Weekend in Rome - worth it?

[Romeony]

DH has a big birthday coming up next year at the beginning of July. I'm considering arranging a trip to Rome for the two of us - he loves history and museums etc. We are reasonably well travelled but neither of us have ever been to Rome.

The problem is: due to childcare complications we can only manage a weekend, literally flying out Friday morning and home Sunday evening - is this long enough to make a good trip? Any recommendations for any part of the trip?

Rome is a good weekend break. Its a great city where you can walk as all the sights are close to each other, its not a big city. Or the red tour bus is brilliant and stops at all the main places. We have done Rome in a weekend three times.

I am so jealous, I love Rome. Wishing you both a fab time.

It's the Jubilee next year so likely everywhere will be expensive and crowded in Rome. And that is a very short amount of time - I would leave it til you could go for longer - the Vatican on it's own needs a day. Naples and the archeological museum and trip to Pompeii or Herculaneum might be better?

I would choose somewhere smaller if you only have the weekend. Don't think you can do Rome properly in less than a week.

Pre-book Vatican Museum if you do go, otherwise you'll spend most of the time queueing to get in.

DH and I went pre-covid but in Oct. I recall reading about the massive queues in summer and having to pre-cook everything. We flew into Naples, spent 4 days, then caught the fast train to Rome for the remining 3 days. I do wish we'd had longer!

The Vatican museums were amazing, but the amount of wealth in there was ridiculous! We caught a train there from our hotel, but otherwise walked around the city seeing the main sites.

Look up travel man on youtube, they might have an episode to watch, otherwise look up 2 days in Rome and plan an itinerary. Also, pre-book museum tickets at that time of year.

I went to Rome in half term with my 15 year old... we had a morning at the Vatican.. guided tour of 2.5 hours and another morning at the Colosseum...1.5 hours - plus the ticket gave us access to the Forum area too. For the rest of the time we walked around looking at various sights, churches and eating!! It was fun.. and plenty of time. Any more days of intense sightseeing would have been too much for us. That said.. it was hot and busy in October with lots of things being repaired / renovated in anticipation of the Jubilee.... I can not imagine how hot and crowded it will be in July!

I'd say no unless you are prepared to be completely ruthless about what you see and what you don't see. Just the Forum + Vatican fills two days.

Rome is an amazing city, I'd jump at the chance to go, even for a weekend, you'll just have an excuse to go back another time!

We went in June and it was sooo hot. And busy. Rome is amazing but I think you need longer to really do even the basics and July is very very hot.

Interesting answers, thanks. We could definitely go back one day, we just might have the kids with us 😅 or else it'll be a good few years away.

Would end of June make any difference to how crowded it is? I need to google what the Jubilee is because I've not heard of it.

The red bus tour is great but it takes forever to get around one route let alone hop on and hop off because of the traffic

Rome is very hot in July. June would be better but May even better.

Jubilee is a special year for forgiveness of sins. So will attract a lot more pilgrims than a normal year.

Am not sure how much difference Jubilee makes, we went in the Extraordinary Jubilee year and only realised when I was reading the guidebook about special church doors that are only open for Jubilee, spent ages trying to find the closed door only to realise I'd walked through it. Nobody except me and DH seemed that interested.

I wouldn't go next year ... 2025 is a special year for catholics visiting Rome and it will be way too busy

Late July - early August will most probably be another big Catholic event as well (FWIW, I don't think the Jubilee will make a huge difference, but there will be some modest increase in pilgrimage numbers). Rome is much more pleasant away from the height of summer in any case - the words stuffy, airless, and sweltering come to mind.

You won't be able to 'do' Rome in a weekend, but it's still a lovely place to visit for a weekend break. As long as you're not trying to cram everything in, you'll have a great time. Plan in advance what your priorities are for a first visit and do just the top 2 - 4 things, with time to wander about, have nice meals etc. It's a fabulous city to just walk through.

Rome is fabulous. You could choose to swerve some parts altogether (Vatican) and use it as an excuse to go back!

if you’re reasonably fit you can walk around many of the popular sights in two days to get a feel for what you might like to explore further on your next visit. I’d spend my first weekend in Rome just wandering between the Forum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain etc and eating pizza and ice cream.

If you’d rather wait until you have more time, it might be worth considering Florence, which is also lovely but on a much smaller scale.