Please give me your best Rome ideas

[FranklyIgiveadamn]

Off to Rome in September… planning ahead and wanting to book a couple of tours: Colosseum and Vatican are the two. I’d like something relatively small, expert and interesting. Plus any gems for nightlife, food and unexpected treasures not usually visited. The quirky the better! Adult trip (yay!) Thanks

stay in Trastevere, it’s amazing. The joy of Rome is in walking around and seeing the history and architecture everywhere and mixed with modern life. Keep diving down side street and look up. Wear comfortable shoes! .

Can’t offer any suggestions OP but following as this is my plan for a big birthday next year!!! Rome has been on my bucket list since I was a child. Can’t wait!

Segway tour – the guides are knowledgeable and you get to see a lot more than you would on foot (and it's great fun!).

Domus Romane by Trajans column if you’re interested in Roman life. It has a glass floor and the tour lights it up and explains how they lived in Roman times

Second Trastevere for dinner. There is a particularly nice restaurant right at the top (sorry no idea what it was called)

The colleseum you can buy tickets exactly 30 days in advance from the official website. It’s much cheaper and get the underground tour if you can. It’s incredibly hard to get tickets though (you literally have seconds to put in your basket when released) but we ended up on an Italian language tour (along with lots of others who didn’t speak Italian!) and it was still really good

You can rent electric bikes in Villa Borghese park which is quite fun for a pootle. Or a Segway

When we went last summer there were lots of little bars set up along the river. Lovely for an evening drink

You can hire a Lime scooter and zip around that way

The pantheon is worth a visit and there are some lovely gelato stops between there and the Trevi fountain

A friend did a tour with these and speaks highly of it

https://www.scootaroundrome.com/

One place that really benefits from a decent tour guide is the Forum. Without one it's a bit "piles of stones", with it's full of stories from the very heart of the Empire.

Also, San Clemente, and the original Roman Ponte Fabrizio to the Isola Tiberina in the middle of the Tiber.

We went on two very good walking tours with Guru walks. Especially recommend the "Who killed Caravaggio?" if they still do it. (Guru walks are free walking tours in many cities, pay what you feel at the end, easy to book and cancel, do it on the app.)

If you want to go to the Borghese gallery (wonderful building and some fabulous sculptures) you need to pre book.

Try to fit in a rooftop bar for sunset drinks with a view over Rome. You may need to book.

We enjoyed the Terme di Caracalla, quieter and greener area than most of Rome so a nice contrast. You can get there via the Circus Maximus

We did an underground tour (starting from Piazza Navona) which was really interesting. It's amazing the stuff that you can visit underneath the main sites. Also liked lunch at Monte Testaccio, where restos are built into the side of the "hill" that was a roman rubbish dump and is made up of broken amphorae etc - so you can see "inside". Would recommend a skip the line guided tour to the Vatican - it's incredible.

When in Rome last September my DP (with two new knees) tripped and was out of action. I think he planned that ha ha. But he had been before I hadn't. Anyway I didn't let it stop me, and TBH I just walked and walked and walked. I took the metro a few times when the distance between places was too much, but generally just wandered.

I wasn't into queuing, or skipping the line or being amongst a vast throng of heaving people in the Colosseum or Vatican museum so dodged that. I did see Collosseum from outside of course and that was good enough for me. I could read and see all about the underground and so on on YouTube 😊As for Vatican, well both DP and I made it there (before his trip up), but we didn't do the tour. I'm glad we didn't, we would have been just carried along in a sea of people and that's not my idea of fun. Again I can see it all online. We went on a day the Pope had an audience, it was magnificent, awe inspiring and breathtaking, and it was Jubilee year so the place was thronged with adoring fans of Il Papa! Huge crowds in St. Peter's Square, but well managed.

TBH the highlight of my trip (it's not for everyone) was a short train journey to Ostia Antica, the most magnificent Roman site I have seen yet, and I've been to a few. So quiet, not crowded like Pompeii and just a wonderful day wandering around with the help of a very good map from the ticket office. Highly recommend.

As for Rome itself, there is so much to see that you have to narrow it down to the must sees. I made a list and devised a walking/metro route and it took me a whole day, but I saw everything I wanted to see (Colloseum and Vatican were separate). Fantastic city, and so many layers. You could visit 100 times and not see it all. Enjoy yourself.

Thanks all! Lots of great ideas and food for thought. Thanks for taking the time to post, much appreciated.

We did this scooter tour two years ago…it was one of the most amazing things we have ever done!

if you’re a confident cyclist or can already ride a scooter ou’ll be fine riding it yourself, otherwise you can have a driver.

it was a bit crazy, following th guide round the streets to various sites where you park up and view. We did the evening one and it was absolutely brilliant. Did it with older teens who loved it.
https://www.romebyvespa.com/

If you are staying anywhere near Termini the train to/from the airport is easy and fairly cheap.

Unless you are very lucky you won’t get Coliseum tickets from the official site and will have to buy from a reseller.

Also recommend San Clemente. Check fhe opening times though as it's shuts for a couple of hours in the middle of the day.

I did a night tour of the Colosseum once which was amazing. Almost had the place to ourselves

Love the Pantheon too.

Ostia Antica. Don't book a tour, but visit it after you've done the forum tour. Our forum guide showed us loads about how the roads were laid out, how the buildings were made and used, etc and so when we went to Ostia Antica we could spot all the things we learned. Don't do a tour there, the joy is the wandering, especially as you get further and further off the main path. It's a huge site but simple, with just one small restaurant and very little shelter. So bring drinks and snacks and if a hot sunny day I'd even consider a sun umbrella.