Rome for four days, what MUST we do?

[oldiebutnctoday]

Me and dd(14) are going to Rome in a couple of weeks on a freebie trip (yay!) we have 3.5 days there plus travelling so not long and neither of us have been before. Just wondered if there's any absolute mustn't miss places and also anything to be avoided please? We are both happy to do culture and shopping so fairly easy to please, and we are staying in the city so am told most touristy stuff is walkable, also nice restaurants would be handy! TIA

Piazza farnese - beautiful square to have your dinner in, with a range of restaurants from white table cloth $$$ to local trattoria $. right next door to Campo de Fiori which has a lovely market, really buzzy at night, bars etc

MUST go into the pantheon, and there are lovely shops near there - hand made stationery, amazing ice cream place - della palma - just off the piazza

walk from there over to the trevi fountain / spanish steps. Sermonetta gloves at the bottom of the steps. Via Condotti has all the luxury shops.

walk from there up to PIazza del Popolo, stopping at Canova (v old school / famous bar). There's a church on the other side of the piazza with some nice Raphaels. Also walk up the steps to the park & lovely view over the city.

Vatican.

Religion aside, the art and sheer pricelessness of it all is amazing.

The subway is pretty easy to use.

Book a guided evening Segway tour. We only had 2 days and this covered most of the central highlights in 2 hours or so that are not Vatican or ancient Rome.

Night atmosphere was amazing, and very sociable and fun. I was embarrassingly bad for ooh 3-4 mins but after that it was really easy to get the hang of. Age 12 and older I think, groups of 8. Our guide was lovely, so pleased we organised it.

Book a guided evening Segway tour. We only had 2 days and this covered most of the central highlights in 2 hours or so that are not Vatican or ancient Rome.

Night atmosphere was amazing, and very sociable and fun. I was embarrassingly bad for ooh 3-4 mins but after that it was really easy to get the hang of. Age 12 and older I think, groups of 8. Our guide was lovely, so pleased we organised it.

Ooh thanks everyone!

The scavi tour. It goes underneath the Vatican and is mindblowing!

Details here

The Piazza of the Knights of Malta, to peep through the keyhole in the gate there. It was my favourite thing in Rome!

4 days is a good length of time to do Rome. Do one day on Ancient Rome (it's mostly in one place), one day in the centre doing the squares, fountains and churches, one day over at the Vatican, then leave the last day open for whatever you've missed (or shopping and eating).

You can buy tickets online for major attractions (like the Vatican) before you go. Saves queuing for hours and so worth it. Also, when we went, some attractions, like the Colosseum were free to U18 year olds on the first Sunday of the month (passport needed as proof) - again worth investigating before you go. I'd go again in a heartbeat - enjoy

Castle/fort near the river. Forgotten the name but it s great and there s a lovely cafe br the top which overlooks Rome

I bet you would want to go back to some ancient ruins, they are amazing

Vatican Museum blew me away

We hadn't bought tickets online for the forum etc but I wish we'd taken our passports with us as then we could have bought the tickets with a discount for living in an EU country.