Rome - suggested itinerary for 3.5 days?

[IsaacKnowitall]

DH and I have booked a trip to Rome in late April, Monday to Friday - arriving around lunchtime on the Monday, and leaving Friday morning, so we'll have 3.5 days there. We are staying close to the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore / not too far from the Termini railway station. Will that be easy to get to by public transport from Ciampino airport?

I've never been to Rome before and am not sure what sights we should be trying to take in, or what needs to be pre-booked.
We'd like to see the Vatican / Vatican museum, and the Colosseum / Forum.
Has anyone been recently (or even not too recently) that can offer any suggestions as to what I should plan?

If anyone has any recommendations for restaurants, they would also be gratefully received! Thanks in advance!

I last went in 2019 but am going again this year.

I would say prebook absolutely everything.

What is essential depends on what you would be saddest to miss, and your tolerance for truly mad levels of crowding. My personal highlights would include the Forum, the Vatican, the Pantheon and a church where a new church was built on top of each layer of history - this thank goodness was quite civilised numbers of people (will go and find the name in a sec). I’ve never actually seen the Colosseum but will probably go this time as it seems a bit daft that I haven’t. Personally I would choose to swerve the Trevi fountain as it is so insanely busy and in some ways not that great, but if you are into it then why miss it?

You don’t have to go far out to get some much quieter sights, I’m planning to see the Baths of Caracalla for example, but then I’ve got a bit longer than you. Have a wonderful time.

The Basilica di San Clemente is the layered church I was thinking of. Wonderful www.basilicasanclemente.com/eng/

Oh and St Peter’s. I did t go last time as we had t booked and the queue was bonkers, but we did go to the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel.

I went to the Sistine Chapel once when hardly anyone was there and it was astounding, but that was almost 40 years ago.

Get the Leonardo Express from the airport to Termini (and pop into the Basillica Santa Maria seeing as though you are near- it’s stunning).

We ate at Trattoria Il Gallo Nero near there- food and staff were lovely.

And pre-book anything you want to see, ideally where you also get fast track entry.
We enjoyed the hop on/ hop off bus on the first day to help orientate us to the city, but it does get caught up in the traffic.

We prebooked a shuttle bus from outside the airport to Rome Termini. It was very straightforward. I booked return tickets online. I think there's several companies that run shuttle buses if you Google it.

You can book the Colluseum and the Forum is included in a 24 hour ticket.

I advise not going to the restaurants very close to the Colluseum. They overcharge and are very touristy. We stayed near the Termini and found the restaurants around that area nicer and well used by locals. There were a few dodgy looking places around there that we avoided but most were very nice.

Rome is such a great city. It's just lovely to walk around and you can see so much just by strolling around.

The Villa Borgaisi art gallery is supposed to be good and is walking distance from the Termini area. That also needs to be prebooked in advance (we didn't so we didn't get in). We ended up hiring a 4 seater bicycle in the Villa Borgaisi park instead which was actually very good fun.

Ask ChatGPT! We just did a 4-day trip to Athens, and I had AI create our itinerary. Worked really well

Plan one major attraction a day, and see other ‘minor’ sights in the rest of the day. As a pp says, the Colosseum ticket includes the Forum and is valid for 24 hours from first entry, so you could go the Forum late one afternoon and the Colosseum the next morning.
Its very subjective but I’d say the Major sights in 3 full days are
Vatican+St Peter’s Basilica
Colosseum
Forum
The minor are
Victorio Emmanuel Monument ( including rooftop views view lift at the rear )
Spanish Steps plus plaza
Pantheon and nearby Piazza Navona
Trastavere area ( old narrow streets with cafes and churches/Basillicas)
La Juderia ( old original Jewish area , similar to Trastevere )
Basilicas of your choice.

By the way, the McDonald’s on the lower floor of Termini has a section of Ancient wall inside.

We went last March, loved it, felt 3 full days was just enough to get to most of the sights and we used the Metro to cover ground when needed.

We watched a lot of videos on YT on a channel called RomeWise to clue up about the sights in general and which ticket made sense to us, say for the Colosseum for example.

If you have time, the Baths of Caracalla were the highlight of our visit a couple of years ago. It was the quietest place we visited!

I agree that you should pre-book tickets for all the major sights. We attended Mass at the Vatican at 8am and it took us almost an hour to clear security at that time in the day.

Also take note of the dress codes for religious sites when packing. Some places strictly enforce the “no shoulders, no knees” rule, so I always had a scarf in my bag that I could pop on if needed.

Just joining to say pre-book absolutely everything! Rome is very popular, you have limited time and you don't want to spend it all in a queue. And there are queues everywhere.

Vatican and Colosseum/Forum are basically a day each so you are going to have to be ruthless about your remaining time. The Forum is great wandering around with a guidebook to see what everything is, but I'd strongly recommend a tour for the Colosseum so you don't end up like DH and me just going 'Well, it's big and round' and being out in about 15 minutes.

If you didn't know already, there is fresh water at taps all over Rome so don't be had by water bottle hawkers. And a lot of churches will strongly enforce being covered from shoulder to knee for both men and women - no vest tops or short shorts.

suggested by rough guides, could be your starting point @IsaacKnowitall

Would agree with @tanstaafl above - it’s so tempting to keep walking on and on , and then you’re completely overloaded with everything you’ve seen - but not really “seen”.

Would add the Villa Borghese Gardens,
and also promote Trastevere from the “minor list “.
We stayed at the top of the Spanish Steps last time (followed a MN’ers recommendation) and enjoyed Babingtons Tea Rooms and Antico Caffè Greco - both “tourist traps” I guess but nevertheless lovely.

