Rome is a beautiful city, brimming with history and the most amazing churches. We had enough time in 4 days to revisit a couple of our favourite spots but would still love to return. Had the weather been slightly towards the end of our trip, we would’ve also had time to visit Florence. But we enjoyed having time to relax in the city as well as see everything we had hoped to.
Our trip ended up looking something like this (you can read more about some of our experiences by clicking on the links below!)
Itinerary
Evening 1: Trevi fountain
Day 1: Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine hill. Pantheon and Spanish steps.
Day 2: Touring Rome in a 1970s Fiat 500! Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore, Basilica di San Giovanni, Shopping.
Day 3: Vatican city: the museum including the Sistine chapel and St Peter’s Basilica.
Day 4: Circus maximus, the mouth of truth, ruins, shopping, Piazza Navona, pantheon and trevi fountain (again)!
We also made sure to eat in some incredible Italian restaurants. Staying in an Air BnB apartment helped us save on both accommodation and food costs as there were some great local restaurants near our flat: An AirBnB experience in Rome.
Evening 1: Walking to the colosseum and centre of Rome (Trevi fountain – have a gelato here!)
The buildings in Rome are so magnificent, it is great to just wander around a take in the culture.
We headed over to the Trevi fountain on our first evening and couldn’t believe how busy it was! The fountain is amazing and there are a couple of gelato stores around the edge. We would strongly recommend Venchi – the best gelato we had in Rome (and not just because of the setting!)
Day 1: Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine hill. Pantheon and Spanish steps.
Most of our day was spent around the colosseum. Tips on avoiding the queues and making the most of the 48hour ticket can be seen here: Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine hill. In between exploring these, we headed into the centre to see the Pantheon. 
Day 2: Touring Rome in a 1970s Fiat 500! Basilica Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore, Basilica di San Giovanni, Shopping.
After an incredible morning touring Rome with 500 exp Tours, we spent the afternoon in some of Rome’s most magnificent churches. The first Basilica was Papale di Santa Maria Maggiore:
Day 3: Vatican city: the museum including the Sistine chapel and St Peter’s Basilica.
Since Vatican City is technically a country in it’s own right I felt I had to give this post a separate page! St Peter’s was definitely my favourite basilica.. to find out more about secret passages and how to skip the queue, check out this page: Vatican City. Travelling tip: Make sure you wear “respectable clothing” – covering shoulders and knees. Most churches don’t insist on this, but St Peter’s is one that does.
Day 4: Circus maximus, the mouth of truth, ruins, shopping, Piazza Navona, pantheon and trevi fountain (again)!
On our Fiat 500 tour we were going to drive through the Circus Maximus, however we had to skip this part of the tour as the police were around. It was brilliant to head of to this area and stumble upon the mouth of truth (Bocca della Verita)! I can’t quite believe we actually queued to just put our hands inside – this place also enforces a dress code (I was asked to show some dignity and roll my shorts down!) The queue did move quite quickly as everyone was allowed strictly one photo each.
We wandered through Rome, finding some more ruins that have started to be reconstructed.
After revisiting some of our favourite spots in the city and doing a bit of window shopping, we headed for a drink in Piazza Navona – massively overpriced so not recommended but it did get us out of the rain for a bit!
Although we didn’t manage a day trip to Florence, we loved hanging out in Rome with the locals and experiencing some culture (as well as the tourist sites).
