip to Pompeii and the Borghese Gallery. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The one you can’t skip
How to do the Colosseum.
The ticket you pick changes the whole visit, and the best ones go weeks ahead. Three ways into the arena, from the classic guided morning to the floor and the tunnels beneath it.
Food & wine
Dinner is the whole evening in Rome.
Cacio e pepe and carbonara done the Roman way, suppli pulled apart at a counter, prosciutto and a glass of Frascati in the Jewish Ghetto, and gelato eaten walking. A good food tour crosses Trastevere or the Campo de’ Fiori market and shows you where Romans actually eat, not where the buses stop.
Read the guide: the best food and wine tours in Rome →After the crowds leave
Rome is best once the day-trippers go.
The Trevi Fountain floodlit and half-empty, the Colosseum under lights on a night tour, a ghost-and-mystery walk through the old quarter, or an evening food crawl that ends with gelato by the river. The city softens after dark, and the best hours start when the queues are gone.
See the evening experiences →The big day trip south
A whole Roman town, frozen mid-morning.
Two hours south, Pompeii sits exactly as Vesuvius left it in AD 79: streets, shops, frescoes and the casts of the people who never got out. Pair it with the cliff villages of the Amalfi Coast or a drive up the volcano itself. It is a long day on an early train, and the one most people are glad they made.
Pompeii & Amalfi day trips →Timed-entry highlight
The greatest small museum in Rome.
In a villa set in its own park, the Borghese holds Bernini’s marble Apollo and Daphne and his David, a room of Caravaggios, and Canova’s reclining Pauline Bonaparte. Entry is by strict two-hour timed slot, so it never feels crowded, and the good tours book the slot and the guide together. A short walk from the Spanish Steps through the gardens.
- 1 Rome: Borghese Gallery and Gardens Guided Small-Group Tour
- 2 Rome: Borghese Gallery Guided Tour with Skip-the-Line Entry
- 3 Rome: Borghese Gallery Skip-the-Line Tickets with Audioguide
Plan by distance
Pick how far you want to go today.
Rome rewards both. Walk the centro storico for a day, push an hour out to the hill towns and Ostia, or commit a full day south to Pompeii and the coast.
In the centro storico
Stay in the centro.The Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona and the Spanish Steps, all within a morning’s walk. Days you never need a ticket or a bus.
An hour from the city
Out to Tivoli.Hadrian’s Villa and the fountains of Villa d’Este in the hills, or the ruined port of Ostia Antica at the river mouth. Gone after breakfast, back for dinner.
A full day south
Down to the bay.Pompeii frozen under Vesuvius and the cliff road along the Amalfi Coast. The big days that run on an early train and a long one home.
On two wheels
Rome is bigger than it walks.
The sights sit further apart than the map suggests, and the cobbles wear you down by noon. An e-bike flattens the seven hills and links the Colosseum, the Appian Way and the river in a single morning. Golf-cart tours do the same at a gentler pace, with a driver who knows the lanes that cars cannot take.
See all 24 e-bike tours →By place
The center, and the roads that leave it.
The centro storico for the piazzas and the fountains. Ancient Rome for the Colosseum and the Forum. The Vatican for the Sistine Chapel. Villa Borghese for the gallery and the gardens. The Appian Way for the catacombs. And the long roads south to Pompeii and the coast.
By activity
Pick what kind of day you want.
Skip-the-line tickets if your time is short. A walking tour if you want the layers explained. A food and wine crawl through Trastevere if you want to eat the city. A cooking class if you want to take it home. A bike or a cart if you want to cover more ground. A ghost walk after dark if you want Rome at its strangest.
Plan it
Three days that cover the essentials.
First time in Rome? Here is how three days plays out without a wasted hour.
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