But the best thing is just to wander , there really is something beautiful around every corner.
PS : Be careful with bags, especially on public transport - granddaughter presently at Uni in Rome and was relieved of her purse and phone twice in the first ten days of term. She’s far more streetwise now !

We visited in 2022 for the same Mon-Fri period and felt like we managed to fit in quite a bit. We took the decision not to do the Vatican because we had limited time, and didn’t regret it.

None of us had visited Rome before, so we started by visiting the Welcome to Rome experience (quite near piazza navona) which just takes about 90 mins I think but really helped to contextualise everything else we saw in the rest of our stay. I pre booked a tour of the Forum, Palatine Hill and the Colusseum, which was really good and more interesting than trying to figure out for ourselves what we were looking at.

We also enjoyed visiting the Baths of Caracalla, which is really close to the Circus Maximus and Becca della Verita so you can see three things in one part of the city.

The Borghese Gardens were good fun - we rented bikes to pedal around which was brilliant. We walked up there via the Spanish Steps and various other sites - you take in a lot of things just en route to other things. We did a Leonardo museum at some stage as well, plus visited the Pantheon early before it got busy. We also went to the site where Caesar was murdered, which is really central and easy to visit quickly around other things.

If we’d had more time we might have been to Castel st Angelo, but we ran out of steam for any more walking. The metro is really easy, so that’s a good way to get from one area to another, but mostly we walked and did a LOT of steps each day. Take comfy trainers!

Definitely book now for Vatican Museum - that will be sufficient for one day, along with St Peter's itself. You could maybe add on Castel Sant Angelo, if you're feeling energetic.
Also book now for the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine Hill, which will pretty much take up another whole day. You could add the Capitoline Museum, and the Mouth of Truth.

Probably the only other thing I'd book in advance is Galleria Borghese, if you want to go there.

Buy a decent guidebook - with a good map - and work out what else you want to see, which might include: Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain (now a €2 fee), the view from the top of the Vittorio Emmanuele monument, Trastevere, San Ignazio church (among many churches), Spanish Steps, Via Condotti, Piazza del Popolo, Ara Pacis, Jewish Quarter, ..... you won't see all of them!
Use the map to see places close to each other on a given day, so you're not pinging backwards and forwards across the city.

Also take time to just wander about, sit at cafes and watch the world go by. You don't have very long, so you will have to be selective. I've been to Rome 9 or 10 times, and there's still stuff I haven't seen, so be patient.

Get a taxi from the airport into Rome, or ask your hotel to book you a car pick up.
You can walk everywhere in the city (take good shoes!) - you won't need public transport.

Definitely prebook tickets to your must sees! One each day I would suggest! Colosseum is a must!!
Watch the gladiator film before you go, it makes it even more incredible when you are there!!

Wear comfy shoes, there are cobbled streets everywhere! And a safe as possible cross body bag, pickpockets are rife in crowded areas!

It is an amazing place, something to see on every corner really, you’l walk miles just looking at all the fantastic architecture.

We grabbed pizza slices and pistachio croissants, ate them on park benches people watching, was great in the daytime, an abundance of evening restaurants, just avoid touristy areas with a view, they are expensive and not authentic!

I came back on Sunday

Wednesday - direct train to Termini. Hotel around 5 mins walk from yours. Walk to the Spanish Steps.

Thursday - early tickets for the Colosseum (pre-booked). Hop on hop off bus to work out what else we wanted to see (wish we had re booked to save money). Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, pottering.

Friday - pre booked tickets for the Vatican Museums. Horrendously busy, despite our guide saying February was one of the quietest months. St Peter's Square (didn't join the queue for the Basilica as it snaked around the square). Pottered.

Saturday - shopping, then nice walk around several pizzas.

Sunday- lazy start & flight home. Direct train back to the Leonardo Airport. Official taxis are white & must charge a set rate to take you to the city centre/Termini area)

Recommend a lovely restaurant called Mazzo. Less keen on Hosteria Romano.

I had a small cross body bag under my jacket with my phone, passport & 2 cards in. You need photo ID for the Colosseum, Forum & the Vatican Museums. They will not budge if the names don't match. (DD accidentally booked 2 tickets in her own name and we couldn't change 1 for the Vatican)

I also kept my purse clipped inside a larger bag, always worn with the zip to the front. Rich pickings for pickpockets in many tourist locations, especially anyone leaving their phone or cards in a pocket.

Some great tips here, thank you all who have answered. I think I will sit down with this thread and Google maps at the weekend, and do a daily plan / pre-book the must sees! Getting quite excited now 😄

There is a supermarket with a good deli section for lunchtime picnic stuff on the corner across the road from Santa Maria Maggiore. It’s a lovely, reasonable walk from the Termini area to the Colosseum at night - the Colosseum is lit up in the evening.

The Colosseum releases tickets for tours of the Attic or the underground areas exactly 1 month before your visit every 15 minutes. DD wasted half a day trying to secure some and gave up. TBH I think the bog standard tickets were just as enjoyable.

Just also to suggest downloading citymapper @IsaacKnowitall it's brilliant for walking around cities (take your earbuds and keep your phone tucked away in your bag)

@Numbersaremything - loving your “nice walk around several pizzas” …. 🍕 🍕 🍕
Freudian slip there ! 🤣

@IsaacKnowitall Enjoy the itinerary planning. DD , DSIL and DGson are flying out on Fri for a long weekend with DGdaughter, I’m so envious ! 🇮🇹

Don't try to do it all. We did the underground tour of the colleseum, which meant we could skip the queue, and saw bits that you wouldn't be able to see. I can't remember which museums we went to because there are so many. Do the forum too.

We did a bit of wandering mainly to find specific restaurants. Unlike a lot of people I refuse to go the Vatican as I dont want to give to a church that supports paedophilia.

We also stayed near Termini which gives you a great choice of public transport if needed.