Rome
Rome is a layer cake of 2,800 years. You'll round a Renaissance piazza and find a column from Caesar's day holding up the corner of a baroque palazzo. Most cities have a historic centre — Rome has historic everything.
The trick is to slow down. Romans don't sprint through their own city; they linger over an espresso, take the long way around the Pantheon, and eat dinner at 21:00 like the laws of physics demand it. Trastevere after dark, the Forum at sunrise, gelato from the place with a queue — these aren't tourist tips, they're how to read the city in its own rhythm.
Skip-the-line tickets for the Colosseum and Vatican are worth every euro. The rest of Rome — the fountains, the side-street trattorias, the cats sunning themselves on broken capitals — is free.
Top places
Inside the collections
What we'd tell a friend
Espresso standing at Sant'Eustachio's marble counter — never sit, never linger; that's how Romans drink it.
Trapizzino in Testaccio at midnight — flatbread cone stuffed with chicken cacciatore, the after-dinner late-night cure.
Take the bus, not the metro. Rome was built above ground; underground you miss every basilica and piazza along the route.
Good to know
- 1Dress code at the Vatican + most churches: shoulders + knees covered. They WILL turn you away.
- 2No cappuccino after 11am — it's a breakfast drink and ordering one at dinner reads as a tourist tell.
- 3Don't sit on the Spanish Steps; there's a fine (€250+) and a polizia officer who'll spot you.
- 4Restaurants charge a coperto (~€2–4) per person — that's the bread + cover, not a tip.
- 5Aperitivo (18:00–20:00) is a Roman institution: order a Negroni or Aperol, free snacks come with it.