Things to Do in Rome: 24 Ideas by Area

Things to do in Rome

1. 

   1.

   Pantheon

   The Pantheon is Rome’s most complete ancient interior experience: a monumental portico opens into a vast circular space capped by the coffered concrete dome and its open oculus.

   • Area: Pantheon / Navona Area
   • About 1 hour
   • Cost band: free

2. 

   2.

   Trevi Fountain

   The Trevi Fountain fills a small Roman piazza with an immense Baroque composition of rushing water, sculpted rock, sea figures and the palace façade behind it. Travellers come to take in the scale, watch the water animate the stone, and join the familiar coin-toss ritual.

   • Area: Trevi / Spanish Steps Area
   • About 0.5 hours
   • Cost band: free

3. 

   3.

   Sistine Chapel

   The Sistine Chapel is the culminating chamber of the Vatican Museums, where visitors stand beneath Michelangelo’s ceiling frescoes and before The Last Judgment on the altar wall.

   • Area: Vatican
   • About 1 hour
   • Cost band: high

4. 

   4.

   Borghese Gallery

   The Borghese Gallery is a tightly curated art museum inside the former suburban villa of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, with richly decorated rooms holding Bernini sculptures, Caravaggio canvases, Raphael, Titian and ancient works.

   • Area: Borghese / Pincio Area
   • About 2 hours
   • Cost band: high

5. 

   5.

   Colosseum

   The Colosseum is Rome’s defining ancient monument, a vast amphitheatre of stone arches, tiered seating and underground service spaces that once managed crowds, animals and staged spectacles with remarkable efficiency.

   • Area: Centro Storico
   • About 2.5 hours
   • Cost band: high

6. 

   6.

   Spanish Steps

   The Spanish Steps form one of Rome’s most recognisable urban compositions, rising from Piazza di Spagna to the church of Trinità dei Monti.

   • Area: Trevi / Spanish Steps Area
   • About 0.5 hours
   • Cost band: free

7. 

   7.

   St Peter’s Basilica

   St Peter’s Basilica brings travellers into the monumental heart of Catholic Rome: a vast nave, soaring dome, marble chapels, papal tombs and major works of Renaissance and Baroque art.

   • Area: Vatican
   • About 2 hours
   • Cost band: free

8. 

   8.

   Roman Forum

   The Roman Forum is the archaeological core of ancient civic life, with temples, basilicas, arches, senate buildings and sacred routes spread through a valley below the Palatine and Capitoline hills.

   • Area: Centro Storico
   • About 2.5 hours
   • Cost band: high

9. 

   9.

   Vatican Museums

   The Vatican Museums form a vast route through papal collections, classical sculpture, frescoed apartments, map galleries, tapestries, Renaissance rooms and ceremonial corridors leading towards the Sistine Chapel.

   • Area: Vatican
   • About 3.5 hours
   • Cost band: high

10. 

    10.

    Piazza Campidoglio

    Piazza Campidoglio is the formal heart of Capitoline Hill, a carefully arranged square framed by palaces and shaped by Michelangelo’s Renaissance vision. The space feels ceremonial without being oversized, with the paving design, central statue and angled façades guiding the eye.

    • Area: Capitoline Hill
    • About 0.5 hours
    • Cost band: free

11. 

    11.

    San Pietro in Vincoli

    San Pietro in Vincoli is a restrained basilica with an exceptional artistic and devotional core. Travellers come chiefly to see Michelangelo’s Moses, carved for the tomb of Pope Julius II, but the church also preserves the chains associated by tradition with Saint Peter.

    • Area: Monti
    • About 1 hour
    • Cost band: free

12. 

    12.

    Appian Way Cycling

    Cycling the Appian Way turns Ancient Rome into an active landscape rather than a sequence of enclosed sites. The route passes weathered tombs, villas, churches, catacomb entrances and stretches of open countryside, with ancient paving stones under the wheels and modern Rome gradually falling away.

    • Area: Ancient Rome
    • About 3 hours
    • Cost band: medium

13. 

    13.

    Santa Maria in Trastevere

    Santa Maria in Trastevere is the neighbourhood’s defining church and one of Rome’s most rewarding sacred interiors. Travellers enter from a lively piazza into a space of columns, gilded ceiling detail and luminous mosaics that shift the mood from street energy to devotional splendour.

