Eternal City Explorer: 7 Days
Rome wasn't built in a day, and it certainly can't be seen in one either! This week-long immersion takes you from the grit of the Colosseum to the divine heights of the Vatican, with plenty of pasta and hidden piazzas in between.
FCO Airport → Colosseum → Pantheon → Vatican → Trevi → Trastevere → Appian Way → FCO Airport
Ancient Origins & Imperial Glory
Welcome to Italy! Grab your bags and head to the city center via taxi or the Leonardo Express. We're starting at the heart of the empire.
Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport (FCO)
Welcome to Italy! Grab your bags and head to the city center via taxi or the Leonardo Express. We're starting at the heart of the empire.
Colosseum
The Colosseo district is the heart of ancient Rome and the Roman Empire. It has the Colosseum, the Forum, and the Capitoline Museum.
Roman Forum
The Roman Forum, also known by its Latin name Forum Romanum, is a rectangular forum (plaza) surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the centre of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum.
Palatine Hill
The Palatine Hill, which relative to the seven hills of Rome is the centremost, is one of the most ancient parts of the city; it has been called "the first nucleus of the Roman Empire". The site is now mainly a large open-air museum whilst the Palatine Museum houses many finds from the excavations here and from other ancient Italian sites.
Renaissance Gems & The Pantheon
Renaissance Gems & The Pantheon (3km, 0.2h drive/transit)
Largo di Torre Argentina
Largo di Torre Argentina is a large open space in Rome, Italy, with four Roman Republican temples and the remains of Pompey's Theatre. It is in the ancient Campus Martius. This was one of the places the ancient "Argentario"--the silver/money men, the bankers--used for their profession.
Pantheon
Step inside the best-preserved ancient Roman building. The oculus in the dome is a feat of engineering that still baffles people today. It's free, but weekends require a reservation.
Piazza Navona
Piazza Navona is a public open space in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the 1st century AD Stadium of Domitian and follows the form of the open space of the stadium in an elongated oval. The ancient Romans went there to watch the agones ("games"), and hence it was known as "Circus Agonalis".
Castel Sant'Angelo
Castel Sant'Angelo, also known as Mausoleum of Hadrian, is a towering rotunda in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. The popes later used the building as a fortress and castle dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel, and it is now a museum. The structure was once the tallest building in Rome.
The Vatican & St. Peter’s
(4km, 0.3h drive/transit)
Vatican Museums
The Vatican Museums are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of the best-known Roman sculptures and most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world.
St. Peter's Basilica
The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican, or simply St. Peter's Basilica, is a church of the Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City, an independent microstate enclaved within the city of Rome, Italy. It was initially planned in the 15th century by Pope Nicholas V and then Pope Julius II to replace the ageing Old St.
St. Peter's Square
St. Peter's Square is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave in Rome, directly west of the neighborhood (rione) of Borgo. Both the square and the basilica are named after Saint Peter, an apostle of Jesus whom Catholics consider the first Pope.
Prati District
End your day in this neighborhood for some "real" Roman shopping and dining away from the heaviest tourist crowds.
Fountains, Steps & High Fashion
Fountains, Steps & High Fashion (4km, 0.3h drive/transit)
Trevi Fountain
The Trevi Fountain is an 18th-century fountain in the Trevi district in Rome, Italy, designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini in 1762. Standing 26.3 metres (86 ft) high and 49.15 metres (161.3 ft) wide, it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world.
Spanish Steps
The Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy, climb a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and the Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church, at the top.
Villa Borghese
Villa Borghese is a landscape garden in Rome, containing a number of buildings, museums and attractions. It is the third-largest public park in Rome, after the ones of the Villa Doria Pamphili and Villa Ada.
Piazza del Popolo
Piazza del Popolo is a large urban square in Rome. The name in modern Italian literally means "People's Square", but historically it derives from the poplars after which the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, in the northeast corner of the piazza, takes its name.
Trastevere & The Janiculum Hill
Campo de' Fiori
Old Rome is the historic medieval and renaissance center of Rome. While the oldest section of Rome is at the Forum, and the Modern Center has shifted to the Via Veneto, Old Rome remains the city's most charming district, with lovely piazzas (squares) and streets to wander and find small cafes and restaurants. Old Rome includes the neighborhoods of Navona, Campo de' Fiori, Pantheon, and the Ghetto.
Trastevere
Trastevere is the 13th rione of Rome, Italy. It is identified by the initials R. XIII and it is located within Municipio I. Its name comes from Latin trans Tiberim.
Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere
One of the oldest churches in Rome, famous for its glittering 12th-century gold mosaics.
Janiculum Hill (Gianicolo)
Walk up for sunset. It's not one of the "Seven Hills," but it has the best panoramic view of the entire Roman skyline.
The Appian Way & Catacombs
Rent a bike for this one. This was the "Queen of Roads" in ancient times. You’ll be cycling on original Roman basalt stones.
Via Appia Antica
The Appian Way is one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, in southeast Italy. Its importance is indicated by its common name, recorded by Statius, of Appia longarum... regina viarum.
Catacombs of Saint Callixtus
Go underground to explore the early Christian burial tunnels. It’s a bit spooky but fascinating history.
Baths of Caracalla
The Baths of Caracalla in Rome, Italy, were the city's second largest Roman public bath complex, or thermae, after the Baths of Diocletian. The baths were likely built between AD 212 and 216/217, during the reigns of emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla. They were in operation until the 530s and then fell into disuse and ruin.
Aventine Hill
The Aventine Hill is one of the Seven Hills on which ancient Rome was built. It belongs to Ripa, the modern twelfth rione, or ward, of Rome.
Jewish Ghetto & Last Bites
Day 7｜Jewish Ghetto & Last Bites (3km, 0.2h drive/transit)
Theatre of Marcellus
The Theatre of Marcellus was an ancient open-air theatre in Rome, Italy, built in the closing years of the Roman Republic. It is located in the modern rione of Sant'Angelo. In the sixteenth century, it was converted into a palazzo.
Jewish Ghetto
In the Jewish diaspora, a Jewish quarter is the area of a city traditionally inhabited by Jews. Jewish quarters, like the Jewish ghettos in Europe, were often the outgrowths of segregated ghettos instituted by the surrounding Christian or Muslim authorities. A Yiddish term for a Jewish quarter or neighborhood is "Di yiddishe gas", or "The Jewish quarter.
Tiber Island
The Tiber Island is the only river island in the part of the Tiber which runs through Rome. Tiber Island is located in the southern bend of the Tiber.
Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport (FCO)
Head back to the airport for your flight home. Ciao, Roma!
- Buy a "Roma Pass" for transit and museum discounts, and always carry a reusable water bottle—the "Nasoni" (public fountains) provide free, cold, delicious spring water all over the city.