ROME · ITALY
Two thousand years, and not a dull afternoon.
The Colosseum arena floor, the Sistine Chapel, the catacombs under the Appian Way and a long lunch in Trastevere. Skip-the-line tickets, the best guided tours, and the day trips out to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast.
Only here
Three things you can only do in Rome.
Plenty of cities have ruins and a famous gallery. The arena floor of the Colosseum, Michelangelo's ceiling and the catacombs cut beneath the Appian Way belong to this city alone.
Where it happened
Inside the Colosseum
The largest amphitheatre ever built still stands at the centre of the city, where fifty thousand Romans watched the games for four hundred years. The arena floor and the underground hypogeum, the tunnels and lift shafts that raised animals and gladiators into the show, open only on a guided ticket.
- 1 Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Guided Tour
- 2 Rome: Colosseum, Forum & Palatine Hill Tour & Optional Arena
- 3 Colosseum: Underground and Ancient Rome Tour
Michelangelo's ceiling
The Sistine Chapel
Behind the walls of the world's smallest country, the Vatican Museums run a mile of galleries that end beneath Michelangelo's ceiling and Last Judgment. Early-access and after-hours tours get you into the Sistine Chapel before the corridors fill, and on into St Peter's.
- 1 Rome: Vatican, Sistine Chapel & St. Peter’s Basilica Tour
- 2 Rome: Pasta & Tiramisu Class with Fine Wine by the Vatican
- 3 Rome: Vatican Pass, Top Attractions and Free Transport
The city below
The Catacombs
Beneath the Appian Way, the early Christians cut tens of kilometres of burial galleries into the soft tufa rock, layered with frescoes and the tombs of the first martyrs. Closer in, the crypts under the city are lined wall to wall with the arranged bones of the dead.
- 1 Rome: Catacombs and Capuchin Crypt Guided Tour with Transfer
- 2 Rome: Appian Way, Catacombs, & Roman Aqueducts E-bike Tour
- 3 Rome: Appian Way, Aqueducts, and Catacombs Tour
Start with the standout
If you book one thing in Rome.
More travellers build their Rome around this one than anything else on the list. The obvious first move, and a good one.
The classics
Rome's Most Popular Tours
The Colosseum and Forum, the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel, the Borghese and the catacombs. The handful of mornings most trips are built around.
Where to begin
The Rome a first trip is built around.
Ancient Rome and the Colosseum, the Vatican, the catacombs, the Borghese, the food and the great day trips. The handful of themes a week in the city comes back to, and the best way to do each.
The Colosseum question
Which Colosseum ticket?
Half the planning headache of a Rome trip is the Colosseum, and the ticket you pick changes the visit completely. Three ways in, from the standard skip-the-line to the underground only a guide can open.
La dolce vita
Rome runs on its lunch tables.
The real city is found at the table: cacio e pepe twirled to order, a pasta-and-tiramisu class in a back-street kitchen, a slow crawl through the Testaccio market, and a glass of cold Frascati from the volcanic hills just south of town. Eat where the Romans eat and the rest of the trip falls into place.
Read the guide: the best food & wine tours in Rome →After dark
The city is best once the buses leave.
By evening the day-trippers are gone and Rome softens. The Colosseum lights up amber, the Trevi and the piazza fountains run for no one in particular, and the after-hours tours walk you through the underground or the Vatican with the corridors half empty. Dinner is late here for a reason.
See the evening experiences →Vatican City
The smallest country, the greatest art.
A walled city-state of barely half a square kilometre holds a mile of galleries, Raphael's rooms, Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling and the largest church in Christendom under Bernini's canopy. Go early or after hours, with a guide who knows which corridor to skip, or the day disappears in the queue.
Vatican & Sistine Chapel tours →Day trips from Rome
The whole country is a fast train away.
Rome sits at the centre of the map for a reason. In a single day you can stand in the streets Vesuvius buried at Pompeii, ride the Amalfi Coast road above the sea, or take the high-speed train north to Florence. Long days, but the kind you remember.
- 1 From Rome: Pompeii, Amalfi Coast, and Sorrento Day Trip
- 2 From Rome: Pompeii, Amalfi Coast and Positano Day Trip
- 3 From Rome: Pompeii Day Trip with Optional Vesuvius and Lunch
By pace
Pick your day, by pace.
Rome rewards the long lunch and the dawn start in equal measure. Slow when you want to linger over the food, classic when you want the icons, and a full day out when the city has given you its best.
Take it slow
A long Roman lunch.A cooking class in a Trastevere kitchen, a food crawl through the markets, an afternoon in the Frascati wine hills.
The classic day
The icons, queue skipped.A skip-the-line morning at the Colosseum or the Vatican, then a walk through the old centre to the Pantheon and the Trevi.
The big day out
Out of the city for the day.Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast, the hill towns of Tivoli and Orvieto, or the fast train to Florence and back by dark.
The Appian Way
The oldest road in Europe, the best way to ride it.
The Via Appia Antica ran out of Rome more than two thousand years ago, and long stretches still run on their original black basalt, past tombs, ruined aqueducts and umbrella pines, closed to traffic on Sundays. An e-bike covers in a morning what would take a footsore day, out where the city finally goes quiet.
See all 24 bike & e-bike tours →By place
Pick a corner of Rome.
Ancient Rome for the Colosseum and the Forum. The Vatican for Michelangelo. Villa Borghese for Bernini and Caravaggio. The Pantheon for the old centre, Castel Sant'Angelo for the river, the Appian Way for the road out of town.
By activity
Or pick how to spend the day.
On foot through the centro. A cooking class or a Trastevere food crawl. An e-bike out along the Appian Way, a golf cart through the lanes, an evening tour once the crowds thin, or a day trip down to Pompeii.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Rome? Here is a long weekend that hits the essentials in the right order, without a wasted hour or a single needless queue.
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