    • Area: Trastevere
    • About 1 hour
    • Cost band: free

14. 

    14.

    Villa Borghese Park

    Villa Borghese Park is Rome’s great central green refuge, spread across landscaped avenues, lawns, fountains, museums, gardens and viewpoints above the historic centre. A visit can be a purposeful route to the Borghese Gallery, a cycling circuit, a lakeside pause or a slow walk towards the Pincio.

    • Area: Borghese / Pincio Area
    • About 2 hours
    • Cost band: free

15. 

    15.

    Capitoline Hill Square

    Capitoline Hill Square brings together one of Rome’s most controlled urban compositions: a raised civic space, palatial façades, sculptural focal points and views that remind you how close the ancient city lies below.

    • Area: Capitoline Hill
    • About 0.5 hours
    • Cost band: free

16. 

    16.

    Tivoli Villa d’Este

    Villa d’Este in Tivoli is a Renaissance garden estate built around water, movement and controlled spectacle. The visit moves from decorated interiors and terraces into a descending garden of fountains, pools, grottoes, avenues and hydraulic effects.

    • Area: Day Trips
    • About 3 hours
    • Cost band: medium

17. 

    17.

    Baths of Caracalla

    The Baths of Caracalla are among Rome’s most powerful ancient ruins, with vast brick walls, towering arches and the footprint of a public bath complex that once combined bathing, exercise, social life and spectacle.

    • Area: Ancient Rome
    • About 1.5 hours
    • Cost band: medium

18. 

    18.

    Janiculum Hill Viewpoint

    The Janiculum Hill viewpoint gives travellers one of Rome’s great skyline readings: domes, bell towers, terracotta roofs and monumental silhouettes spread across the city without the compression of street level. It is less about a single landmark than about understanding Rome as a layered landscape.

    • Area: Trastevere
    • About 1 hour
    • Cost band: free

19. 

    19.

    Da Felice al Testaccio

    Da Felice al Testaccio is a classic Roman trattoria whose reputation rests on disciplined versions of the city's essential dishes, especially cacio e pepe finished with confident tableside technique.

    • Area: Testaccio
    • About 1.5 hours
    • Cost band: medium

20. 

    20.

    Palatine Hill

    Palatine Hill combines archaeology, legend and landscape above the Roman Forum. Paths lead through palace ruins, gardens, terraces and remnants of elite residences on the hill traditionally linked to Rome’s foundation.

    • Area: Centro Storico
    • About 1.5 hours
    • Cost band: medium

21. 

    21.

    Great Synagogue of Rome

    The Great Synagogue of Rome stands at the edge of the former Jewish Ghetto, close to the Tiber, with a distinctive dome that separates it from the city’s churches at a glance. A visit may involve exterior viewing, security procedures and, when available, guided access connected with the Jewish Museum.

    • Area: Capitoline Hill
    • About 1 hour
    • Cost band: medium

22. 

    22.

    Orange Garden Rome

    The Orange Garden on the Aventine is a walled terrace of orange trees, stone paths and broad views over Rome's rooftops, domes and the Tiber bend below. It is compact but atmospheric, especially in late light, when the garden's ordered simplicity frames the city rather than overwhelming it.

    • Area: Testaccio
    • About 1 hour
    • Cost band: free

23. 

    23.

    Catacombs of San Callisto

    The Catacombs of San Callisto take travellers below the Appian Way into a network of early Christian burial galleries, tomb chambers and sacred memory.

    • Area: Ancient Rome
    • About 1.5 hours
    • Cost band: medium
24. 24.

    Hadrian’s Villa

    Hadrian’s Villa spreads across a vast archaeological landscape outside Tivoli, where pools, courtyards, baths, libraries and residential complexes hint at the scale of an emperor’s private world. Rather than a single monument, it is a sequence of ruined spaces requiring time and walking.

    • Area: Day Trips
    • About 3 hours
    • Cost band: medium

Explore Rome by area

TRIPLR journeys including Rome

• Classic Italy: 10 days
• Italy Art & Heritage: 12 days
• Essential Italy: 14 days

TRIPLR routes through Rome

• Classic Italy: Rome → Florence → Venice → Milan
• Italy Art & Heritage: Rome → Assisi → Florence → Bologna → Venice
• Essential Italy: Rome → Florence → Venice → Milan → Lake Como