Rome visit help

[JimHow]

In the process of booking a four night trip to Rome.
I've never been to Italy, the wines are usually too tannic and acidic.
The only Howaniec who has been there, as far as I can tell, was my 20 year old father in the spring of 1945, with the U.S. Fifth Army, during the liberation of the ancient city.
This evening I am sipping a 2020 Felsina basic chianti, a lovely JC Northway wine that is amazing, really, in its consistency, price, earthiness, I just love this wine. Tonight it reaches the magical 90 point score, about where it seems to belong year after year. Just sip this wine while you are attending to your various affairs. Love it! Makes me want to go to Rome.

Anyway....
We'll be there in the latter half of June, I'm looking for any recommendations on anything, hotels, restaurants, attractions, etc., it'll be a bit of a whirlwind trip, four nights, so we're not looking to get too fancy.

Thanks,
BD

[Blanquito]

Been to Rome once in 2010 and I loved it, totally loved it. All of the main sights are well worth it — the Colosseum, the Forum, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Vatican, etc. If the weather cooperates, Rome is small enough to walk everywhere especially if your hotel is fairly central. The one thing I’d skip though is the queuing to see the Sistine Chapel, as the line was hours long and you can go straight into the rest of the public areas of the Vatican (St Peter's Basilica, etc) without a wait (at least 13 years ago). Crowds can be epically, insanely dense and thick. The food can be divine, but plan ahead as only tourist traps are open from like 2-5 (never even enter a restaurant that has photos of its food on display), wine is really inexpensive even the good stuff on wine lists is super fair. Eat gelato, lots of it, there are many amazing gelato landmarks.

I don’t have any specific recs for hotels and restaurants, we used the Lonely Planet for these and we were quite happy and it was long enough ago that things have likely changed. Sitting in a cafe or wine bar on a warm summer’s night in June is a must, perhaps at an energetic spot in Piazza Navona if the crowds aren’t too bad.

Have fun, I’m sure you will!

[ericp]

Jim, I agree with Blanquito, he lists all the sites - but I’d add Trevi fountain. Trevi can be quite crowded during the day, if you’re an early riser I’d recommend heading over early in the morning 6/6:30 AM would be a great time to go. It won’t be crowded and you’ll mostly have the entire area to yourself. It’ll let you take all your TikToks . As far as the Forum and Colosseum, my recommendation is to take an organized tour. We did for both and the guide provided a lot of history and information and history which made it super fun. Same for the Vatican, we did breakfast there too which was cool.

We Airbnb’d by Campo do Fiore, which is fairly central. Last thing we did was a bike tour, the bikes are e-bikes so fairly low effort and a different way to see the city.

Eric.

[barsacpinci]

We were there for my 60th. Loved it. Book a guide for the Sistine Chapel and the Colesseum. You get to skip the lines and it is well worth the time savings. Just walking around you’ll find gems of ancient ruins and beautiful churches. We stayed at a little place around the corner from the Pantheon actually called Hotel Pantheon. (Excellent gelato around the corner as well as a wine bar). Our find of a restaurant was a truffle restaurant called Osteria Barberini (very hard to find). We also liked a restaurant near the Spanish Steps and shopping district called Ristorante Dilla.

[Nicklasss]

Interested by this thread too, as we'll be in Rome from July 3 to 9 i guess.

[PghMike]

The Borghese is a smaller museum but has the most incredible statues I've ever seen. The Sistine Chapel was not worth it to me even when skipping the line. There was almost no space to physically move in there.

Also - it is easy to try to do too much. Plan time to just relax as was noted, eat gelato.

[Adrianthemeatball]

Apart from the things mentioned above, I would recommend getting on one of those buses that goes around the entire city. It pretty much takes you to all the famous attractions and you get a headset with audio introduction of the attractions as you pass them. I think you can also get off at any of the attractions if you want. I know these buses are everywhere in the world now, but I think it would be particularly useful for Rome as there are so many ancients sites around, so the bus tour will be a good introduction to the city.

Foodwise, I enjoyed the gelato places, but I also loved getting pizza/coffee breakfasts at one of those cafes roadside, very underrated!

[jal]

We have not been there since August 2007. I remember hot and crowded.
We took a private tour with Through Eternity that was worth it
I recommend a food toor as well.
Booking only through Viator is something I learned traveling. Booking through a luxury hotel works but not through medium range hotels which usually ends up being a ripoff.
Enjoy

[SF Ed]

You guys definitely travel differently than we do. I loathe tours and avoid them like the plague. I want to walk or take public transportation and see things on my own at my pace.

Buying Sistine Chapel tickets in advance lets you cut the line. It is very easy to do in advance. It is a total zoo so its not a top priority for me.

If you are going to Rome (or anywhere in central or southern Italy) in summer you want to do activities in the morning or late afternoon/evening. Its just too hot mid-day for outdoor tourist activities like seeing the Coliseum and the Forum, which are must-sees.

On the food and wine front, my two easy tourist recommendations are Roscioli and Matricianella. Both have excellent food and great wine lists and are used to tourists. I would recommend booking both of those tables well in advance.

Have fun!

SF Ed

[Blanquito]

My style is more aligned with Ed's, as we prefer to walk and explore on our own as much as possible and use a guidebook for the extra details we would miss otherwise. But for sure, advance bookings and reservations for basically everything are highly advisable.

I looked up one of the mind-blowing gelato places we visited in Rome and Google claims it is is still there! Gelateria Della Palma, right near the Pantheon. It was literally swarmed with hoards of sugar-fixin' tourists, but well worth being shoved around a little for...

Final thought/memory: finding public restrooms will require all of your BWE-honed ingenuity and fortitude. Even many restaurants require you to pay for the commode and some of the plumbing clearly hasn't been updated (in both design and function) since the reign of Romulus Augustus. One restroom had a lock on the outside door, a second lock on the stalls and even the light switches had locks!

[jal]

A guide is good for highlights or if you have a short window of time. We usually get a private guide the first day to orient ourselves and then go back more leisurely to the places we liked.
We skipped guides in Vienna last year and in Lisbon this year as the cities looked manageable. We found that guides were very helpful in Florence, Rome and Barcelona.

[Gerry M.]

We were last there in 2019 in October right before Covid hit. I second Ed's rec of Roscioli Salumeria. It's consistantly fully booked early and I'd highly recommend trying to book asap once you know your dates. We stayed in the ghetto and it was pretty well located to walk everywhere. We visited the Trevi fountain and Spanish steps at night. It was crowded at the fountain but beautiful at night. We also ate at Grappolo D'Oro Zampano near the Piazza della Cancellaria.

We stayed only three nights in Rome before taking a train to Florence. With the limited time I used a guide recommended by Rick Steves. It wasn't cheap but worth it for the Collosium and Vatican. With limited time we skipped all the long lines and it made for a more enjoyable experience. I can give you contact info if you like. Even if you use a guide you will need to buy admission passes in advance thru Tiqets. The guide can give you details.

[JimHow]

Much thanks for the advice, it gave me information about which I was not aware. Seems like a pretty crowded place in the summer.

[JCNorthway]

Very crowded in the summer - and hot.